Annoying

[RMD]

Do not know what is worse; All these bands touring with maybe one original member or the people going to these shows and acting like they are seeing the real deal. Just saw about 5 minutes of Foreigner on VH1 and the crowd was going crazy. Looked to me like one original member. Might as well go see a tribute band for almost nothing. Certain they are banging these people in ticket prices.,

[Tequila Cowboy]

Do not know what is worse; All these bands touring with maybe one original member or the people going to these shows and acting like they are seeing the real deal. Just saw about 5 minutes of Foreigner on VH1 and the crowd was going crazy. Looked to me like one original member. Might as well go see a tribute band for almost nothing. Certain they are banging these people in ticket prices.,

Well damn if the people are getting banged maybe it is worth it. Oh you meant...

Seriously though these kind of folks are not music fans. They're reliving past glories when they were rocking out with their friends in high school or whatever.

[RevMatt]

Do not know what is worse; All these bands touring with maybe one original member or the people going to these shows and acting like they are seeing the real deal. Just saw about 5 minutes of Foreigner on VH1 and the crowd was going crazy. Looked to me like one original member. Might as well go see a tribute band for almost nothing. Certain they are banging these people in ticket prices.,

Spent a year on the tribute circuit. Got to ride in a tour bus and everything. Made a little bit of money then was replaced by a guy who could reproduce the "Call Me the Breeze" solo note for note.

I ended up with mixed feelings about the whole phenomena of these bands touring with maybe one original member. Yes, it is bogus. However, there is no rock and roll pension plan and the only thing these musicians have to bank on in their later years is their former glory. Levon Helm did it right with The Ramble. He never tried to pass it off as The Band and over his last decade in music found a new vitality while playing all of the old favorites to an audience willing to pay a premium to see him in an intimate setting. Doug Gray, however, tours with five guys who, to my ears, are no better than the sort of musicians you can find at an open mike night and calls it The Marshall Tucker Band.

I don't have to make the decision these guys have to make. For that reason I withhold judgement. However, I will not spend my hard earned cash for something fake.

[211poundsofpork]

A Foreigner without Lou Gramm at the mike, is not Foreigner. Can anyone name any other bands along these lines, that go forward with minimal original members? How about the Temptations? - they have nobody alive and somehow they still play. go figure. Thin Lizzy still goes on with no Phil or Brian. Journey, of course without the REAL Steve Perry.

[Zip City]

My dad does this with Oldies bands. He'll go see the one guy from Herman's Hermits or whatever and have a great time. All he wants to hear are the songs; it doesn't really matter if the original drummer is there as long as it sounds like the original single.

[RevMatt]

Most bands still touring whose heyday was prior to 1985 are doing this.

The Outlaws -- Monte Yoho and Henry Paul are the only two surviving Outlaws. To their defense, the band they tour with is pretty damn good.

The Allman Brothers -- They sell out The Beacon Theater for weeks every winter. They still have Greg, Butch and Jaimoe. But no Dickey Betts or Chuck Leavell.

The Stranglers -- I stopped paying attention when Hugh Cornwall left around 1990. They remaining members along with replacements release a new album every five years or so. The records get good reviews in England.

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band -- Believe it or not, a bar band has been billing itself in Glasgow as The Sensational Alex Harvey Band for the past decade even though Alex Harvey died in 1982. For a while Zal Cleminson played guitar so it had an air of legitimacy. But now the only originals remaining are one of the McKennas.

Dead Kennedys -- They tour every now and again. But I am sorry, without Jello Biafra it ain't the DK's.

[LuthierJustin]

A Foreigner without Lou Gramm at the mike, is not Foreigner. Can anyone name any other bands along these lines, that go forward with minimal original members? How about the Temptations? - they have nobody alive and somehow they still play. go figure. Thin Lizzy still goes on with no Phil or Brian. Journey, of course without the REAL Steve Perry.

Journey was only good before Steve Perry

[211poundsofpork]

A Foreigner without Lou Gramm at the mike, is not Foreigner. Can anyone name any other bands along these lines, that go forward with minimal original members? How about the Temptations? - they have nobody alive and somehow they still play. go figure. Thin Lizzy still goes on with no Phil or Brian. Journey, of course without the REAL Steve Perry.

Journey was only good before Steve Perry

...you mean Neil Schonn and Greg Rollie when they were in Santana, no?

[LuthierJustin]

Journey made 2 albums before Steve Perry joined

[beantownbubba]

Deja vu all over again.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3503

[Smitty]

Do not know what is worse; All these bands touring with maybe one original member or the people going to these shows and acting like they are seeing the real deal. Just saw about 5 minutes of Foreigner on VH1 and the crowd was going crazy. Looked to me like one original member. Might as well go see a tribute band for almost nothing. Certain they are banging these people in ticket prices.,

Spent a year on the tribute circuit. Got to ride in a tour bus and everything. Made a little bit of money then was replaced by a guy who could reproduce the "Call Me the Breeze" solo note for note.

I ended up with mixed feelings about the whole phenomena of these bands touring with maybe one original member. Yes, it is bogus. However, there is no rock and roll pension plan and the only thing these musicians have to bank on in their later years is their former glory. Levon Helm did it right with The Ramble. He never tried to pass it off as The Band and over his last decade in music found a new vitality while playing all of the old favorites to an audience willing to pay a premium to see him in an intimate setting. Doug Gray, however, tours with five guys who, to my ears, are no better than the sort of musicians you can find at an open mike night and calls it The Marshall Tucker Band.

I don't have to make the decision these guys have to make. For that reason I withhold judgement. However, I will not spend my hard earned cash for something fake.

Good points, Rev - although the artists in most latter-day incarnations of once-popular bands don't have the status of a Levon Helm - I ain't gonna hate on the bands for doing what they have to do to pay the bills, and I ain't gonna judge fair-weather music fans for going and seeing Journey 4.0 and having a good time.

[Tequila Cowboy]

The Allman Brothers -- They sell out The Beacon Theater for weeks every winter. They still have Greg, Butch and Jaimoe. But no Dickey Betts or Chuck Leavell.

Kind of a bad example. They have sort of organically evolved over the years and have put out some fine records with Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, both of whom have been in various Top 50 guitar player of all time lists. They don't play the same set or even the same arrangements every night. The various versions of the post Dead era are the same. Great players reinterpreting the music for jam band fans. I don't think they compare to a top 40 band playing note for note versions of the hits.

[Flea]

Do not know what is worse; All these bands touring with maybe one original member or the people going to these shows and acting like they are seeing the real deal. Just saw about 5 minutes of Foreigner on VH1 and the crowd was going crazy. Looked to me like one original member. Might as well go see a tribute band for almost nothing. Certain they are banging these people in ticket prices.,

Well damn if the people are getting banged maybe it is worth it. Oh you meant...

Seriously though these kind of folks are not music fans. They're reliving past glories when they were rocking out with their friends in high school or whatever.

And, at the end of the day, is anything really so wrong with that? Whatever gets you through the night, etc etc. Though part of the blame for a situation like is can be placed directly upon the heads of radio and label morans who refuse to expose new artists in a way that allows them to grow an audience. Example: I had never even heard of Megafaun prior to last week, but bought all their cds after Wed.'s show. On a related note, I'm skipping an E St Band tour for the first time in 30 years - to me, it just ain't the same without The Big Man.

[Tequila Cowboy]

No, there is nothing wrong with that at all. Any different than going to see Blue Man Group or a Broadway show or whatever. People on this board, by and large, are oddballs in that we take music more seriously than most. Nothing wrong with that either. Just pointing out the difference.

[ruthy2705]

I don't think there is anything wrong with this as long as the band don't misrepresent themselves and the fans know who's in the band. It also depends how much you miss the people who aren't still in the band. I have seen Thin Lizzy a couple of times this last year and they were good but there are bands I couldn't watch without certain members like Queen without Freddie.

[RevMatt]

No, there is nothing wrong with that at all. Any different than going to see Blue Man Group or a Broadway show or whatever. People on this board, by and large, are oddballs in that we take music more seriously than most. Nothing wrong with that either. Just pointing out the difference.

I don't have a problem with the people who go out and see these latter incarnations of the bands of their youth. My real problem is that there are a lot of great bands out there that the people who go out to see The Allman Bros. or Marshall Tucker would get into. But those bands get zero exposure.

I think there is a potentially huge audience for most of the current bands who would make the top ten lists of the regulars on this board. I find it hard to believe that the music of James McMurtry, Jason Isbell, Alabama Shakes and Bloodkin would only appeal to music geeks like us.