The next best things

TAKING COVER

Regulars line the bar along one wall of the venerable Cantab Lounge (738 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 617-354-2685. cantablounge.com). Most have been there since the afternoon. But now it's Saturday night, and by 9 o'clock, the bar is packed with a very different crowd, as college types and young professionals file in.

It isn't the Bukowskian lowbrow ambience that brings them to this bar. The draw is obvious when the Cantab's regular Saturday night siren, Diane Blue, and the Fatback Band deliver a raw set of bluesy soul cover songs that even have the bar flies grooving.

Downstairs earlier in the evening, before the doors opened, that night's band was running through Steely Dan's ''Bodhisattva.'' But this wasn't another cover band. This was a Steely Dan tribute band called No Static, named for one of its hero's songs, as most tribute bands are.

The difference between cover and tribute bands can be defined, perhaps, by Mark Wahlberg's character Chris in the semi-reality film ''Rock Star'': ''We are not a cover band; we are a tribute band,'' he yells when his less-committed guitarist isn't playing with note-for-note accuracy. ''Rock Star'' is based on the real-life story of Judas Priest uber-fan Tim ''Ripper'' Owens, who performed in a Judas Priest cover band and then replaced Priest singer Rob Halford in the 1990s.

''I'd study the music note for note,'' says Chris in the movie, ''I'd copy every outfit, every look ...'' His eyes glaze over.

No Static guitarist Mitch Rodriguez has seen ''Rock Star'' and laughs at its mention.

''There's really no way to try and look like Steely Dan. They didn't have any kind of fashion sense,'' he says with a chuckle. No Static is more about playing the music well. ''We try to strike a balance between reproducing the tunes accurately and also adding our interpretation. Steely Dan does that live, too.'' No Static performs at the Acton Jazz Café on March 24 (452 Great Road, Acton. 978-263-6161).

No Static is in good company, too, as the tribute-band trend in Boston keeps growing. Backseat Lover replicates the music and vocal nuances of Pearl Jam with eerie accuracy. You can catch them at Copperfields (98 Brookline Ave., Boston. 617-247-8605) on March 31.

Joshua Tree retreads the jangle pop of U2 and plays Boston Billiards (126 Brookline Ave., Boston. 617-536-7665) on Saturday. No prizes for guessing what Playing Dead's repertoire is: the Grateful Dead tribute band plays Harpers Ferry (156 Brighton Ave., Allston. 800-594-8499) on March 16.

In January, Western Massachusetts-based Angry Chair, which performs the music of Alice in Chains, was pitted against the Canadian band Battery - the self-dubbed ''Master of Metallica,'' whose website misspells the name of Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett - in a ''tribute war'' play-off at the Middle East. Angry Chair plays tomorrow at Trumbulls (117 Main St., Spencer. 508-885-6901).

But whether it's Metallica or U2, it's all about passion. What brings the eight members of No Static together is a love of Steely Dan's music and of playing it.

''We have a connection to the music: its sophistication, the humor in a lot of the lyrics. The grooves that the studio musicians brought in are great, the textures,'' says Rodriguez. ''For us it's an appreciation for the music.''

IN TRIBUTE

Appreciation of an artist's work unites musicians and audience members at Club Passim's (47 Palmer St., Cambridge. 617-492-7679) regular Tribute Night series. These singer-songwriter affairs take place on the last Monday of each month and feature a dozen or so local singer-songwriters, each performing, usually, one or two songs of the featured artist. In January, the music of Peter Gabriel was examined, and at the end of February, it was John Prine's turn. Van Morrison gets the tribute treatment on March 26, and Elvis Costello's music is revised April 23.

Throughout February, Matt Murphy's Pub (14 Harvard St., Brookline. 617-232-0188) put a twist on the occasional student-related series it held in the past. This time, Berklee College of Music students were chosen to perform in tribute to an unusual lineup of artists, starting with Cat Power and continuing with Leonard Cohen, Elliott Smith, and finally Nick Drake.

Music booker and promotions manager Jason Waddleton sifted through demos from 35 students and chose nine to perform. The twist was that they had to include the featured artists' work among their own songs.

The Elliott Smith tribute night saw Matt Murphy's packed to the rafters. Zach Hillyard sat munching his pulled pork sandwich before he performed his set. He admitted that he didn't know who Elliott Smith was and that he had chosen to perform ''Between the Bars,'' one of Smith's older songs, because he knew singer Madeleine Peyroux's version.

''It's a really beautiful song. She does it so well,'' Hillyard said, adding that he intended to check out Smith's work. Smith's Grammy-nominated ''Miss Misery'' was playing discreetly on the sound system before this unusual evening of cross-pollination got underway. Not too many people paid it any attention. For these young musicians, discovering Smith is all well and good, but the agenda was more personal. ''I'm really doing this to play my songs,'' said Hillyard.

Waddleton is now lining up another tribute series to run every Monday in April. Titled ''Sixties American Icons,'' it begins with a Burt Bacharach salute (April 9) and, tentatively, will continue with salutes to Scott Walker and Glen Campbell.

In a fun twist on tributes, the Coolidge Corner Theatre (290 Harvard St., Brookline. 617-734-2500) turns the audience into performers at its midnight sing-alongs. Previous events have honored - or laid waste, depending on how you look at it - to the likes of R. Kelly and Michael Jackson, as well as musicals such as ''Hedwig and the Angry Inch'' and ''Moulin Rouge.'' The Coolidge's famously cultish ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' sing-along returns on April 14.

Frank Sinatra ranks alongside Elvis and the Beatles as one of the most-covered artists. One of Boston's longest-running tribute events is ''Sinatra Sundays'' at Lucky's Lounge (355 Congress St., Boston. 617-357-5825), which celebrates its fifth anniversary May 5.

This low-lit basement bar has great food and cocktails, such as the pretty pink raspberry-vodka concoction the ''Lady Luck.'' The lounge carries a real retro ambience that's perfect for these weekly shindigs: start with brunch, when the Bennett Miller Trio swings into action around noon. Then in the evening, around 8:30, the Al Vega Trio, fronted by vocalist Adam Herbert, kicks it up a notch.

But still, it's Sinatra songs through and through. Vega, an octogenarian veteran of Boston's jazz scene, has performed ''Sinatra Sundays'' since its inception, and he still kicks out those grooves with pizzazz. The song indeed remains the same. Clearly, that's exactly how both audience and performer like it.