Tribute bands keep multiplying and morphing across B.C., and the market shows no signs of waning at pubs and other venues. Bigger theatres also continue to stage such shows including Surrey's Bell Performing Arts Centre, booked this fall with tributes to Fleetwood Mac (Oct. 3), Olivia Rodrigo & Sabrina Carpenter (Nov. 4), The Eagles (Nov. 21), two different ABBA bands (Sept. 20, Dec. 5) and more.
Something new and a bit different is Ikons of Rock (Sept. 11), a variety-show tribute featuring songs by Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, the Eagles, Queen, Motley Crue, Lita Ford, Poison, Heart, Joan Jett and other rock stars of the 1970s and '80s.
Based in Las Vegas, the band features veteran Canadian talent now returning "home" for a 45-date concert tour of B.C. and other provinces in September and October.
"We have three singers," said bandleader Darren Moore, who sings and plays Ozzy, KISS, David Lee Roth, Alice Cooper and Def Leppard. "I'll come out first, do two or three songs, and by the time the last chord of the last song hits, the next singer's coming out, and it'll be Ann Wilson from Heart and her striped outfit, and the next singer will be Poison, and we just keep doing that every two or three songs. It just moves quickly."
With Ikons of Rock the goal was to make the show "like an '80s concert — dressing and acting and sounding not like a bar band but sounding like the actual artists and dressing like them, talking like them, walking like them," Moore added. "If there's sound effects on the album like a car or a motorcycle revving, we put that in the tracks in the background. So it was a real true throwback experience to the 70s and 80s. And it just took off."
Starting on Sunday, Sept. 7, a 13-date B.C. tour includes concerts in Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon, Surrey, Maple Ridge, Vancouver, Chilliwack, Nanaimo, Victoria, Courtenay, Duncan, Campbell River and Cranbrook.
A Surrey connection is Steve Marshall, drummer/producer of the Relive the Music 50s & 60s show. He connected with Moore after seeing Ikons of Rock in Vegas last January, and is promoting their Canadian tour.
"It’s like watching over a dozen fabulous tribute shows in one evening," Marshall raves. "Several performers are proud to be past members of the great Western Canadian classic rock bands Harlequin, Kenny Shields and Streetheart."
At each show there are six to nine performers, depending on the stage and other considerations. Bios and promo videos are posted on ikonsofrock.com.
In Vegas, Ikons of Rock will start a year-long residency at the Hard Rock in January, and a themed cruise is planned next June.
"On this tour we'll do a little tribute to Ozzy, and it's all heavily weighted to '80s stuff," Moore noted.
"We're doing a lot of concerts and festivals where they align us with headliners like David Lee Roth and Sebastian Bach. We've opened for Starship, the Beach Boys, Whitesnake. It's crazy that they're putting us on these big concert festivals, but that's what the people want to see. Sometimes we'll open, or they put us on at the very end because people want to party, and we're the party band."
