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Following the Hollister Concerts June 14 sold-out opening show, the series is taking a 180-degree turn.
That show featured country music tribute bands 7 Summers, a Tribute to Morgan Wallen and Keith as Kenny, a Kenny Chesney Tribute. The next show, on July 12, will offer the funk and punk sound of the Red Not Chili Peppers and a dash of grunge from Not Green Day.
“Country is big in Hollister,” said promoter Danielle Nino, “so we have two country shows this year, including Toby Keith and Johnny Cash tributes to close the season. But I’m a product of the ’90s and these are the kind of bands I like.”
Not that she didn’t enjoy the first show. Nino describes it as a “great show on a great night with great weather,” with kids and adults dancing to the music and singing along. Nino said the lead singer of 7 Summers, Bobby Zoppi, even brought some of the kids onstage to join in on a song.
“You never really know what is going to happen when you come here!” she said. “But both bands were terrific and the audience loved them.”
Red Not Chili Peppers are a returning band, having played the venue two years ago, and Nino said they received a lively reception from the audience then.
“We were so impressed,” she said. “The band was just really, really impressive, and the vocals were great. They had such energy, and they were so amazing we wanted to get them back again.”
Red Not Chili Peppers guitarist Greg Loman said the Southern California band was formed in 2009. The current core of the band came together in 2016.
“When I first joined,” he said, “the stigma around tribute bands was a little different than it is now. However, the entire climate surrounding tribute bands has shifted dramatically over the last eight years.”
He said that before joining the band, he had learned many Red Hot Chili Peppers songs just for fun, at first. Later, while teaching guitar, he expanded his repertoire, because the band’s songs were so popular that his students already had some knowledge of them.
“The Chili Peppers have a lot of songs that work when you’re teaching,” he said. “They do funky syncopated rhythms. There are grunge-era power cords and Jimi Hendrix’s clean tones. And it goes on and on; it’s a dense discography.”
Loman said that just playing the songs is a different experience from performing them as a tribute to the original band.
“In this type of band,” he said, “you cannot just stand there. The music forces something out of you, a kind of primal instinct. We come off the stage dripping with sweat because that’s just what it takes. That part of it is fun.”
Loman said it’s a little eerie to him to be performing as a tribute band when the original members are still active, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers are aware of their existence and realize, if anything, the tribute band is “a big advertisement for them.”
“If they can still be active selling stadiums,” he said, “then a tribute band like ours can also peacefully coexist, playing clubs, vineyards, any place that’ll have us, and not get in their way.”
Nino said Not Green Day, making its first appearance at Hollister Concerts, came highly recommended. Lead vocalist Cameron Moore describes the band as “just four guys celebrating the music we love.”
Moore and guitarist Mark Brown actually met while attending what was, for both of them, their first Green Day concert. It was a particularly memorable one for Moore, who found himself invited onstage by the band’s lead singer, Billie Joe Armstrong.
“He got to a point in one song where he said, ‘Who knows the words?’’ Moore said. “He pointed to me, and three giant men picked me up and popped me on stage. Before I knew it, I was standing face to face with my musical hero.”
He said Armstrong asked him, “You swear to God you know the words of this song?” and handed him the microphone. At the end of the performance, Armstrong told Moore to do a stage dive, and he crowd-surfed, carried by the audience, all the way to the back of the venue.
“It was a very quick thing that I’ll remember forever,” he said. “But as daunting as meeting Billie Joe was, the most overwhelming part of that whole experience was looking out and seeing that many people in front of me and the pyro behind me.”
Moore said that when he was eight years old, Green Day was the entry point into a world of music that he didn’t know existed.
“To me,” he said, it’s about the stories that their songs tell and the emotions and feelings that come with them. I don’t get that with any other bands.”
Moore said that he does not see his band as a traditional cosplaying tribute to an artist but rather as four individuals playing the music “straight up” and with no gimmicks.
“There are tribute bands that will dress up and think they are those people,” he said, “but that’s the last thing that we want to do. We want to remain authentic to ourselves while celebrating this music in the truest sense.”
Moore said the authenticity that Not Green Day strives for is one key reason its fans value them.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “we’re a punk band. And one of the least punk things you can do is pretend to be someone else. It’s all about individuality and being yourself.”
Hollister Concerts has added three “balcony seating” areas this season, located at the top of the natural amphitheater.
Each area can be reserved through the concert website for $400 and includes a commanding view of the stage, a charcuterie board, a round of drinks and 10 chairs. (Tickets are not included.)
Vendors at the show include the Hapa Bros, Steak Stop and Mattia Pizza. Beverages, including wine from Pepper Tree Ranch’s Guerra Cellars, are available near the entrance and at stage level.
Remaining shows in the Hollister Concert series:
- 08/02: Swift Nation, a tribute to Taylor Swift, and No Duh, a tribute to No Doubt
- 08/23: Queen Nation, a tribute to Queen, and Fleetwood Mask a tribute to Fleetwood Mac
- 09/13: Toby, a tribute to Toby Keith, and Cash’d Out, a tribute to Johnny Cash
Concert tickets are $42 and can be purchased online, at Diaz Liquors (1709 Airline Hwy, Hollister) and at the venue (subject to availability). Tickets for children 4-12 are $10.
The gates, located at Pepper Tree Ranch, 500 John Smith Road in Hollister, open at 5 p.m. Parking is $10 (cash) and the show begins at 6:30 p.m.
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