They Aren’t The Beatles, They’re The Fab Four
I should say this right up front: I'm not a big 'tribute concert' kind of guy. Over the past four plus decades in radio, I've seen quite a few concerts by tribute artist's. I remember when Elvis left the planet back in 1977 the world was inundated with Elvis Impersonator's (and still is). I saw a few of them in and around South Dakota and the Upper Midwest and, well, for many of them....if you had a few (and maybe a few more) brews and sat in the back, yeah, that might be somebody who kind of looks and kind of sounds like Elvis.
So when I saw a Beatles tribute band was going to be at Jackpot Junction, I was, well, skeptical. While I am a country old boy through and through, there was a day (like most of the rest of the world) when i was a Beatles fan. Yep, it was back when I was a little fella, cute as a bugs rear-end and saw the Lads from Liverpool on the Ed Sullivan Show. Now, if you wear a little age on your bones like I do and you were old enough, you saw them, too. Everyone did.
At any rate, I don't need to detail the Beatles career. Suffice to say they're legendary and leave it at that.
Anyway, so when I walked into the auditorium at Jackpot Junction, a place that seats...oh, I don't know, maybe a thousand?...I was ready to be unimpressed.
By the time I walked out, I was 'WOW!' It was beyond good. In addition to having the sound and voices down pat, there was a bunch of added 'extra's', nuances that totally filled out a great show. In fact, 'Ed Sullivan' came out first to introduce the 'four youngsters', and 'Ed' was spot-on with his Sullivan caricature. The stage was flanked by two large screens which not only gave great camera angles to the stage and band, but added scenes from 'Beatle-Mania' and more.
Then the Fab Four opened the show with what I would call the first-half of the Beatles career. This video below taken a few years earlier perfectly illustrates what they did and how they sounded.
One of the coolest things about the show was that these four guys did all...I mean all...the music live. There were no pre-recorded instruments or voices. What we saw (and heard) was there on the stage.
The lights went down and the video screens were filled with reminisces of the Beatles by fans from around the world, both heartfelt and funny. It wasn't very long, just several minutes and then the lights came back up on stage and the Beatles...oops, I mean the Fab Four launched into the 'second-half' of the Beatles career, opening with 'Strawberry Fields'. And once again, they were spot-on.
The one 'non Beatles' song they did was Lennon's anthem 'Imagine', and they closed the show (of course) with 'Hey Jude' and had the entire audience singing along.
So okay, this skeptical 'ol dog was beyond impressed. While I thought we'd probably see 4 guys doing a less than pale imitation of the Lads from Liverpool, what we got was a fantastic tribute that truly honored the band and their music. And later, i found out why.
These guys have played in Vegas for years, at places like the Aladdin, the Hilton, the Sahara and the Riviera, as well as toured the world. Oh, and while they are based out of California, they mentioned from the stage that 'George' was from....get ready for it...Liverpool!
So the bottom line is this: We're all classic country fans, but if there was a day that you loved the Beatles and you'd like to, at least for a couple hours, go back to those days of yore, well check these guys out.
You won't be disappointed.
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