Follow up to my original post.....
Wow. Much respect for Tribute bands after seeing The Purple Experience in ATL. They had a "cover" band open the show, who played 80s' rock hits, and they were pretty good. But the The Purple Experience tribute band was exceptionally good and put on a helluva show. Jerry Fink, the "Doctor" who was the keyboard player for 12 years with The Revolution and appeared in the movie, "Purple Rain" was on stage and the band introductions included a brief resume of the bands and artists that each member performed with during the years. Michael Charles, the "Prince" character was outstanding. Needed to work a little on his dance steps, but his vocals, guitar and piano peformance, costumes and interaction with the crowd had me believing for a second or two that he was Prince reincarnated. These guys had the crowd of about 1,300 people really into the show and eating out of the palm of their hands.
Now that I've seen my first Tribute band, I'm tempted to check out the Austrailian Pink Floyd Tribute band when they roll through ATL in a few weeks. And as I said in my first sentence, I now have new found respect for tribute bands and can clearly see the distinction between tribute and cover bands.