Meet the Billy Joel Tribute Band as they open Vampire Weekend at MSG

Tony Monaco makes piano cases. If you don’t know what a piano case is, it’s a wooden structure that houses an electric keyboard to make it look like a real piano.

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It’s a tribute to the piano, if you will.

Monaco’s profession is an apt metaphor for his other life as frontman for Turnstiles, a Billy Joel tribute band that will open for Vampire Weekend at Billy Joel’s mecca of concert halls: Madison Square Garden.

When Vampire Weekend posted the flyer for their Only God Was Above Us tour, a lot of people, including the current company, probably thought the opening act for “Turnstiles” for them in New York was a typo, and the Baltimore hardcore band turned festival. – Staple found himself on another high-profile bill.

No, it’s a Billy Joel tribute band from Florida, and Monaco couldn’t believe it either. Well, actually he didn’t really know What thinking when he got the call from someone from the Vampire Weekend camp, because he didn’t know who Vampire Weekend was at first.

“She basically said they wanted to bring us to New York to support Vampire Weekend. I didn’t know who they were,” he said. “She was talking about October. Vampire Weekend. I think it’s some kind of Halloween festival. I had no idea.”

Since then, he has done his homework.

“I actually like them,” he said. “And I mean, I’m not making them happy. They are really good. They are unique. They are really good. I’m impressed.

Monaco has been playing in bands since his first bands at Styx in the ’80s. He played in a few cover shows for parties and weddings before settling into what he calls an “age-appropriate” role with Turnstiles . He talks about veteran arena artists and household names like Vampire Weekend and Turnstile the same way he talks about “rival” tribute bands or other local artists in the Florida scene. He rejects his approval within reason. And despite his roots in Pittsburgh and his home in Florida, Monaco’s raspy, vocal low tones wouldn’t be out of place on a Sopranos binary character. Maybe it’s the time he spent on Long Island in between. He doesn’t gush and clearly sees the value of her praise. It’s just bands working in the same business, just in different rooms.

Monaco asked where the Vampire Weekend show would take place. The voice on the other end said, “MSG.”

“And I said, ‘Wait a second.’ By ‘MSG’, do you mean the little theater they have there?’ », says Monaco. He had just visited MSG in November to take his fiancée to see the real Billy Joel perform and saw a line for the smaller 5,000-seat theater attached to the iconic venue. “But she says, ‘No, no, no. It’s in the main arena. I thought, “Okay, well, this is interesting to say the least. » She said, “So, are you ready to do it?” I said, “Yeah! Hell yeah!’

Hell yeah.

Suddenly, Monaco and his band were signing NDAs to keep information about the tour from leaking and contracts for what he said was money but “not Vampire Weekend money.”

So how did Turnstiles, a Florida-headquartered tribute band with distinctly poor SEO in 2024, become on Vampire Weekend’s radar?

He knew there was a band with the same name after receiving texts from excited friends thinking he played Seth Meyers. After clarifying with Vampire Weekend management that they hadn’t accidentally sent an email to the wrong group, he got the confidence boost they wanted. him And his group.

Monaco says it turns out the Vampire Weekend guys are “big fans” – of Billy Joel, of course. And Turnstiles aren’t the only tribute band on the tour. Maya Rudolph’s Prince tribute band, Princess, plays two dates in Chicago. But, once again, it’s about the famous actress Maya Rudolph. The name Tony Monaco has less appeal at the moment.

But after studying the landscape of Billy Joel tribute bands, the folks at Vampire Weekend landed on Turnstiles.

“They ‘scoured’ – that’s their word – ‘scoured the Internet,’ and they found us and some other people I know who are also very good,” Monaco says. “They thought we were among the best. But what really sold them was our energy. They loved the energy of the group.

The world of tribute bands is different from other band rivalries. Oasis and Blur had their similarities, but they didn’t literally play the same songs. Tribute bands are sort of just regional variations of each other. Rival gangs selling the same product fight for territory. Monaco is diplomatic and respectful toward his competitors, many of whom he considers friends, but he’s also confident in what he does, so he doesn’t seem all that surprised until after the Vampire Weekend team runs through Internet, they landed on Turnstiles.

“We are all pros. We all know what we’re doing,” he says. “I think I have a great group. (…) And there are times when I listen to something that’s playing, like if we’re doing something here and they’re using a live clip of the band, and if I catch it and I don’t know if it’s It’s us, sometimes I think it’s Billy. And I say, ‘Oh, shit, it’s us!’

Turnstiles specializes in a very specific Billy Joel experience, rather than a faithful adaptation of the songs. That’s what separates a tribute band from a cover band, according to Monaco. He has the agency to put his own spin on things, interact with the crowd as himself much as much as a Joel-influenced character, and create a spectacle rather than fading into the background while the people mingle at a bar, a wedding or a fucking wine. mix on an island off the coast of Los Angeles

The money is also better in the tribute band world, he says.

And Monaco is a businessman. He works in business development for collision centers, where he travels and advises on efficiency and profitability. He brought that knowledge to his group, professionalizing and leveling up the entire operation when he could, such as renting a truck rather than just letting guys individually drive their equipment to shows like the competition does. And, after this traction from MSG, you can be sure it’s rethinking the pricing of turnstiles. He’s not in Ezra Koenig’s tax bracket, so every logistical element of show business and civilian life is meticulously considered.

“I’m constantly evaluating because, like anything else, I don’t know anything you’re doing that you haven’t paid more for,” he says. “We all pay more.”

He hopes these MSG shows will now open doors for the band. Bigger gigs with bigger salaries, and maybe even another chance to open for Vampire Weekend – again from his vision and experience in the music business, with the emphasis on ” business”, as in work, shows.

The MSG shows go well, they get along well, they keep in touch, and then…

‘Hey, Tony, one of our ushers backed out. Someone got COVID. They can’t travel. Can you guys do it?’ he hypothesizes. “I mean, it could happen.”

He could arrive. What’s more realistic is his alternate scenario, where the MSG suits take notice and start doing for him what they do for an Elton John tribute band he knows, which he says works more than anything another tribute band he knows through his partnership. with LiveNation.

If he can do it, Turnstiles can do it.

“I love this guy,” he says, before once again offering his matter-of-fact take on the competition.

“He’s good. He’s not great. He’s not great.

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