I bought tickets for their show in The Netherlands and it was absolutely horrible. People say Terence is pretty good but I think he doesn't understand a fraction of MK's magic. He has no understanding of guitar sounds, doesn't know his scales and clearly didn't investigate the songs all the way through. Some folks on YouTube get pretty close imitating MK (no one will ever reach his level or even come up with the stuff) but Terence wouldn't stand a chance against these YouTubers.
Mark does a wonderful job of making music on stage but besides the music he isn't a natural crowd entertainer. His jokes and talks are always the same and that's for a good reason, it's part of who he is and his level of comfort on stage. Terence even copied that. The WOL intro stuff, the "thank youuuuuuu", etc... and Chris is just standing there with a big smile and a shaker. Pure cringe.
This might sound a harsh but I was so angry when I left the gig. When I got home I started writing a topic about it here on AMIT but decided to throw it away, get some sleep and see if I still bothered that much the next day. I decided not to write about it but since it got asked I thought it would be okay to share my thoughts.
I don't have a problem with DS/MK cover bands, good or bad. What I hate is the fact that someone has worked so hard for 40 years and a bunch of amateurs are just trashing the name and legacy. They only sell these amount of tickets because of their name and the fact that one 'original member' is part of the band (Chris might not see it this way but he was just a hired session musician), not because they're a great band. Keep in mind that if we want MK to keep touring, his tickets need to be sold. There is little promotion and (gladly) he doesn't give a damn about how many record he sells, so I guess a portion of the tickets are sold because of his name and legacy. This whole experience thing can't be good for his name.
I agree, but I think really it's just a combination of Mark's popularity and the complexity of his music. My prime example of a good tribute band always was and will be The Fab Four, which gives you really an ultimate The Beatles experience you'll ever find. Guys just nailed the sound, mannerism and all. It's cringy, but just a bit and at least half of the original band members are already dead and the band was over almost 50 years ago, so the tribute makes sense. I'm sure, if only Mark would be as popular as The Beatles, we would have better tribute bands. And probably we will in the next few decades, who knows?
The worst part about this particular tribute band, is that they promote themselves almost as the real deal, they have Dire Straits in their title which is insane in my book, they're saying that their guitarist is "the only man in the world capable of playing guitar and singing like MK" (oh yeah, boiii!). Of course it's not about what's you're doing, it's about
how you do it. And how they do it is really cringeworthy and hence their show is no difference. It's like Mark's shows would be promoted like "This is the best guitar player and songwriter in the world, you better go and buy tickets and give him money".
