When The Music Hits…

By Kupka

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” – Bob Marley

Hello and welcome to When The Music Hits, our music column here at Bingemedia.net. Here is where one man will give his opinion (don’t worry I’ll make sure you know when it’s fact i.e. Black Sabbath is the greatest band of all time), about all things music related. New Releases, Old Releases, Concerts, Videos, Movies, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Now, with that being said, on to the inaugural topic.

Cover Bands

Last night my brother and I went down to a local watering hole to check out the Tool cover band, Lateralus. A band my brother has seen a couple of times and has implored me to check out for a while now. It turned out to be one of those rare occasions that the little bastard was right. I’m gonna get to Lateralus in a moment, but first I’m going to tell you about a cover band called Freak on a Leash.

That’s right, a Korn cover band opening for a Tool cover band. Oh happy day. Not. The lead singer definitely had the look and the band had the sound, but the vocals and energy just weren’t there. Now I’m not an expert on cover bands but I’m gonna go ahead and say that if you’re covering a band it’s because you like them SOOOOOO much you want to make a career out of playing their music the best way possible. You can play dress up all you like but if you can’t hit the vocal range of the lead singer and are up on stage performing like it’s a high school recital you should probably find a different gig. Witnessing this debacle did not leave me with high hopes for Lateralus, especially since I would put Tool in the upper echelon of bands that would be hard to cover, let alone cover well.

Let me tell you folks, Lateralus is the epitome of a cover band. The band was incredible, the visuals were amazing and the singers vocals, my god the singers vocals. If you closed your eyes you would have thought you were actually listening to Tool perform live. Even more impressive was the fact that even though the venue of 400 may have at most been one quarter of the way full, the band played like they were in front of a sold out show at The Riv (local Chicago Venue, too bad if you don’t get the reference). It was unmistakable the love of music, especially Tool music, this group of guys poured out over two hours. This is what a cover band should strive for, and should you be a fan of Tool and have the opportunity to see Lateralus perform live, do it. You will not be disappointed.

Well that’s it for this edition. I’ll be back with another installment soon. In the meantime, keep your whiskey neat, your joints tight and your stereo to 11.