Tragedy - The Number 1 All Metal Tribute To The BeeGees in the Tri State Area - Birmingham Academy 3 - 29-05-12

Tragedy - The Number 1 All Metal Tribute To The BeeGees in the Tri State Area - Birmingham Academy 3 - 29-05-12, a set on Flickr.

Johnny Headband - Birmingham Academy 3 - 29-05-12

Johnny Headband - Birmingham Academy 3 - 29-05-12, a set on Flickr.

Tragedy – With support from Johnny Headband – Birmingham Academy 3 – 29/05/12

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!

2.5/5 Johnny Headband

5/5 Tragedy

We The Kings Interview For Alternative Vision

You released your album “Sunshine State Of Mind” almost a year ago, how has it gone down with the fans and press?

Danny: It’s been amazing so far. The fans have been quoted as saying that it’s the best record that we’ve put out, one said that it’s the best record ever and I think one fan even said that it’s better than The Beatles White Album (laughter)

Travis: Press has been really, really good for us. They seem like the organicness of it. The record didn’t start off as an acoustic record but we built everything on an acoustic guitar so that we could strip it all down and play it acoustically and still have a good thing. We just wanted to do something that felt real and I think a lot of people especially on the press side of things appreciated that.

What themes and stories do you cover within the album?

Travis: We were living in New York when we did the album so we wrote a song about living somewhere else and that translated really well to being on tour. We’ve never really known this lifestyle when you’ve grown up going to school and working jobs, it’s completely different to touring the world and waking up in a place that you don’t even know. I also went through my very first break up.

Danny: I was just gonna say about that. There are a few different things in there about friendships and break ups. It’s kind of a good well rounded emotional album.

Travis: There’s a party song on there too. We were in this year of partying so there’s one song on there that’s about going to parties, raging and making out with all kinds of different chicks and then waking up the next morning and not really knowing where you are.  

You’ve got an amazing video on your site, for “Say You Like Me” which  is an interactive video game which sees you play as each band member to save the girl, how did this come about and was it hard to make?

Travis: It pretty much goes back to making out with girls (laughter).

Danny: I feel like it’s every kid’s dream to star in your own computer game. We were in contact with these people in Israel who had this technology to make an interactive video. We thought it would be a cool idea so we flew to Israel and boom it all happened.

Travis: It’s amazing and we’re all video game nerds but I guess the next step would be us getting our own action figures (laughter).

Danny: Anybody who makes action figures and is reading this please contact WeTheKings@ everyemail.com (laughter).

You‘ve currently been supporting Simple Plan in Europe and the UK before heading out on a few of your own dates over the UK, how has this gone so far?

Travis: The European tour was amazing especially as it was our first time in mainland Europe because I don’t consider the UK to be part of Europe. Simple Plan are really well known over there so it was a good opportunity for us to play to thousands of people. When we got to the UK we decided to stay a little bit longer because we were only getting to play for 30 minutes. People who have been ours fans for the past three or four years wanted to hear more songs so we decided to play a couple of extra shows and they sold out immediately.  

You’ve been coming to the UK for couple of years now, how do you find it over hear compared to the states?

Travis: It’s very rainy but we bought sunshine state of mind with us, get it? (Laughter) This has been our nicest trip over here as regards to the weather and obviously the sold out shows have increased our enjoyment level. The fans over here are different than the fans in the States because they never know if we’ll come back. In the States we’re almost spoilt in a way because we know that if we miss a band when they tour we can just see them next time but over here you don’t get that. 

After the UK shows you head back to the states, then off to the Philippians, Malaysia, Australia and then back to the States to do the massive Warped Tour! How do you feel about playing all over the world and being on the world famous Warped Tour?

Travis: It’s crazy when you say it like that, it’s like how are we gonna get to all of those places (laughter).

Danny: We need a map with like red dots on to show where we’re going. It’s so crazy, it’s every bands dream. We use to sneak into Warped Tour because we couldn’t afford to get in and now we’re headlining it. Travelling the world and being able to do what you love with your friends is all you can ask for.

Most bands get gifts from their fans, what has been the best and also the weirdest gift you have received from a fan?

Travis: We had voodoo dolls a while ago; we were terrified of what to do with them. I think we ended up putting them in a draw.

Danny: With comfy blankets and at room temperature (laughter)

Travis: As regards the best gifts, I know a lot of people don’t have a lot of money so the fact that they’re going out and buying us gifts or making us things is really cool. I wish people would maybe save their money and say get a ticket to the show or something instead. They don’t have to give us gifts because they’re given us enough already by letting us be here and do this.

Danny: That being said (Laughter).

Travis: That being said we definitely get a lot of gifts like gift cards and we definitely use those. I think my favourite gifts have to be the home made ones or when I mention something really random like pigeons at the next gig someone will turn up with a stuffed pigeon (laughter).

What would you say your biggest high and low points as a band have been so far?

Travis: I can’t think of a low point but with regards high points my mind in getting cluttered with them.  We’ve had some member changes and that’s always difficult even though they’ve been mutual. I guess that could also be classed as a high point as well though because you get to start a fresh and have everyone all on the same page. As for highs we’ve received the key to our city, played our hometown in front of thousands, we’ve gone platinum in a few countries.  If we were talking about pros and cons then the pros definitely outweighs the cons by millions.

Where do you hope to see We The Kings in a year’s time?

Travis: We’ve all kind of concluded on one exact goal and that is to one day have a greatest hits record.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?

Danny: I’d be a giraffe.

Travis: Yeah a giraffe definitely.

Danny: Zebras are just fancy horses; they’re assholes (laughter).

Travis: Other horses come along and see them and they’re just like “what?”  (Laughter)

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?

Travis: I’m sure every band says it but we wouldn’t be a band if it wasn’t for the fans and it’s just as much their band as it is ours.

Danny: Also if you have a drawing of Travis don’t bring them to him; give them to me because I enjoy those much more (laughter). The good ones, the bad ones I love them all, I promise.

We The Kings - Birmingham Academy 2 - 06-05-12

We The Kings - Birmingham Academy 2 - 06-05-12, a set on Flickr.