In 2009, Damon Smith had the idea to gather groups pretending to be famous rock ‘n’ rollers for a Greeley show he called My Favorite Bands. Tribute bands, outside of Elvis impersonators, were still relatively few and far in between.
Cover bands, of course, had inspired bar patrons to demand renditions of “Free Bird” for decades, but Smith wanted the musicians to dive deeper. He asked them to dress up like the artists, pretend to be them and play a few songs only the most loyal fans would know—not just their hits. The result was an annual festival featuring groups pretending to be bands such as Queen and The White Stripes, along with a group of high school friends who called themselves Peter, Paul and Gary and played a popular ’80s soundtrack every year.
This year’s festival will feature six bands, including Hairball, a popular Denver band that plays, and dresses like, Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard, among other ’80s icons.
That first year, Smith himself played in a Fleetwood Mac tribute band, which was a smart career move. Venue owners started asking him to bring the band to play at their clubs. He named the band Rumours after Fleetwood Mac’s iconic album.
Rumours, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band. Photo by Lexi Martin.
The band still plays up to 30 shows a year, but Rumours is no longer a novelty. Tribute bands have been big for years in Northern Colorado. Smith even formed two other tribute bands, one devoted to Bruce Springsteen, which he calls Springsteen Colorado, and Paranoid, a nod to Black Sabbath. Smith, only half-jokingly, says he may have had an influence on the genre.
“I’m not saying I invented it, buuut….” says Smith, who is now 50 and lives in Greeley, running sound for events like Greeley’s Friday Fest in addition to playing gigs and enjoying retirement after a career as general manager of Greeley Hat Works.
Keeping the Dead alive
Chris Bell never had his own band before he formed Tumbledown Shack with Luke Zollo in 2019. They did it out of love for the Grateful Dead more than a chance to play in front of big crowds. Bell answered an ad Zollo placed on Craigslist, and they formed the band when Bell moved to Fort Collins from Virginia. He plays the keys, the sax and sings.
“We feel a special connection to the music,” Bell says, “and there’s a lore that goes along with it.”
Unlike some tribute bands that treat their gigs like a theatrical performance, Bell and Zollo do not replicate the Dead. The Dead invented or at least played a huge role in the so-called jam band genre, an improvisational style that guaranteed the group would never play a song the same way twice. Tumbledown Shack approaches the Dead’s music the same way, and in doing so, they believe they are honoring the intent of the band and not their recordings.
“If you want to listen to the recording,” Bell says, “you can stay home and listen to it. There are plenty of bands that can play this music, but keeping an audience engaged and feel like they’re at a Dead show is what we try to recreate.”
It’s a different approach than other tribute bands such as Sabotage, a Beastie Boys tribute that frequently plays in Northern Colorado and features guys in jumpsuits—the kind hip-hop singers would wear in the ’80s and mid-’90s. Other local examples include The Long Run, an Eagles tribute band, and The Curtain, a Phish tribute.
Bell isn’t blind to the fact that the Dead may be the band that inspires the most tribute groups out there, followed closely by Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin. Part of that, he says, is because their music is so fun to play, but the band also draws a particular crowd. There’s some pressure with that, too: The Dead are known for their rabid fans who traveled across the country to see them hundreds of times. That kind of devotion can be hard to please, but Bell welcomes the challenge.
“We get suggestions all the time from fans, solicited and unsolicited,” he says with a laugh.
Members of tribute bands have the added weight of representing a time most fans remember with fondness, and they don’t want their childhood memories mangled. But Bell believes people caring so much about that time is also what keeps tribute bands alive.
“There’s a nostalgic piece to this,” he says. “The fans can remember where they were when they heard a certain Grateful Dead song, and they are always more than happy to share that time with us.”
Paranoid, a Black Sabbath tribute band. Photo by Backstage Flash.
A variety show
Smith sometimes wonders if tribute bands are approaching an expiration date, even if he tries his best to keep them relevant.
The tribute bands that seem to be the hottest right now, he says, are the ones that showcase an entire genre instead of just one particular group. There are now yacht rock bands and groups that honor hair metal, such as Hairball.
“But that seems weird,” Smith says, “because then you’re almost just back to being a cover band at that point.”
There are also events now that showcase an entire era. In June, Ben Myers produced the Laurel Canyon Revue, a show that paid homage to a mountainous neighborhood in Los Angeles that birthed a music counterculture scene in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Regional musicians played well-known songs from some of the most famous artists and bands to emerge from the area, such as Carole King, The Doors, Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell, at Washington’s in Fort Collins.
“I was already gravitating toward some of these bands,” Myers says, “and I realized how many artists shaped popular music around the same time. They all had a wide range of styles, but somehow they all meshed and had such an influence.”
Myers lives in Fort Collins and is a musician, too, but his primary group, Crescent City Connection, is simply a funk band, not a tribute. He put on a version of the show on June 21, 2025, and even though the day was 102 degrees, fans soaked in the nostalgia as much as their own sweat.
“I had grown men walk up to me in tears about the music,” Myers says. “Just that alone made me realize this works.”
He hopes he’s inspired more people to think about other ways to honor eras of music.
“We want to capture the culture and the vibe and the look of the Laurel Canyon era and take that model and apply it to other things,” he says.
Even with the glut of Grateful Dead bands in Colorado, Bell considers them fellow worshipers who add to the vibe.
“We’re all in favor of keeping the music alive and popular,” he says. “The more of that there is, the better it is for all of us.”
The Laurel Canyon Revue playing at The Lyric in Fort Collins at last year’s tribute show. Photo by Backstage Flash.
Tumbledown Shack
This Grateful Dead tribute plays at Salt Road Brewing in downtown Fort Collins on the first Wednesday and third Thursday of every month. The band also plays on July 11 at the Mishawaka Amphitheatre up the Poudre Canyon to support Dead Floyd, a Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd tribute band.
The Long Run
The Eagles tribute band will play on July 17 at Chapungu Sculpture Park in Centerra and on Nov. 7 at the Rialto Theater in downtown Loveland. Go to thelongrunband.com for more information.
Rumours
This Fleetwood Mac tribute is set to play on July 18 at the Aggie Theatre in Old Town Fort Collins. You can find more information at rumourscolorado.com. The band also plays in My Favorite Bands.
My Favorite Bands
The show features six groups that honor hair metal bands, The Cars and Black Sabbath, among others. It starts at 3 p.m. Aug. 1 and will take place on two stages in downtown Greeley on the 9th Street Plaza and at the Moxi Theater. Learn more at myfavoritebands.org.
Ten Years Gone
The Led Zeppelin tribute band will play on Sept. 18 at The Rush Event Center in Evans. Go to tenyearsgonelive.com for tickets.
