[ WEEKEND ]
COURTESY OF IRIS S. MA
Ralph Saenz portrays David Lee Roth in the tribute band The Atomic Punks.
Imitation is flattery Jay Basinger was facing his own extinction. It wasn't supposed to end this way, he thought, as onlookers watched the grim spectacle with cold indifference. Tucked away in a corner, head hung low, the musician could feel his life slipping away. He wasn't even sure how it all came to be, but there he was, a keyboardist in a country-and-western combo playing a Reno casino. For an aspiring L.A. rocker, it was a fate worse than death.
and pays bills
North Shore will get a dose
of rock 'n' roll from the
next best thing to the originalsBy Shawn "Speedy" Lopes
slopes@starbulletin.com"I would have to say that was the lowest point in my life," states Basinger of his most dire "Behind the Music" moment. "I was getting to the point where I was becoming kind of a musical whore. I was going wherever the gig was as a bass player, a keyboard player or a singer in cover bands, playing cruise ships and casinos and being more miserable than I've ever been in my entire life."
A change in fortune, he found, required a change of costume. At the behest of several similarly-fated friends, Basinger joined Rocks, an Aerosmith copycat band, and refashioned himself in the image of Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler. He calls it the best move of his career.
Over the past decade, countless tribute bands have followed the lead of Elvis, Michael Jackson and Madonna impersonators by replicating everyone from ABBA to Frank Zappa and taking the concept to previously unimaginable heights. Rocks, for example, boasts 20,000 hits each month on its Web site, and receives scores of offers to play shows across the globe.
COURTESY OF ROCKFEST
Jay Basinger of Rocks as Steve Tyler of Aerosmith.
"On and off, for the past 10 years, I'd been slugging it out on the streets of Hollywood in original bands trying to get a record deal and being rejected like hundreds of other bands," Basinger relates. "I had to get a grip on the reality of the situation. The window of opportunity as an original artist is a very small one, and I wasn't getting any younger."
He knew gaining an edge over the competition would take countless hours of work and careful study of Tyler's moves and mannerisms, not to mention several hundreds of dollars of cosmetic surgery to replicate the singer's famous pout. Still, Basinger says, it was a small price to pay to bring the Aerosmith spectacle to life.
"It's a pretty formidable task to do Steven Tyler," he states. "Yet somehow, when you get the collagen injections in the lips and you do the makeup, hair and outfits just right and pull off the voice and moves, then it becomes almost a magical thing for the audience."
While some may dismiss tribute bands as marginal musicians on their last go-around, Basinger contends that a good tribute band will not only field more gigs than the average original band, but often enjoys a lifestyle original bands can only dream about. "A lot of musicians are very much against playing covers or doing a tribute act because, as far as they're concerned, you're completely selling out and giving up. I don't believe that," he reveals. "If I can fly to a different part of the world every weekend and play rock star, can you blame me for taking the job?"
Ralph Saenz -- whose Van Halen tribute band, the Atomic Punks, joins Rocks and Rush sound-alikes Moving Pictures for a North Shore outdoor concert this weekend -- couldn't agree more. "I feel completely blessed to even have a talent and to be able to sing and entertain people," he reasons. "I'm lucky enough to be working and not having to do a day job. As far as being a failed musician because you're in a tribute band, I don't think that's the case at all. I mean, is Elvis considered a failure because he didn't write any of his own music? No. Would you say Britney Spears is a failure because she doesn't write any of her music? Hell, she's an entertainer!"
So entertaining and convincing are Saenz's band as the first incarnation of Van Halen that original VH front man David Lee Roth recruited his last two guitarists from the Atomic Punks camp. "So now we're basically David Lee Roth's farm team," quips Saenz, who himself received a glowing endorsement from Diamond Dave during an encounter at a Los Angeles nightspot several years ago. "He's really a cool guy, one of the most intelligent guys I know," he says in a near-reverent tone. "It was really scary. I'm a huge fan and I was completely star-struck. But he was very complimentary, super-nice and funny as hell. He was like, 'Man, I can't believe it -- it's like watching Dave 10 or 20 years ago!'"
COURTESY OF ROCKFEST
Two members of The Atomic Punks have gone on to become guitarists for Van Halen.
It was 1993 when Saenz teamed with the Atomic Punks in their original incarnation as a struggling rock combo. When the group's drug-addled lead singer began flaking out on a string of gigs at a local club, they fulfilled their commitment by doing a set of Van Halen covers with Saenz at the helm.
"We did it one time just for the hell of it, and the place went bananas," attests Atomic Punks drummer Scott Patterson (who, incidentally, also doubles as beat-keeper for Moving Pictures). "When we got done, the club owner said, 'I want you back in two weeks, and I'll pay you twice as much,' and here we are, nine years later, flying all over the country playing Van Halen."
Delve deep enough into the origins of some of these tribute bands, and the stories will start to sound alike. Patterson, like Basinger, moved out to L.A. in the late '80s in pursuit of the rock 'n' roll dream. Problem was, they'd both arrived at the tail end of the heavy-metal phenomenon, and Spandex-sporting rockers were soon watching their once-mighty music scene fizzle into a pop culture punch line. By the early '90s, even Saenz, who had aligned himself with musicians from such heralded metal outfits as the Michael Schenker Group, Quiet Riot and XYZ, couldn't jump-start his career. "By that time, grunge and Nirvana kicked in and it was done, man," he says, recalling the dark days of Hollywood rock. "Everyone wanted me to join their band, but no one was biting on that stuff anymore."
These days, Saenz takes nothing for granted. "Since I've been doing this tribute band, I've watched original bands come out, get on MTV, and now they're working a day job," he says. "And God bless 'em because I know what it's like. It's hard to get a job in the music business and keep it. That's why I say I'm fortunate to be doing this, and I'll keep doing it until people stop coming."
Featuring The Atomic Punks, Rocks and Moving Pictures, plus special guests Slug and Southbound Rockfest
Where: North Shore Marketplace Entertainment Field
When: Tomorrow, noon-6 p.m.
Admission: $20
Call: 637-3074
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calendars and events.
