U2 Tribute band - Houston Texas

[SPiRE LV]

We're three friends in Houston, Texas, who are all huge U2 fans. We're in our twenties and have been musicians for a number of years. Now we want to form a U2 tribute band, to play gigs in the Houston area.
The drummer is from Ireland, the guitarist is from Wales, and I (vocals)recently moved here from England. What we need is a Bassist - we don't care where you're from as long as you can put down the groove like Mr Clayton.
If there is someone out there that can fill our bass void, please let me know, so that we can start to bring some hope to the Houston music scene.

 

[Achtung Bubba]

It's understandable if you want to keep your name a secret until the band is made (or you haven't come up with a name). But if not... what's the band's name?

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- Achtung Bubba

 

[SPiRE LV]

That's a good question, and currently the answer is that we are the band with no name.
I find naming a band quite tricky. My original music band was together 6 months before I came up with the name "SPiRE", but that required a lot of thinking because the band was so important to us, and we knew that people can often form an opinion about the music based on the band's name before they've even heard it. An example being if we were called "The Blue Raspberries" or "The Butt Monkeys", then I doubt we'd be taken very seriously.
U2 is an amazing name because it's short, memorable and is politically provoking - it immediately suggests the band has something to say.
I don't know, maybe I'm thinking about it too much, maybe the band name doesn't matter - what do you think?
As for the U2 tribute band project we're undertaking, I'm open for any suggestions, but for now I'm just going to see how it develops, and see how good we're actually going to be.
I've seen a couple of U2 tribute bands before, and they were excellent, playing the songs almost exactly the same as U2.
We're going to do it slightly different, however. We're not going to try and copy U2 exactly; instead we're going to play them our way. They'll be instantly recognizable as the songs we're covering, but they'll be different - in much the same way that U2 themselves change their songs to play them live i.e. "Staring at the Sun", and the ever-changing "Bullet the Blue Sky".
After all we're only in a band paying tribute to U2 and their music; we're not trying to be U2; there is no way I could even attempt to sing "New Years Day" or "Pride" the way Bono originally did.
We're just going to try and be good enough to do their music justice and to entertain the Houston public; who desperately need to be lifted out of cover band hell (every bar, every band playing the classics from such contemporaries as Sugar Ray and Matchbox Twenty).
So anyway, what do you think about tribute bands, cover bands etc.?
Also have you managed to see many U2 shows, and have you seen any U2 tribute bands - were they any good???
So far I've attended fourteen U2 shows, and I've been backstage in four of them, but I've only met the band once (although not Adam - I seem to have a problem meeting Bass players).

 

[udos]

hello, i'm from spain and i also have a tribute band to u2. we called ourselves MOE'S (like that old bar at Springfield...).
we have more or less 50 u2 song in our repertory, especially their last works.
well, we're not the best band over the world but we know how to play a u2 song in the right way.you must listen to our version of WTSHNN, it's wonderful...

i wish you a great future for your band.

i'm the bassist of my band.long live for mister clayton.forever: DDDDDDDD AAAAAAAA BBBBBBBB GGGGGGGG DDDDDDDD AAAA... .. .

hey men, in two weeks we're gonna have a show in a local pub and we're going to play BD. A B D G D A

 

[SPiRE LV]

Udos
Well, I'm getting closer. You're the first U2 loving bassist I've heard from, now if only I could find one on the same side of the World. I think it's really cool that you're over there in Spain doing the U2 thing, if you've got 50 U2 songs down, you must be pretty good and have been doing it for a while.
So where do you play your gigs,and have you found appreciative audiences?
I would like to hear your version of WTSHNN, do you have an mp3 you can send me?
The song I'm most enjoying at the moment as we learn lots of U2 material, is Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me; I can't wait to play that on stage.
Does your guitarist use lots of effects pedals to attain the Edge sound or does he do his own thing?
Do you play with any other bands, or have you ever before?
If you have any U2 tribute band advice - I would be grateful.
Thanks

 

[udos]

well man, we're four friend that have grown up together, and that 1 day one of us decided to ake the instruments and create a band.because of all of we like u2, the band turn to a u2 tribute band, altought the fact that we also have our own songs.
we bought our first guitars 2 or 3 years ago (i was called to be a guitarrist but the fate turned me into a bassist).i remeber that i'd never played a musical instrument in my live!!!!!! we had a lot time and a lot of illusion.so, very early we began to play u2 songs in a (more or less) right way.i also remenber those moments, you could notice that with your own hands could make this instruments sound, in some way, close (more or LESS) to what THEY DO.then things began to go easier, we spend many time playing together and trying to improve.but in anyway, here, in spain, thing are very difficult for begginers musicians.instruments and equiment is very, very, very, expesive(because of the high exchange of the dollar).there are few place to practice and to play.here on spain, our musical culture is far different from these from usa or uk.there they could have hendrix or clapton or doors or... but here, because of we must have suffered a dictatorship regimen until 1975,these musical influences didn't come to spain.so thing are hard for rock bands like us.yeh, but we survive.we have performed some times in the local pubs, here in the south of madrid (the capital of spain).we have played to aprox 150 pers in every show.well is not many many people, but this is a begining.

well i have some copies of one of our shows, but the quality of it is very very very poor. it's from a videocamera that tapes only the sound (?????).besides that, i have not much idea about how to mix it.remember that every bootleg that we hear have first a process of mix and masterization (better or worse done, but done).in the tape you can hear nly the bass very distorted an maybe the drums, the voice and guitar are very faint.but in a short time we're going to play again and maybe this time we can get a better recording.

continues... .. .

 

[udos]

continues... .. .

my guitarrist plays with a effect processor (i think it's the name, it's a stuff with 4 or 5 pedals, here we call it 'pedalera').it's a KORG machine.it's very good, it has a very good sound processing and sound really great.but it has a problem.it's a little bit old (maybe 12 years) and it's a little umcorfortable, the changes between the banks and the programming... .. . but it's the only he has!!!!!!!! imagine it has no wah wah processor and because of this we can play hold me... he can't play the opening riffs.
about these song i agree with you it an enormous song.u2 won the MTV award to the best group only for this song (in the ceremony bono joked about the fact that they won the price only with a song and what would they win if they made a record?)-it must have been in a official u2 record.i hope they will play it life in the next tour

sorry man, i must bored you with this speech.see you later.if you want to contact me better try this u2nation@yahoo.es.

excuse me if i've make a lot of mistakes, but my english is not as good as i used to be.

 

[SPiRE LV]

udos,
Thanks for the reply, I was very interested to read about your tribute band.
Evidently the old Korg processor is one of the best things to produce the Edge sound, and that modern machines are often not up to it. It must be a struggle without a Wah though.
Did you get to see U2 when they last played in Spain, and are you planning to see them on their new tour?
I'm hoping to see the new show in as many different places as possible, without losing my job. My first priority is to get tickets for Miami, and then I'll be back in Europe for as many eyro dates as possible.
It's going to be really difficult this time, if they're only doing small venues, to get a decent seat/place to stand. In 1992 they played Earl's Court in London and I waited in line with my girlfriend for 18 hours to get tickets. About 7000 people were also there over night, it was good fun and worth it, as the two of us got 3rd row seats beneath the stage.
I'm hoping to set up some kind of world network of people from different countries, where we help each other get tickets for those hard to reach places. So far I can get tickets for shows in UK, Ireland, New York, Paris, Norway, South Africa and Houston/Dallas; so if you're interested in taking a vacation in any of these places whilst U2 tour, then I can certainly help you out.
By the way 150 people is a good quantity of people to play in front of. Most of my shows have been to similar sized audiences. Some have been to more and some to less, but as long as the atmosphere kicks it doesn't really matter how many.
Two more days until the new single (although I have to wait another week for my friend to bring it over from England).
Good luck with your next show.