Eric Blowtorch, who plays original music with his band Eric Blowtorch and the Inflammables, says many original bands bypass Brew City while on tour, leaving local concert goers with fewer chances to see original acts and to get to know their music.

"So many great and/or popular bands skip Milwaukee on their tours, have lousy live shows or don't exist anymore," says Blowtorch.

"I will follow ..."

For some live music lovers, it's more fun to see a band in a packed club, no matter how sweaty or smoky. It's almost a chicken-and-egg situation: People go to see cover bands because they think there'll be a huge audience and, consequently, there is.

"It allows a person to be part of a greater experience where they are one of 300 to 500 people packed together," says Lang. "The cover bands draw the crowds, and that is what people want to be a part of."

"A person turning 21 isn't necessarily going to go to listen to live music for the music. They go to where the party is and that's where the cover bands come in," says Hauser.

"Milwaukee has no artistic imagination," says Benske.

"... It's the end of the world as we know it"

Some tribute groups say the days of live music are forked because there aren't enough gigs to accommodate the glut of local bands, both tribute and original.

"Live music, in general, has taken a big hit over the past 10 years. There simply aren't as many venues for a band of any type to perform," says Hauser. "Plus, kids aren't raised on live music these days. Very few schools have bands for the dances. Hip-hop and DJ scenes are a pretty big thing right now."

According to Guy Fiorentini of the all-original band Salt Creek and a guitar teacher, many fresh music enthusiasts are approaching music in a high-tech way.

"Digital editing has created the illusion of perfection, so much so that a live performance by many bands might pale in comparison to their CD, says Fiorentini.

"I think a lot of the people who might have been guitarists or drummers 20 years ago are now DJs, MCs, and producers. Hip-hop has replaced rock as the soundtrack for the zeitgeist."

It's possible that the lack of Milwaukee bands making it into the mainstream, MTV world recently might have people less pumped about live performances. It's been a while since Milwaukeeans vicariously celebrated stardom through a band of our own, like BoDeans, the Violent Femmes or Citizen King.

"Take me to the place I love, take me all the way"

For most rockers, it doesn't matter if they're playing the Marcus Amphitheater or St. Mark's Festival. It's still their chance to live the dream and play rock star for a couple of hours.

"I have even seen some cover bands here in Milwaukee being idolized like 'real' original touring rock bands. It's wild," says Lang.

The thrill of seeing fans respond frenetically, to sing along with lyrics (even if someone else wrote them) is, undeniably, a total rush. "It sounds cliché, but so long as the crowd is putting off energy, it's very easy to give it back," says Goldenstone.

On the other hand, Benske says it wasn't until he gave up on the rock star dream that he could stomach being in a cover band.

"We, especially guitar players, all had the dream of going on road and touring, but then reality sets in and life sets in, and it's time to grow up," he says. "Everybody has a window of opportunity, a time where they're a lot more comfortable eating soup in a van, sleeping in a van and using their coat as a pillow."

"Who are you? (Who, who? Who, who?)"

Eventually, most cover bands want to play their own stuff and many of them do.

"If we want to play an original tune, we do it. Although we're known as a cover band, we've managed to release two CDs of original material and have sold more than 10,000 copies," says Hauser.

Some cover bands are born out of a passion for a particular band or genre, some out of the desire to make money or big-fish fame, but ironically, for Uselman, it was a way to cut loose and flip off the music industry.

"When we were in an all-original band touring the country, our manager, our agent, our promoter and our record company were all treating us like little puppets. You always had to be 'on' and 'marketable.' It was extremely controlling, and we were the most unlike ourselves we've ever been," says Uselman. "Now, I'm actually 100 times more myself than I ever was in an original band."

Meaghan Owens of the all-original acoustic duo Beautiful Pollution is deeply committed to writing and creating new music. However, she says sometimes originality is compromised when money is involved.

"The nature of being original means you try and try to make something new. Then if you reach success your hit song becomes the one song you play for the rest of your life until you end up basically covering your own song," she says. "I mean once you've played it a million times it isn't your song so much as it's the fan's song."

"One love?"

It seems there will always be a "them vs. us" mentality between cover and original bands. Even though the line gets fuzzy, with original bands playing covers and cover bands playing their own songs, most groups are branded as one or the other.

How much friction really exists between cover and original bands, or can they actually work together?

"I think cover bands are in a position of more artistic power than they realize. They could join -- and strengthen -- the Musicians' Union, and encourage original artists to do the same. They could stipulate that original bands open up for them," says Blowtorch. "They don't have to be human jukeboxes."

Owens says the large venues and concert promoters need to help bridge the gap between the two genres. "Local original bands need more support from Summerfest and the larger venues where it's not always pay to play," she says.

Hauser sees a similarity between all bands, whether tribute or not.

"Cover and original bands both come together the same way and that's usually in somebody's basement working on material. There's no guarantee of life after the basement for either so getting out is usually a miracle and any band should pat themselves on the back for getting that far," says Hauser.