BAD ENOUGH THE FIRST TIME

One of the problems associated with living in Santa Cruz in the twenty-first century is the ubiquitous horde of freaks who stopped setting their alarm back about 1985.  Now I got nothing against a bit of nostalgia and, yes, I still own and often buy music from my youth.  That being said, I do spend at least some of my waking hours seeking out visual and auditory stimulation that has been created since then.

In other words, this is a rant against that evil second only to karaoke... the dreaded Tribute Band.  A very brief and by no means comprehensive tour of the local venues revealed a staggering list of these. Now I'm not talking cover bands... I have nothing against somebody charging me money and then tossing in a little Hendrix or Dylan or even, god forbid, Stevie Nicks.   No, I'm talking about lop-sided, half-assed, groupie staffed bands trying their darnedest to "keep the dream alive" by standing on stage like ventriloquist dummies from hell and doing a passable to excellent imitation of a xerox copier.

My 10 minute search let me know that within the next 90 days I can drive less than a dozen miles to hear once again the dulcet sounds of Michael Jackson, The Grateful Dead, The Grateful Dead (different band...) The Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, The Allman Brothers (the last two a double header for the really desperate...), The Beatles, Steely Dan, Tom Petty and Phish (for christ sake, they're still touring...)

Some of these are bands I like (liked...) but it has been my experience that Tribute Bands tend to cover the more tiresome "hits" and leave out the sleepers.  And let's not forget that for the price of admission I could wander less than a dozen miles down the information highway to the itunes store and buy the songs I liked performed by the people I liked.

Go ahead and start a garage band at your mom's house... but if all you want to do is make a meager living as a leech maybe it would be best for all concerned of you just stayed in the garage.  In fact, if the car is still parked in there... maybe think about starting it up.