There's tribute bands and then there's tribute bands at Swabbie's On the River

Last night I celebrated a friend's birthday by going to one of Swabbie's infamous "fish taco" tribute band friday nights.  If you haven't ever experienced the Swabbie-ness, it's a pretty fabulous summer scene--people of all ages, dancing and dining outdoors right on the Sacramento river.  The calendar of events is here:  Swabbies On the River.

The only thing to be careful of is the tribute bands.  The third Friday of the month is reggae night, and I think that's pretty reliably good but the other Friday night bands tend to be "tribute" bands which choose to play only covers of one particular band.  So it goes without saying that you have to like that band.

A couple of summers ago, I experienced a pretty unfortunate swamp rock tribute band ("Creedence Saltwater Revival?"  -- or is that all seal band at Sea World, I may be getting them mixed up.

Anyway, the music was WORSE than the sea lion band--and I LOVE CCR.  So that put me off tribute bands for a while.

Last night was "Stealin' Dan" (if you can't figure out who they're tributizing, God help you) and it was a whole different matter.  I guess if you're into Steely Dan you really need to be real musicians--these guys had a phenomenal  sound and fabulous backup singers and a brass section and the whole bit.  Now I'm re-in love with Swabbie's and tribute bands.