The EM Poll

Send in the Clones

Mar 14, 2008 5:03 PM, By David Simons

           

TRIBUTE BANDS: GIGGING IN THE LAND OF MAKE BELIEVE

John Mueller as Buddy Holly

Getting Into Character

However impressive their musicianship, the most important thing for many “serious” imitation acts is adopting the physical attributes of the targets of their affections. “To be a great tribute band, you have to put on a show that allows your audience to feel like they are part of the act,” says Neil (Dennis, not Young). “You've got to get the artist's look and sound together. For us, that meant getting a head-to-toe Neil look going. And since I was the guy doing the singing, I had to do it. So I hit up many of the local costume and wig shops and Salvation Army stores and found everything I needed to do the trick. Since I look nothing like Neil, it takes quite a makeover to get ready for our performances.”

Getting into costume is one thing; adopting the designated artists' exact stage mannerisms and vocal affects (including all between-song banter, singing styles, and so on) is the ultimate manifestation of the tribute-band experience. Though many large acts stay in character for the whole show, that's where Dennis Neil draws the line.

“My ‘Neil’ pretty much stops at the look, the singing, and the over-the-top stage mme sents of the real Neil,” says the guitarist. “For one thing, Neil speaks very little on stage — he's been known to go through entire concerts without uttering much more than a ‘How ya doin'?’ So the in-between banter returns to Dennis. That's the approach we've adopted, which is in keeping with my philosophy that the crowd stays clued in to the theater of the whole thing.”

Looks aren't everything, of course, as evidenced by bands such as Pennsylvania-based quintet Number Nine, a three-year-old troupe with a master list of more than 100 Beatles tunes. Number Nine is a dead ringer for the Fab Four in sound only.

“I based our group on another really fine all-Beatles band from Dallas called A Hard Night's Day,” says keyboardist and guitarist John Heffelfinger. “They were the first all-Beatles band I'd ever seen that made no attempt to dress up like the Beatles.” Heffelfinger thinks the costumed approach is “kind of lame.” For him, the music's the important thing: “nothing canned, choreographed, or staged.” The band mostly plays clubs near where its members live, though the Beatles' continued popularity gets Number Nine other “interesting gigs” as well.

Gearing Up

There's a lot more to launching a convincing tribute act than meets the eye. Many of these bands do an extraordinary amount of prep work, from learning the songs the right way (in the original key, with the proper chord voicings, detunings, capo positions, and so forth) to finding exactly the same makes and models of the instruments, amps, and effects employed by the original.

It can get expensive. In his pursuit of Neil Young's guitar sound, Dennis Neil spent some serious bucks in acquiring a Gretsch White Falcon, the axe favored by Young in the early '70s. He also went to great expense tricking out a black Epiphone Les Paul with a Bigsby and chrome hardware, la Young's “Old Black.” And that's just the beginning.

Using the Internet, Neil tracked down Young's amp tech, Sal Trentino. “He was real cool and helped lead me to the exact same amps used by Neil [Young],” he says. Among them were a '59 Fender Tweed Deluxe and a Magnatone 280 through a Baldwin Exterminator — all modified to the actual specs used by Young. The band's second guitarist, Gary Richardi, also owns several pricey Gretsches. Added up, it's quite an investment. “I definitely don't recommend an equipment quest like this for anyone who's watching their dimes,” says Neil.

Guitarist Dave Meyer is the Ron Wood imitator with Stones clones Sticky Fingers. He wouldn't dream of leaving home without the proper tools. Luckily for him, the real Stones are pretty scattered when it comes to picking gear. “Those guys have played most every kind of guitar at some point,” says Meyer. “I use a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Tele. Our ‘Keith’ plays several Teles and Strats and the clearbody Dan Armstrong guitar.” For amps, ‘Ron’ and ‘Keith’ use vintage Fender Deluxes and Twins, '80s Marshalls, and a Line 6 Pod, to name just a few.

For Number Nine, faithfully covering one of the most hallowed acts in history isn't something to be taken lightly. They use an arsenal of Rickenbackers, Gretsches, and Epiphones to duplicate the sound of rockers such as “Revolution” and “Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey.” Six- and 12-string acoustics stand ready for lighter songs like “And I Love Her” or for adding the authentic acoustic rhythms to tunes such as “Eight Days a Week.”

“We do the best we can for a weekend-warrior-type band. Fortunately, we all have real jobs, so we can afford to own a few ‘correct’ instruments,” says Heffelfinger.

Modern sound aids help make Number Nine's show complete. The band totes around an Ensoniq EPS and a companion EPS-M rack sampler for keys, hooked up to a Line 6 AxSys 212, which is, appropriately enough, a modeling amp. Thanks mainly to Heffelfinger's day gig in the audiovisual world (he's a sales and applications engineer for a leading manufacturer of AV remote control systems), Number Nine is able to include sampled details like the feedback intro to “I Feel Fine” or the droning sitar that runs throughout the psychedelic manifesto “Tomorrow Never Knows,” cued through a touch-screen-based system.

“I use that to manage the keyboard setups, vocal processor presets, and my Line 6 amp as well,” says Heffelfinger. “Without it, jumping around from ‘I Am the Walrus’ to ‘Penny Lane’ to ‘Got to Get You Into My Life’ wouldn't be possible.”