Eight Gigs: The Killer Queens

It's no small ambition to cover legendary British rock band Queen; frontman Freddie Mercury's voice was nothing short of epic, and the band wrote some of the most raucous, multifaceted music of its time. The Killer Queens, an all-female cover band hailing from San Jose, cleverly diverge from what makes most cover bands a snooze in that its goal isn't to replicate the songs but to play them as they will. The five-piece puts a modern-rock spin on the oft-theatrical tendencies of the originals, and a listener less familiar with Queen's catalog might hear them play and think, “Hey, these women make a really good rock band.” (Which they do.) 2708 J Street, www.thekillerqueens.com.