The topic of tribute bands has more often than not proved to be a controversial topic for me. That said, when it has come up in the R.E.M. fan community on FB I have always mentioned The Great Cover Up (held annually at Kings in Raleigh, NC) as an aspect of them I enjoy. That’s likely because most every performance is a one-off. The exception being, the most well received artists may perform again outside of The Great Cover Up but those are also one-offs. In other words, none of these artists continue on as tribute acts as a career. It’s all in the moment.
When I first moved to Raleigh in 2008 Kings had been torn down and had yet to reopen at its current location on Martin St. In the interim, Chris Tamplin staged a similar event at Tir na nOg (now defunct) called Raleigh Undercover. I attended a few Great Cover Ups at Kings but it has grown immensely popular over the years with lines around the block every night to get in (as you’ll see in the doc).
R.E.M. has definitely been done more than one year but the only one I’ve seen was via a live stream where one band did the early years and another did the latter years.
Link is to a stream of the doc.