Canadian queer cover band ‘Shania Twink’ perform at Rivoli in Toronto on June 25, 2024. The two-set performance featured Shania Twain’s most popular hits.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Gordon Raphael has an ear for talent. The American-born, U.K.-based hit maker, who produced the critically acclaimed albums Is This It and Room on Fire by the Strokes, recently saw the Brokes, a Toronto-based Strokes cover band, play at Pianos, a bar on New York’s Lower East Side.
Raphael gave the Strokes their start by recording their influential debut album, and he’s credited for creating the sound that helped the Strokes become famous. The Lower East Side in New York is the mecca of rock ‘n’ roll and, at Pianos, the room was packed.
The Brokes told The Globe and Mail they were reverently nervous; but when the music started, the audience roared. Raphael sat in the back of the club, and fell in love with the scene he was taking in all over again.
“Everyone knows they weren’t watching the Strokes, but the audience was so happy to be hearing the music live, and I was watching the crowd, everyone, having a great time,” says Raphael.
The Brokes, who are in their 20s, play Strokes anthems such as Someday and Last Night with more ferocity than 45-year-old Strokes singer Julian Casablancas now plays his own songs (a fact not lost on Raphael, who said during a Zoom call that the Toronto-based band “blew his mind” and he’d be happy to produce a Brokes album).
“People in the audience weren’t crossing their arms wondering if every note was accurate. They were out to party – and New York City rarely gets to see the Strokes any more. It felt like a celebration – everyone, including the band, having fun.”
The Brokes are just one of the legions of tribute acts touring Canada this summer. These include Montreal’s Alcoholica, which plays Metallica covers; Wing Night (the Band), a popular hip-hop cover band in Toronto; Tommy Youngsteen, who does Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen shows; Vag Halen, an all-female Van Halen tribute act, which recently played at Pride Toronto; Abra Cadabra, playing Abba tunes in Vancouver, and an outdoor concert series in Vaughan, Ont., stacked with cover artists, including a tribute to Taylor Swift (the first thousand guests receive friendship bracelets).
Cover band Dwayne Gretzky on stage.Supplied
While artists in all genres have a long tradition of borrowing one another’s music – from the Beatles covering Chuck Berry to Snoop Dogg updating Slick Rick to Bob Dylan singing Gordon Lightfoot – bands touring Canada as full-fledged tribute acts are popular draws this summer not just in bars and clubs, but also in larger venues that tend to host the artists that inspired them to be a part of a tribute band.
Astronomically high ticket prices matched with a scarcity of seats for the world’s biggest acts make intimate shows by energetic tribute bands increasingly more appealing. As this summer reaches an apex of the tribute phenomenon, crackerjack musicians are helping remove the stigma that once followed cover acts – the wedding singer warbling Free Fallin’ after six Jack and Cokes.
Nick Rose started cover band Dwayne Gretzky in 2011 with a Tuesday night gig at Toronto’s intimate basement, the Dakota Tavern. The band has since become a Canadian juggernaut that’s played coast to coast and sold out Massey Hall in 2022 (they have a show coming up at the storied venue on Oct. 26, and tickets there too are almost gone).
Dwayne Gretzky performing at Opera House in Toronto.Anthony Tuccitto/Supplied
All 10 members of Dwayne Gretzky are ace players and the love they put into their cover tunes – from Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel to Under Pressure by Queen – is carefully constructed. Every song of the set is calibrated to take the audience, and the performers, on an emotional ride. They started out simply covering classic-rock songs, but they’ve expanded their lineup to include backup singers and horns and now are able to handle disco and R&B as aptly as tunes by Pearl Jam and the Tragically Hip.
“We were all playing in different original bands and would hang out and watch hockey games, and we started playing the band covers for the sheer joy of playing these songs we love. People started coming out so it was like, ‘Well, I guess we should do this again,’” says Rose.
In addition to allowing the group to continue a life in music, performing cover songs has reaped financial benefits for the band, as well as the venues that host them. According to Rose, Dwayne Gretzky holds the bar sales record at the Phoenix, Lee’s Palace and the Horseshoe Tavern, the most popular live-music venues in Toronto. “We stumbled into this not by design, but seem to be filling a niche in an untapped market – a fun, live-music experience of a great band pulling off classic songs.”
Dwayne Gretzky started covering classic-rock songs, but the band's lineup has expanded to include backup singers and horns and it is now able to handle disco and R&B as aptly as tunes by Pearl Jam.Arden Wray/Supplied
There’s still that stigma attached to cover bands, and Rose addresses that in his group’s winking name: the band takes the material seriously, but also understands that navel-gazing while covering Alanis Morrissette feels disingenuous and takes away from the audience’s good time.
“For the past 14 years, we’ve been reticent about using the words ‘cover band,’ because it has negative connotations – people in vests and fedoras doing it for the money,” Rose explains.
“With us, it’s about finding the balance. We know these aren’t our songs, but we’re paying homage to them, expressing them joyously. We’re not going through the motions of Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, we’re doing great songs justice because they’re magical things that we love so much.”
Another Toronto-based band, Shania Twink, has also seen first-hand how audiences are more welcoming of tribute bands, as the all-queer cover band was performing a second sold-out concert at the Rivoli nightclub for Pride. In the audience, fans weren’t watching passively – there was a giddy energy of celebration mixed with defiance, an experience the band’s Lydia Persaud explains by saying her group is more about Shania Twain’s fans in the LGBTQ+ community rather than about the iconic Canadian country artist.
“Reclaiming this music for a queer space and having it be a healing experience feels cathartic,” says Persaud, adding that after years of being in male-led groups, her band’s democratic approach to setlists and decision making gives the musicians a feeling of empowerment which translates to their crowd.
From left, Lydia Persaud, Kate Palumbo, Christine Bougie, Dani Nash, CJ Wiley and Char Aragoza of Shania Twink.
Shania Twink perform at Rivoli in Toronto on June 25.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
At the Rivoli, where Shania Twink was doing a Lilith Fair tribute and expanding their setlist beyond Twain but still covering female artists, a line dance broke out to Twain’s upbeat Any Man of Mine and the group tore through classic hits such as Fast Car by Tracy Chapman and the Indigo Girls’ Closer to Fine.
“Identity, community and connectedness is an energy flow for us and makes every song impactful, but also deeply foundational – it’s about the music, but also this uplifting queer experience fuelling the audience and band,” says Shania Twink’s Dani Nash.
Taking in the show was 33-year-old Tristan Lee. “I grew up listening to these songs as a closeted queer teenager and hearing them now as a more actualized version of myself is a beautiful thing,” says Lee. “I’m grateful this band exists.”
On Sundays at the Canadiana Restaurant in Etobicoke, Ont., THC – the Theodore Horner Combo – plays weekly David Bowie and Billy Joel covers for a cast of regulars, including Big Pat in the corner booth. Pat is 91 years old and, when he walked into the bar after having a stent removed from his aorta, the place gave him a standing ovation.
Rumours of Fleetwood Mac has played 4,000 shows around the world and toured for 25 years.Supplied
Incidentally, he’s also Barenaked Ladies member Kevin Hearn’s dad. Taking in a set with his father at Canadiana recently, Hearn said cover tunes and tribute acts are woven into the fabric of music – his group covers Miley Cyrus and Olivia Rodrigo – adding that legacy artists can also become cover bands of their own tunes. Hearn was the leader of Lou Reed’s band during the final years of Reed’s life and they talked about becoming their own tribute act on his final tour.
“Lou only wanted to do songs he felt, and asked my opinion about Walk on the Wild Side,” explains Hearn, as THC ran through Wheat Kings by the Tragically Hip – extra poignant because Gord Downie’s last album was recorded at Hearn’s home.
“Music has the power to transport people to a time in their lives,” Hearn says after a sip of tea, eyeing his dad. “I told Lou we didn’t have to do it exactly like the record, we could reinvent it with our band, and we tried it and it was great fun. I think he felt some emotional resonance – we started playing it every night.”
Allan Cosgrove of Rumours of Fleetwood Mac.Supplied
Playing, says Allan Cosgrove, 64, from Liverpool, is the dream of every kid who grows up falling in love with music. His show, Rumours of Fleetwood Mac, presented by Mirvish and opening in Toronto on Aug. 20, has toured for 25 years.
“Other than the Beatles, Liverpool in the 1960s was all cover bands,” says Cosgrove, who performed decades of originals before stumbling upon his Fleetwood Mac concept. “I didn’t understand tribute acts. I was like, ‘What the hell are these plagiarists doing?’ Until I tried it and, hell’s teeth, it sold out! After that – I wasn’t born yesterday, it only made sense to do it again.”
Cosgrove has had the rare thrill of performing his cover versions for the original act. After becoming friends with Mick Fleetwood’s mother, she brought her son to a gig. “I was bloody petrified, but with three tracks to go, Mick walked onstage and said, ‘Cos, pass me those sticks,’ and we played Go Your Own Way. I nearly collapsed.”
Rumours of Fleetwood Mac has played 4,000 shows around the world. Although Cosgrove no longer writes original material, he’s pleased to earn a living in his 60s playing rock ‘n’ roll. After Canada, he tours Prague, Zurich and Helsinki, and says he still derives joy from the music.
“Moving down the runway of life, it’s unbelievable we’ve come so far,” Cosgrove says. “Every song is a memory for the audience, we’re just a conduit to a legacy – a lifetime of tunes.”
