Ever wanted to see Freddie Mercury, despite his untimely death? Bruce Springsteen, but you can’t afford his exorbitant ticket prices? Wish Sublime’s Brad Nowell hadn’t overdosed? Wish Journey never stopped believing? Well, tough luck.
If you don’t want to settle for a concert DVD, then your best bet may be to spend a night at Sante Fe Café, which has featured several cover bands this semester.
Tribute bands specialize in a band’s discography and persona, mimicking an artist or band’s sounds, motions and overall attitude on stage. Santa Fe has booked tribute bands regularly since 2005 to allow customers to see the live shows of iconic artists who are dead, no longer touring or too expensive to see, Geoff Rifkin, Santa Fe’s floor manager and booking agent, said.
For example, on Sept. 7, more than 400 students packed Santa Fe not only for cheap drinks but also for the chance to see Bruce in the USA, a Bruce Springsteen tribute band. And though audience members weren’t seeing the Boss, they were seeing the next-best thing their college student bank accounts could buy: singer Matt Ryan, sporting Bruce’s shaggy brown style and imitating the star’s passionate vocals and animated stage presence.
“It was an honor to be invited to this sold-out party with so many young people that would raise their beers, sing along and dance to their favorite Bruce songs,” Ryan said.
The $5 to $10 cover for a tribute band’s show is the same as for other types of artists who perform at Santa Fe, Rifkin said. Tribute bands’ shows usually result in 10 to 15 percent-higher ticket sales, or around 100 more tickets sold, than other bands, Rifkin said.
“We love to mix in tribute bands with local and national acts to give people with different tastes in music a place to go see a great live concert,” Rifkin said. “I have continued this trend because it is working really well.”
Students enjoy these shows because they get to hear songs they already know and enjoy, Jeremy Schon, a sophomore marketing major, said.
“When other bands play at the Fe, people don’t really care about the music; they just care about the bar,” said Schon, a Santa Fe regular. “When tribute bands play, a lot of people can enjoy it more because they know the words to the songs.”
Some of the most popular tribute bands to play at the Santa Fe in recent years include Frontiers, a Journey tribute band, and The Mahoney Brothers, a Beatles tribute band, Rifkin said.
“It was pretty amusing that [The Mahoney Brothers] were in character as John, Paul, George and Ringo,” sophomore psychology major Marianne Clinton said. “They had the black suits, the British accents and the long Beatles hair.”
Wrong Way, a five-member Sublime tribute band from Athens, Ga., graced the Santa Fe stage last month. Doug Gross, the bassist, said he and his band mates started Wrong Way in 2004 as a side project and played weekly at a local Athens bar frequented by University of Georgia students. Wrong Way became popular quickly and is now touring the East Coast, Gross said.
“Our goal is mainly just to recreate [Sublime’s] sound as accurately as possible and to have a ton of energy when we perform their songs,” Gross said. “I would say that the majority of people get more into a live show if they can sing or shout the lyrics along with the band.”
Santa Fe’s upcoming schedule includes Queen tribute band Almost Queen on Oct. 27, Tim McGraw tribute band Almost McGraw on Nov. 2 and Bad Medicine, a Bon Jovi tribute band once hired by Jon Bon Jovi, on Nov. 10.
arush@umd.edu
