U2 Cover Band Hits the Right Chords with Local Crowds

By Alastair Bland

If they look like U2 and sound like U2, they must be Zoo Station.

This four-piece rock band, with three of its members based in the Inner Sunset District, has been jamming since 2002 with the bold-faced objective of imitating as closely as possible the look, feel, attitude and sound of Ireland's most well-known rock group.

On all fronts, Zoo Station has succeeded, as their success and growth in the past six years demonstrates. Numerous other U2 tribute bands around the nation hash out the songs of one of the world's most successful musical forces, but Zoo Station, named after the first song on U2's 1991 album "Achtung Baby," has cornered the Northern California market.

The group occasionally tours as far away as Portland, but the band more commonly sticks to a tight periphery that includes a dozen regular venues between Sacramento, Petaluma and San Jose. The band played its first gig at the Inner Richmond's Ireland's 32 in mid-2002. At the time, Zoo Station was still a rusty neighborhood cover band, four men in their late 20s performing in street clothes and without any great ambitions.

The group's musical likeness to U2, however, which had just finished a large and well-received world tour, sparked a relationship with the neighborhood pub that would foster the Zoo Station's continual development in the coming years.

"Ireland's 32 is sort of our home," said Skott Bennett, the band's drummer. "It's where we'll test out new concepts and ideas. It's where we'll play a new song that we haven't played live before, and we figure, 'If no one at Ireland's 32 cares, no one else will.'"

As the band's Bay Area following gained force, Zoo Station pursued the theme of diligently mimicking U2's performances and personas.

In 2003, the members took on their current stage names. Singer Joshua Fryvecind became Bonalmost, a plain reference to Bono. Bennett became Barely Larry after Larry Mullen Jr. Guitarist Mike Horne took up The Sledge, an easy rhyme with The Edge. And bassist Scotty Schulman adopted Adamesque after U2's Adam Clayton. One night at Ireland's 32, Fryvecind, who bears a similar stature and complexion to Bono, wore a pair of enormous black Bone-esque sunglasses onstage.

"We got such a reaction to that from the crowd that we couldn't ignore it," Bennett recalls.

Costumes followed.

"The whole act became contagious," said Fryvecind. "People just ate it up more and more."

Zoo Station eventually began to play theme shows, including full album covers and live concert reenactments, in which the band imitates from start to finish specific U2 concerts made famous among U2 fans by various live performance video releases. Such shows often place the heaviest demands on Fryvecind, who works the stage with as much theatric gusto as his rock and roll-politico counterpart Bono.

Musically, Horne plays a major role in the band as he employs a multitude of effects pedals to emulate the echoing, thick sound for which The Edge has become almost instantly recognizable in the universe of rock.

Schulman performs backing vocals to bolster Fryvecind's voice, and Bennett plays the drums and works an onstage laptop computer, which lights up the stage's backdrop with fast-paced animation and video footage. The whirling light show occurs in sync with the band's music and includes images and slogans used in the past by U2 during its own tours.

"Blackthorn Tavern and Ireland's 32 are great for up-close rock and roll, but Slims is really good for the big shows and multimedia effects," said Fryvecind.

U2 itself has toned down the scope of its once-huge world tours, like Zoo TV and Popmart of the '90s, but Zoo Station still plays periodic shows that replicate past U2 eras.

"It's our job, among other things, to bring back and preserve the history of U2," said Fryvecind. "It would just be silly if they did that themselves. Their job is to play new music and do new things, but by dressing up and doing what U2 once did, we're keeping alive the essence of U2's live concert history."

Schulman, 30, has been an avid U2 fan for more than 20 years, and it was he who founded the band in 2001 when he posted a note on craigslist, seeking other musicians interested in jamming U2 songs for fun.

"It's hard to believe that this thing has gone as far as it has," said Schulman. "When I started I was hoping to find a few guys with musical interests like my own and form our own band. But we ended up on this track."

Zoo Station plays as many as 10 public and private shows per month, including occasional gigs at the famed Slim's. As their local popularity and their repertoire of nearly 140 songs continues to grow, Fryvecind acknowledges that U2 will someday retire from the world music scene. But Zoo Station's future, he says, remains wide open.

"We'll still love the music, so it becomes a question of whether other people will want to hear it. I think they always will," he said.

Zoo Station will be performing at Slims on Saturday, Jan. 5, at 8 p.m., and at the Hard Rock Cafe at Pier 39 in February. For more information, go to the band's Web site at www.zoostation-online.com.