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DULUTH — Hairball, the band known for recreating the visual and musical excess of glam rock's glory years, have booked a return to Bayfront Festival Park on July 3.
In a crowded landscape of cover bands, Hairball have distinguished themselves by the scale, energy and jukebox ambition of their live show, which sees the group cycle through closely observed performances evoking the flash and bombast of artists like Queen, KISS and Van Halen.
"The Hairball concert experience has been part of Duluth’s July 4 celebrations for a decade attracting upward of 8,000 people to Bayfront Festival Park," wrote the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, which manages Bayfront as an event space, in a news release.
Chris Kroeze, Bad Girlfriends and Disco Kingz will all play opening sets at the show on the eve of Independence Day, with a new "Hairball VIP experience" available to fans who pay a premium for "front of stage and on-stage access." The Hairball VIP experience also comes with VIP bars — and VIP bathrooms.
The Minnesota band's polished presentation has earned praise from some of the rock stars they emulate, like Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Prince covers have also been a staple of Hairball's show, engendering concerns when, in 2018, the band confirmed that vocalist Kris Vox, who is white, had used skin-darkening makeup to portray the late Black music icon.
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Hairball eschew terms like "tribute band." According to their website, "Hairball is an experience, an attitude, and expression of music that isn't simply a retro flashback, it's a way of life!"
After last year's return to summer festivities in the wake of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Duluth's Fourth of July weekend festivities will be in full swing again this year. Bayfront alone, in addition to the Hairball show and the Duluth Fourth Fest, will host a July 1 Bayfront Country Jam and a July 2 concert yet to be announced, according to the venue's website. Meanwhile, animatronic dinosaurs will be afoot inside the DECC itself.
Hairball tickets ($25-$65, depending on date of purchase and VIP perks) go on sale to the public Friday at 10 a.m. For information and details on a "Friends of the DECC" presale, see decc.org.
