Reliving the past

Last night, I went out the Genius and some friends to Slim's in the city by a bay and saw Cowboys From Hell, Blood Red and Damage Inc. All metal bands with one thing in common, they're all cover bands.
Anyway, Cowboys From Hell covers Pantera, Blood Red overs Slayer, and Damage Inc. covers Metallica.
On a critical level, CBH left me a little flat. For one, I didn't realize Pantera had such a following that would evoke a cover/tribute band. Two, the sound was off, the drummer sucked and his drumset sucked. Three, without looking at their history, I would say that Pantera came out some time in the late 80's. By that time, I probably already had my metal jones and wasn't quite that into it and my metal experience was now encapsulated in an early 80's vacuum. That's not their fault, CBH put out a valiant effort and ended their session with some nice tunes. By that time, me and Genius went down by the stage where the accoustics improved dramatically and the band sounded much better.
Blood Red was cool. Slayer was a mainstay on my playlist of the early 80's. My only gripe was that the lead singer couldn't match the vocal intensity of one, Tom Araya (who can?).
I must admit I was impressed with Damage Inc. With an ensemble that included a guy who looked like a guy I use to work with at the House That Ben Franklin Built (the Cliff Burton character), a guy who looked like the guy who fixed my washer a couple of months ago (imitation Kirk Hammett), fat James Hetfield and Asian Lars, Damage Inc. belted out early Metallica that was true to the music and the intensity of that music. Damage Inc. reaffirms the notion that their are guys out there like me who yearn for a Metallica who once upon a time played nothing but kick ass music w/o regard to progression and musical creativity.
In my opinion, that is why Slayer will always be a better band than Metallica. Dude, it's fuckin' metal, just play. Stop gigging with the San Francisco Symphony.
The other issue here is the whole concept of a cover/tribute band. I feel that as an artist, it must be such a compromise to have to resort to playing other people's materials. By the same token, there are probably some of these bands who do this for the sheer love of the music. They would have to. How can you make money from doing this? The best thing about the cover/tribute band is that they keep the music alive and keeps old farts like me lovin' the music.