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| March
2000 THEATRE OF PAIN BRINGING YOUR HEROES HOME TRIBUTE BAND SPOTLIGHT Theatre of Pain came along at just the right time. It was late 1995. Motley Crue were still performing a charade, with original singer Vince Neil on the outside looking in and John Corabi looking uncomfortable in his place. A self-titled album with Corabi had fallen on deaf ears, the audience recognizing that, though read "Motley Crue" on the cover, the album certainly wasn't the Motley Crue they'd come to know and love. The clamor for Vince Neil to reenter the picture gathered momentum. Enter George Bergmann, who, while lead singer for the local original band Kickback, began to realize he sounded an awful lot like Motley's wayward singer. "We played 'Shout at the Devil' at Roxy Music Hall," Bergmann explains, "and people kept coming up to (guitarist) Rusty (Dackow) and saying 'you've got to take this guy and do a Motley Crue tribute', and that's how it started. As anyone who has seen the band will confess, Bergmann's reproduction of Vince Neil - from Neil's nasal whine to his energetic stage presence - is uncanny. While the rest of the band (Frank Gilchriest on drums, Paul DiTamaso on bass, and Rusty Dackow on guitar) do not much look like their Motley counterparts, they gamely perform in the makeup and war paint of Motley's glory days and, musically, they duplicate the band perfectly. Four years since their initial gig at the All Aboard Pub, the demand for the band is still high, which seems a surprise to Bergmann. "As soon as I think it's gonna slow down it picks up again," he says. "It's freaking me out, actually - it's getting out of hand. The Jersey and Connecticut shows we did were insane. We just played a gig in Massachusetts and they had to turn away fifty people at the door. And now with the MTV thing the whole thing is just snowballing." The 'MTV thing' is easily the biggest boost the band has yet had. The cable channel recently invited the band to take part in what was billed as "The Ultimate Cover Band Battle." The two-hour program, which aired on February 12 and 13, included a segment devoted to tribute bands. Theatre of Pain was featured along with tributes to Kiss, Aerosmith, Metallica, and Ozzy Osbourne, from across the country. The piece included a clip of the band performing "Dr. Feelgood" at the All Aboard Pub, juxtaposed with a clip of Motley Crue performing the same song. Those who have seen it say the transition from one to the other was almost seamless. Since the segment sired, the band reports receiving calls from several booking agents wishing to book the band nationally. Playing on a national basis is a level Bergmann and Dackow may or may not have reached if they'd continued doing original material as part of Kickback. But it any of those militant original musicians cry "sell out," Bergmann is quick to defend the whole tribute scene. "Those people are talking out their ass" he says. "When I was doing original stuff I never wanted to do covers. Now I like it. Tribute bands shouldn't feel ashamed, because these are all talented musicians who have paid their dues playing original stuff. The musicians that have talent just want to be on stage - that's what it's all about. And if clubs aren't booking original bands, what are you gonna do?" - Nick Parisi |
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