Was Beatles tribute any good? Yeah, yeah, yeah

Monday, January 31, 2005 By JOHN A. ZUKOWSKI The Express-Times

"Why Beatles music?" Fab Faux bassist Will Lee asked Saturday night from the stage of Easton's State Theatre.

"It's the best," a reply came from the audience.

It sure seemed that way Saturday and Sunday nights at the State Theatre when the Beatles tribute band performed two complete Beatles albums along with other Beatles classics.

Numerous nostalgia acts have performed Beatles songs over the years. But none of them has the musical credibility of the Fab Faux, which painstakingly recreates even the most complex Beatles songs live.

The band led by Lee, the bass player on "The Late Show with David Letterman," performed all of the songs on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album Saturday night. It returned to play the "Abbey Road" album Sunday night. On both nights the group added other Beatles songs.

The concerts were probably a curiosity to Beatles diehards because the Beatles never performed any songs from "Sgt. Pepper" or "Abbey Road" live on the road (the Beatles stopped touring in 1966 before those albums were recorded.)

But after hearing those two albums along with other Beatles songs performed, the concert became something more.

It was an affirmation that the Beatles were the most influential and creative rock band musicians ever. The shows also turned into a mini-celebration for audience members who cheered familiar sections of Beatles songs from the trumpet solo in "Penny Lane" to the layers of harmonies in "Paperback Writer."

This weekend's concerts showed just how exciting Beatles songs are when performed live.

With a string section frantically playing behind them, a version of "I Am the Walrus" was ferocious and made most contemporary music seem tame. The emotional "Strawberry Fields Forever," written about John Lennon's childhood, was riveting. And the Fab Faux showed how the Beatles were the likely inspiration for punk music when the group performed loud versions of "Revolution" and "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey."

The concerts also reassured fans that "Sgt. Pepper" and "Abbey Road" remain two of rock's best albums.

Hearing "Sgt. Pepper" in its entirety Saturday night revealed a diverse range of musical styles that is astounding nearly 40 years later.

There was the dance-hall song "When I'm 64," the ballad "She's Leaving Home," and the Indian-influenced "Within You Without You." To faithfully recreate those songs, the Fab Faux was augmented by clarinets, a harpist and one band member played a sitar.

But the experimentation on "Sgt. Pepper" doesn't mean it still didn't have catchy pop.

"Lovely Rita," "Getting Better," and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" remain some of the most melodic pop songs ever written. The closing "A Day in the Life" is probably the album's highlight and a performance of the song showed it as an innovative pop symphony that has never been equaled.

While "Sgt. Pepper" is rich in diverse musical styles, the "Abbey Road" performance Sunday night showed the Beatles could still perform straightforward rock and pop.

It was John Lennon's idea to have the first side of "Abbey Road" be individual songs and Paul McCartney's idea to have the songs on the second side run together into a kind of symphony.

So audience members heard songs such as "Come Together" and "Oh! Darling" that still stand out on their own. But they also heard the album's collection of songs that run together on the second part of the album.

The Fab Faux also occasionally performs the entire Beatles "White Album" live.

So after performing two Beatles albums live in Easton, one hopes they will return sometime to the State Theatre to play that classic album all the way through, too.