By Kat Renz
Unbanged head hanging low from missing Wednesday’s Iron Maiden show down in Concord? Fear not, for a second chance to hear “Powerslave” live on stage awaits tonight, May 31. Sort of. High priestess of tribute bands Lynda Mortensen promises a night of metal mayhem with Children of the Damned; Damage, Inc.; Hail Satan; and Electric Funeral playing your favorite anthems by Iron Maiden, old-school Metallica, Mercyful Fate/King Diamond, and Black Sabbath, respectively, at the Red Devil Lounge.
Are you rolling your eyes or already making them up in King Diamond face paint? I know - I’m torn, too. Tribute bands are simultaneously shamelessly exciting and totally depressing. Ubiquitous and popular, it seems every famous band now has its tribute counterpart. (AC/DC may claim the most: a glaringly incomplete Google search found 20 AC/DC tribute bands from around the world, including British Columbia’s BC/DC and ThundHerStruck, yet another all-women one from LA.) The appeal is obvious. Performers get to embody their most-beloved rock star, and the audience gets to see a sincere counterfeit of their favorite over-dosed, broken-up, or not-touring band.
With this glut of impersonators, parameters by which to judge are essential. First there's the sound. While it’s vital to cut the lead vocalist some slack - ever try to match Bruce Dickinson’s vocal theatrics, much less in front of people? - if the vocals don’t make the cut, it’s over. No magic, no tribute, and no closing your eyes and forgetting.
The instrumentalists have it easier. Sure, guitar gods have their signature riffs and characteristic styles but with the right equipment and posturing, a diligently practicing virtuoso can rip them off in a few stoned days. There are legions of teenage shredders on YouTube to prove it. Ditto drums. It’s the vocals that catapult or kill tribute bands.
Second: consider the group's looks, or less shallowly and more accurately, the band's presence. It doesn’t take a Pamela des Barres acolyte to understand a huge thrill of the show derives from watching those specific performers, from their energy, charisma, and unique relationship with their audience. Sure, it’s about the music, but…the performance is a grander package, and the impersonation factor is key. Who wants an Elvis (or an Ozzy) that doesn’t adopt the persona of the King (or the Ozzman)? It’s all in the art of channeling.
The third criteria is intent. Though not as fundamental as sound and presence, the motivations behind devoting a walloping proportion of one’s creative life to copying another’s definitely influence user experience. A few months ago I saw a young quintet at the Elbo Room. Hair ratted high, wife beaters, spandex crotch-hugging leggings, a coterie of identical sleazy babes - these boys were Motley Crue if, granted, not in name nor professed tribute per se then fully in attitude and chops. Yet the Sunset Strip scumbag shtick failed: Were they genuine aficionados or just pulling the over-abused ironic ‘80s crap? Either could have worked well, but because their gimmick was muddled, as a performance it was nothing but irritating.
On the other hand, there’s the infectious enthusiasm of bands like AC/DShe, whose own “Bonny Scott” described their dual motivations to pop-culture dork and genius journalist Chuck Klosterman in his highly recommended essay, “Dude Rocks Like a Lady.” There’s the give - the overarching goal of turning people on to AC/DC - and the get - personifying their favorite band seemed the best way to get to hang out with them. As Scott said, “If we could meet AC/DC, then we’ve achieved everything. And being in this band gives them a reason to want to meet us. Otherwise, we’re just a couple of bimbos going to an AC/DC show, trying to make it backstage. This is the proper way to meet your heroes.”
And this is the proper spirit: celebration. When it comes down to it, that’s what the tribute experience is all about on both sides of the stage - whether the band's a collection of middle-aged balding never-has-beens or stone-fox, Maker’s Mark-chugging babes.
As for tonight's metal tribute night bands? Damage, Inc., may not quite have the Hetfieldian hostility dialed, but is there any other opportunity to see exclusively pre-"Black Album"-genius Metallica? Hail Satan claims to be the world’s sole Mercyful Fate tribute, a must-see by this virtue alone. As for Children of the Damned, I’d rather see the Iron Maidens, but since I did miss the real thing earlier this week, I’ll be happy for what I can get. And it’ll be fun get doomy with Electric Funeral even if they don’t sound nearly as much like Sabbath as I want them to.
METAL TRIBUTE NIGHT
Sat/31, 8 p.m., $12
Red Devil Lounge
1695 Polk, SF
(415) 921-1695
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