Charlotte Latvala: Classic rock lives on in tribute bands

Charlotte Latvala
·3 min read
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Charlotte Latvala
Charlotte Latvala

A few weeks ago, my husband and I enjoyed the best Pink Floyd concert we’ve ever seen.

Well, it wasn’t Pink Floyd, mind you. We saw Brit Floyd, one of several Pink Floyd tribute bands touring the world, producing perfect, note-by-note — in some cases, jaw-dropping — versions of both well-known and somewhat more obscure Pink Floyd songs. (Truth be told, I had forgotten “See Emily Play” was a Pink Floyd song.)

Brit Floyd is not the first tribute band we’ve seen. It’s not even the first Pink Floyd tribute band we’ve seen. That honor belongs to Australian Pink Floyd, some years pre-pandemic.

But the Brit Floyd concert was noteworthy for several reasons.

· It was the only time I’ve ever smelled pot in the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts.

· It’s the only event I’ve ever been to where the line for the men’s room was quadruple that of the women’s room. (Seeing as how the audience was by conservative estimate 80% men, that makes mathematical sense.)

· Not to be too spoiler-y, but there was a disco ball. And any event with a disco ball takes on a slightly magical tone.

· The tickets were, as tickets go, reasonably priced. (Although if you had told 1977 me, when I saw the actual Pink Floyd on their “Animals” tour, that future me would pay upwards of $50 to see a fake Pink Floyd … well, shock wouldn’t exactly cover it.)

Anyway. I’m not even a huge Pink Floyd fan. But it was fun to revisit the music of my teenage years.

We’ve been to concerts by an Eagles tribute band. A Queen tribute band. Not to mention four Finnish guys playing Metallica songs on cellos, which either counts as a tribute band or a bizarre yet strangely wonderful dream.

Tribute bands span pop and rock genres: Bruce Springsteen, J. Geils Band, ABBA. There’s a cottage industry of Beatles productions that are half concert, half musical theater.

And then there’s the YouTube-fueled rise of Leonid and Friends, a Russian group that plays incredible versions of Chicago and Earth, Wind, and Fire songs. (Which makes one wonder if maybe international diplomacy should be handled by musicians.)

Tribute bands are a thriving genre. In most cases, they’re duplicating the music, rather than interpreting it. In many cases — especially as the originals age — they probably sound better than the actual thing.

It makes you wonder … will classic rock live on, generation after generation, by increasingly younger tribute bands? (A thought that’s either exciting or terrifying, depending on your feelings about “The Night Chicago Died” and “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” outlasting you.)

And what other avenues could the tribute band ethos be applied to? Acting? Art? Writing?

Could the world someday be populated by, say, a tribute humor columnist? Or, more realistically, how soon will AI be able to duplicate not only text but tone?

I don’t know whether to be amused or afraid. Maybe I’ll just put on “Wish You Were Here” and have a little cry.

Charlotte is a columnist for The Times. You can reach her at charlottelatvala@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Latvala: Classic rock lives on in tribute bands