For me, tribute bands have a lot of appeal. I had an absolute blast listening to our local "Zed Leppelin"...especially when so many young bands suffer from a high percentage of mediocre songs, and rarely rarely rarely do the live vocals sound good, either because of a mushy PA or because of a non-singer doing that non-singer thing.

But tribute bands generally work very hard at nailing a sound and image and performance that we already like to listen to, year after year. I like 'em!

There's a great Beatles band called Yellow Matter Custard...they don't try to LOOK like the Beatles, but they play the songs very well. Here's one you don't often hear played live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jxm4KC1hg4