 It's
a nice warm evening in Birmingham, not too hot,
not too cold, one of those evenings that's good
for chilling with a beer and a bit of music. Tonight
I'm in for something a bit different, a Bee Gees
tribute band but one with a difference this band
is Tragedy and they are METAL!
I walk in to find the academy 3 quite full, which
is always a good, as it builds an atmosphere as
this room isn’t the largest. It also makes
for a hot and sweaty night which is allot of fun,
with the correct music that is.
 First
up is Johnny Headband, this 3 piece, band from
Detroit, have a member of the legendary electric
6 as its main man(bassist Smorgasbord who goes
by his actual name Keith Thompson) so at least
you know they're going to be energetic. They start
by walking out all dressed in white and go straight
into a track with no talking, it's fast it's bassy
with a nice mix of high hats for good measure.
The sound is disco, synth but with a nice bit
of dance thrown in for good measure, they sound
in parts like MGMT but in most songs you can tell
they are still down the same vein as Electric
6. Keith keeps to his Korg and laptop set up for
the most part but when he can, he breaks away
and dances with  the
bassist and his brother Chad, which adds a bit
of fun to the show. They go a bit crazy towards
the end with Chad switching to guitar and thrashing
about on stage, he then leaves whilst Keith gets
the crowd to count to 16 and then shout go, and
when they do Chad returns to the stage and jumps
around like a mad man, until the song breaks down
and they leave the stage. The crowd are happy
enough but the band doesn't really engage them
enough throughout the set and so it just feels
like there filler instead of a support. But they
sound great, and have something with strains of
uniqueness; luckily the main show is up next that
is all about entertaining the audience.
 Tragedy
in case you didn't know are from New York and
take on the alter egos of the Bee Gees, if the
Bee Gees had missed disco and had waited until
the 80’s and tried metal instead, this is
what would have been born. A crazy mix of spandex
and Flying V guitars coated in shiny studs. Having
never heard of them before I thought they might
just be a boring tribute act who bring nothing
to the table other than the playing of the songs
we all know and love, well Tragedy are not this!
They are amazing, literally amazing. They put
on a fun show, which sounds great which includes
lots of stage antics and shenanigans.
 They
engage the crowd before every track with either
a little skit normally involving they're handy
man Lance (who is dressed as a sailor and mops
the stage and the band from spilt beer and sweat
between songs) or with an anecdote about the group
or the next track. For example Robin Gibson tells
the crowd how the band came to be “I was
living in New York and Ginger from the Wildhearts
was coming to the US for the first time and needed
a place to stay, so I heard about it and offered
up my place. Due to this Tragedy, who were only
ever going to perform one gig, ended up touring
the UK with him and have been back 6 times since!
Now we would love to keep doing this so please
buy our merch, they’re bound to get you
laid as the t-shirts say I sweat glitter and cum
confetti!”
 They
make each song unique and add a personal twist
whilst performing, with group head bangs, handing
plectrums to the lady's in the crowd, leaning
on the barrier and kissing the fans (mainly the
males), throwing glitter around the stage and
into the audience without them realising, going
to the back of the room and dancing on the bar
whilst playing tambourine, playing guitars with
fire coming out the top, crowd surfing and of
course playing the songs with allot of heart and
soul!
 Now
with all this talk about how they have a great
stage show it seems that I’m neglecting
their actual talent, which you may think doesn’t
exist if they have to use all these tricks, but
it does. They play each song with great timing
and skill; they real off into solos and have great
harmonies which do get on par with the Bee Gee’s
throughout the show. I didn’t realise how
many Bee Gee’s songs I knew until they played
them, as they played loads including; Grease,
Islands In The Stream, Night fever, You Make Me
Feel Like Dancing, Jive Talking, You Should Be
Dancing, How Deep is Your Love and Staying Alive.
After all of that, they leave the stage to huge
screams from this adoring crowd, after some time
Robin Gibson returns to the stage to tell everyone,
how they’re not the type of band to come
back out and play an encore, they just don’t
get paid enough. So instead a Donna Summer cover
band will come out who look and sound exactly
like Tragedy called Hot Stuff, and with that he
gets the crowd to chant Hot Stuff, Hot Stuff over
and over until the rest of the band joins him
on stage and they go into exactly that song! When
that comes to an end they get  about
10 girls on stage from the crowd along with a
topless fat man to join them in another random
cover of Bonnie Tyler’s; Total Eclipse Of
The Heart, with that the band clear the stage
and go into the final song of the night, Tragedy!
Tonight has been amazing, they are so entertaining
and are definitely a band you should go and watch!
They're lots of fun and play some great classics!
So, who cares if Piers Morgan didn’t like
them on Britain’s Got Talent, he knows nothing
about having fun, so if you do, then what you
waiting for? Go and see them, now!
Johnny Headband 2.5/5
Tragedy 5/5
Review By James Daly
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