A Cool Cover Band Story
 

Hey guys, i am so happy right now! There was a BJ cover band in my town , Brasov. The band's name is New Jersey. Unfortunately i was not able to go to the electric show they performed in the afternoon but i was lucky to see them perform an acoustic show in a club.
The guys were freaking great! When they took a break for a couple of seconds so they can decide what song to play next I went up to them and asked if they coule play Bitter Wine, which is my favorite song, as soon as i heard the keyboards from start of the song my heart started beating like crazy. All the band members were so happy to see me and one of my friends who is also a huge fan sing along to the song. They were actually really surprised with the request and they played it with a smile on their face. It was such an amazing experience to see my favorite song played live.

At one point during a break the guitar player started randomly playing the beggining of Wild is the Wind, as soon as we heard him playing, me and my friend screamed at the same time "Wild is the winddd" and the guitar player started laughing and talking to the other members, while poiting at us. I'm guessing he was saying something like "look at those guys, they are really diehard fans".

I just wanted to share this experience with you since it was one of the highlights in my life and maybe somebody here has some similar story regarding tribute bands.

Cool story!

One of my best memories of a Bon Jovi tribute band was with Bounce in a small town in Bavaria last year. I had known the band since my 18th birthday and had seen many shows up until that point. After the shows we had hung out together, drunk a beer and discussed songs. Over the years I had repeatedly asked for Diamond Ring but they had always refused to do the song during a full band concert. However, the previous night the discussion had come up again and before this very show we met their guitar player in a nearby restaurant and he told us that their singer was struggling with a sore throat and they didn't know how to make it through the show. The conert went underway, the band and the audience were great, it was unbelievably hot and tedious in that little building and they left for the encore. Since Olli's voice had pretty much deteriorated by that point, I expected them to do about 2 songs and call it quits. But only he and their guitar player came back in stage, the latter having his double neck acoustic guitar ready. They smiled down to us and started playing Diamond Ring! It was one of the most amazing moments at a concert and the whole club sang along to it which made it even more stunning.
There were some more memorable moments during Bounce concerts but this is the one that will always stand out for me.

I hate Bon Jovi cover bands more than Elvis impersonator... just not my thing...

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Thanks for the positive feedback once again.

The title is tribute band opinions... Maybe you should join Backstage... IMO Bon Jovi are one of the hardest acts to cover... forget the ones that try to look and perform like Jon... Just talking vocally and musically... Say what you want about Jon (including these current times) but the guy puts his own stamp on his songs... Maybe I'm just super critical but I've seen tons of BJ cover acts and never walked away with any real satisfaction. Even that cover act Bounce sounds off to me... The band is great , the singer is okay but his accent throws me off... I think he'd be great covering someone else, I just don't know who...

Of the flip side, there are some really great cover acts that I've seen... There is a Bruce one in NJ called Tramps Like Us and the guys got Springsteen's voice down to a T.... He's got the same build and everything. They play the Stone Pony every so often and you feel like you're back in 1975...

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Nahh... I should've titled the topic "A cool cover band story". I was so happy last night that I got to see my favorite song performed live that I wasn't even thinking straight when I created the topic.

Fixed for you.

I've come to realize I'm not much of a fan of cover bands that dress up and mime as the band. It's much more enjoyable for a band of musicians to come together and just put their heart into performing the material. One of the best Def Leppard cover bands I ever saw featured a singer that did not look like Joe, but could scream the shit out of the songs in a way that Joe never could. Most cover bands will have a singer that simply mimics the original singer, which tends to underwhelm me. Own the song and deliver it with conviction.

Definitely do not f**kin do Prayer and shove a mic at the audience. Do what Bon Jovi won't, which is perform that song as if it were brand new and needs to be proved.

That's what Bounce do and that's why I like their shows a lot and don't feel they're just pretending to be Bon Jovi. They give it their own spin and just try to capture the spirit of the song which (well, mostly) works.

I have seen some cover bands that are cringe worthy - but I have also seen some that have made me "almost" as happy as the real thing.

To this day I prefer Jovi - but they are still out there playing and I get to see them. Ditto for Springsteen, though I have to give a shout out to the B Street Band which has been around forever and sounds great. I'm not sure I have ever heard of a Southside cover band.

But - going backward - I am not going to see Pink Floyd live ever again and a few of the cover bands are damn good, Blue Floyd and Brit Floyd especially. Ditto for Led Zeppelin (may they RIP). I am not going to see them again (damnit) so the closest I am going to get is a good cover band. And there are a few that play Jersey that are damn good. Give me a drink (or two) and a Zeppelin cover band and I am a happy camper.