Hotel California

Authenticity Drives Original Eagles Tribute Band

Aside from a deep love of the band, there’s one main driving force behind the longest-running Eagles tribute band, Hotel California: authenticity.

“I started it in like ‘86,” says Michael Dimoulas, Hotel California coowner and band member. “Nobody was doing it back then, and it was quite the challenge, with all the vocals, and all the guitar work. Every single instrument has its own little melody, basically, in their music, and their stuff is brilliant.”

Recreating the music of Eagles, Dimoulas says, is an involved process. It includes a lot of rehearsals, and an eye for detail in terms of not only how things are played, but how things sound. “You’ve really gotta sit down and meticulously listen to every part,” he says. “Some people, when they do top 40 and stuff like that, they’ll learn a song, but they’ll sort-of learn it and add little things of their own in there. We go note-for-note. Everything is exactly like the record.”

Hotel California has found a lot of success since it formed, as well: the band plays about 150 shows a year, many of which sell out. “I think their music just really sets off a lot of moods,” Dimoulas says of the enduring popularity of Eagles. “A lot of people come out that have gone through things in their lives, and their music really hits a lot of emotions.”

“We’ve been told this many times—they come out and they’re like ‘This brought back so many memories of my late husband,’ let’s say, or as a child, or so forth,” Dimoulas says. “And you know what’s incredible is also the younger generation comes out, because they’ve listened to the music through their parents, and they’re loving it. They’re being introduced to some fantastic music.”

Hotel California plays the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium on December 18.

“You’ve really gotta sit down and meticulously listen to every part.”