He’s Covered

Spencer Patterson

Friday, March 26, 2004 | 4:45 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

March 27 - 28, 2004

Who: Yellow Brick Road.

When: 9 p.m. Tuesdays.

Where: The Club at the Cannery.

Admission: Free.

Information: 507-5700.

When: 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Where: Boulder Station's Railhead.

Admission: Free.

Information: 432-7777.

So you're not quite ready to plunk down $100-$250 to see Elton John's "The Red Piano," much as you'd like to hear him sing "Tiny Dancer"?

Try visiting Boulder Station's Railhead on a Friday or Saturday night, or The Club at the Cannery on a Tuesday.

You're likely to get your dose of John, along with some Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Van Halen, courtesy of popular local classic rock tribute band Yellow Brick Road.

Initially conceived as an Elton John cover outfit by founder Brody Dolyniuk in 1997, YBR has spent most of its lifetime performing songs by most of the popular artists from the 1970s and beyond.

Along with Dolyniuk, who handles lead vocals, Yellow Brick Road's current lineup includes: guitarist Mark Cole, keyboardist Todd Rogers, drummer James Sloan and bassist David St. John, formerly of local Beatles tribute band The Fab.

Last week, the band's 34-year-old frontman took time for a phone interview with the Las Vegas Sun:

Las Vegas Sun: What were you doing before you created Yellow Brick Road?

Brody Dolyniuk: I moved to Las Vegas in 1991 (from Southern California), and I really hadn't thought about a musical career until I got here.

Then one night I stumbled into New York-New York, and strolled past the little bar. I heard music coming out and peeked my head in and noticed two piano players and the crowd enthusiasm and the singalong, and I really got interested in it.

So I had my own dueling piano experience, went on a brief tour for about six months, and by the time I got back to Vegas I was looking for something a little bit bigger and better to do.

Sun: How did you tap Elton's catalog for your cover band?

BD: While I was doing the piano thing I kind of developed a niche for doing Elton John songs. It even got to where I was putting on glasses and getting into the chararacter a little bit. And people were digging that.

So when I got back to Vegas I kind of jumped on the tribute band bandwagon. I decided if there's a Beatles tribute in town and if there's an Eagles tribute in town there might as well be an Elton John tribute band.

Sun: How did that turn into a classic rock cover band?

BD: In those days we had to do three or four one-hour sets each night, so we found ourselves looking for other material to do. We expanded into covering other groups like Led Zeppelin and a lot of the '70s rock icon bands.

Sun: Is there any concern people who aren't Elton John fans might assume Yellow Brick Road is still an Elton tribute act and stay away?

BD: We recently had a visitor on our website who said, "I'd actually heard your name over at Boulder Station, but I didn't bother to show up because I thought it was an Elton John tribute band and I'm not really that into Elton John."

But we've already developed the name, and most people still identify Yellow Brick Road as the classic rock band. If we changed our name now, there'd be a lot of people going, "Where's that band that we liked?"

Sun: Southern Nevada is home to a lot of tribute acts. How have you guys been able to distinguish yourselves?

BD: Yellow Brick Road tries to be a tribute to every artist they cover. A lot of tribute bands will get the look down but not necessarily the sound and sometimes vice versa.

What we try to do is sonically recreate every nuance and every detail of a record and do it live. So it involves a process of extracting all the sounds from the song, really dissecting and listening to it, and then a lot of programming and sound recreation and vocal inflections and things like that.

Then I kind of take it another step further with some antics and some costumes and some little impersonation bits that I do, just to make it tongue in cheek. I try to get the crowd involved in what we're doing and singing along.

Sun: So you do costume changes during your show?

BD: Only if the frontman was a character, like Mick Jagger or Ozzy Osbourne or David Lee Roth or Steven Tyler. Or Freddie Mercury -- I'll throw on a little fake moustache every now and then and strut around.

Sun: What's some of the toughest stuff for you to recreate vocally?

BD: I'd say some of the Rush material. Geddy (Lee) can be a little tricky sometimes. And Journey -- the Steve Perry stuff is at the very top of my register.

I just started doing (AC/DC's) "Back in Black" and I need to stop doing it. It's not easy. But it's been going over pretty well, and I haven't had any (vocal) damage yet.

Sun: You're actually a little young to have grown up listening to 1970s songs ...

BD: It's funny because I went to school in the '80s. And while most of my peers were listening to the Cure and New Wave and stuff like that, I was burning out my Boston cassette tape and Van Halen and Rush.

I formed my first band for a high school talent show and we did "Tom Sawyer" from Rush and "Jump" from Van Halen, so this has been the music of my life. It's been in my blood for a long time, and it's kind of funny that I managed to find a way to make a living doing it 20 years later.

Sun: Is this a full-time gig for the five of you?

BD: It is. We're lucky enough that we can focus on this only.

Vegas is probably the only place where we could do what we do and make a living at it. The casino budget is better than what any tavern would be be able to cough up, because casinos rely on gambling to make their money, not bar tabs.

Anywhere else we'd be a bar band and we'd have day jobs. And there's nothing wrong with that, but we're very lucky to be able to do what we do.