The really dynamite Prince tribute act Purple Reign kicked off Late Show With David Letterman’s Tribute Bands Week, and it almost seems unfair that they went first. Yes, they were that good: Frontman Jason Tenner has Purple Rain-era Prince’s mannerisms, flouncy blouses, and guitar face (!) down pat, and the rest of the band sounded pretty solid–especially when you figure that even the most seasoned acts can sound like crap on TV. Unfortunately, the Time tribute band that performs with them wasn’t in tow, but there’s video of those guys on the band’s official site. [YouTube / Official site]
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Purple Reign Makes David Letterman Go “Crazy”
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I’d say stumbling across these guys playing a free show at some second-rate casino was easily the highlight of my first trip to Las Vegas six years ago. I mean, the guy went so far to imitate Prince that he actually LOOKS JUST LIKE the guy!
@Tauwan: Probably because they’re in NYC, while the others are in LA.
@AL: Yep, no good bands are from/travel to LA.
While its true that Dave and Conan get pretty good bands, I think the same could be said for Jimmy’s show. While he has recently been able to secure “bigger” pop and hip-hop acts not generally beloved by idolator readers, he often has bands discussed on this here website. I suspect people think that Dave and Conan are “cooler” than Jimmy (probably true), so that their musical acts are correspondingly “cooler” (not necessarily true).
Although there is no doubt that Jay Leno’s musical bookings mostly suck, but then his show is geared toward a demographic that does not include me.
@How do I say this … THROWDINI!: The guy that books music for the Jimmy Kimmel Show has definitely done an exemplary job over the years. Sadly, there has been little/no acknowledgment of that fact, probably due to the lack of ‘cool’ factor you mention.
Plus Kimmel gets bonus points for hosting Justice when they had the pop star impersonators ‘perform’ “D.A.N.C.E.” on the show. That was hilarious.
These guys rock so much I wanna start a Purple Reign cover band and cover their covers of Prince songs. BTW how awesome is Dave for having a whole week of tribute acts on? Granted he usually has a better selection of musical acts on his show (instead say on Jay Leno or Kimmel), but giving these tribute acts a chance to be on TV instead of the usual batch of sad twerps/major label flash in the pans is a nice change of pace.
What’s next, “15 Year-Olds Playing Guitar Hero” week?
My first reaction to this week was “…really? OK.” But damn, that’s a pretty high bar for the rest of the week. I really did enjoy that quite a bit.
@cockfightbarmitzvah:
I agree. He and Conan O’Brien always select awesome musical acts.