This pops up on social media again and again, and it irks me that some people seem to have a (IMAO - in my arrogant opinion) wrong understanding of what these terms mean.

Cover band

A cover band plays covers. Some other bands (with their own repertoire) might play some covers, like eg. Caravan Palace covering Ram Jam’s Black Betty (which is quite good) or Sabaton covering Motørhead’s 1916 (badly).

Covers are not usually 100% true to the original, they’re more of an interpretation of the original.

Tribute band

A tribute band are admirers of the band they pay tribute to. They often have their own songs, but create them in the style of the target. It’s not unheard of that one of those bands creates their own repertoire and fans. A very good example in that regard is Gazpacho, who started their career as a Marillion tribute band.

Cosplay band

I’d like this opportunity to create a new category which I choose to call Cosplay bands. These are the copycats who cover the original songs in the most “authentic” way possible, often copying the technical setup (instruments) and even trying to look like their “counterparts” in the original. Kissnation is one of those bands, and they’ll never be a good replacement for the original 70s lineup of Kiss they are trying to copy.

I find this category to be utterly boring. They add nothing to the original’s musical expression, nor their stage presence, since they just want to copy it 1:1. This may be acceptable for people who missed the original when they were touring (like Beatles cosplay bands), but seriously, the 60s were the 60s and the 2020s are the 2020s, so what’s the point except for some extreme nostalgia. The records still exist, in the case of the Beatles you can even get a feel for Beatlemania since there’s a recording of their US tour from the Hollywood Bowl, with screams and everything, so why bother trying to do that with today’s youth who have an extremely different environment to grow up in. You’ll never get them to scream like those audiences in the early 60s!