All fab, no faux at Community Y benefit

By Sandi Carpello
The Hub, New Jersey :: 4th July 2003

RED BANK — "It’s getting hard to be someone, but it all works out," sang the Fab Faux at last week’s benefit concert for the Red Bank Community YMCA.

The Beatles tribute band played before a sold-out crowd of Beatlemaniacs at the Count Basie Theatre Saturday night, raising $80,000 for the YMCA’s youth-based programs and the Red Bank Education and Development Initiative.

Even Sid Bernstein, the 1960s concert promoter who first brought the Beatles to Shea Stadium and Carnegie Hall, was there to show support.

Like the original Strawberry Fields — a Liverpool children’s home where John Lennon played as a child and later immortalized in a song — the Red Bank Community YMCA youth-based services and programs aim to reach local underprivileged children.

"Every dollar raised goes directly to family services," said YMCA board member and concert coordinator Rusty Young. "In the end, ‘the love you take is equal to the love you make.’ Everything given is greatly appreciated by those you give it to."

The Fab Faux — Late Night With David Letterman’s Will Lee (on bass and vocals), the Conan O’Brien Show’s Jimmy Vivino (on keys, guitar and vocals), drummer Rich Pagano, guitarist Frank Agnello, and Jack Petruzzelli (keyboards, guitar and vocals) — opened the two-hour sold-out show with a faultless rendition of "Paperback Writer."

Feeding off the Count Basie’s hyperactive crowd and the super loud acoustics, the five-man band switched vocals and instrumentals on accurate renditions of such harmony driven songs as "I Am the Walrus" and "Sexy Sadie."

Vivona took lead vocals on "Yellow Submarine," and Jack Petruzelli led the band on "Hey Jude." Armed with megaphones and glittering tambourines, the band was joined by trumpet and saxophone quartet The Hogshead Horns and string duet The Creme Tangerine Strings, reaching a double-tracked effect on covers of "Penny Lane," "Lady Madonna" and "The Savoy Truffle."

"What is it about these old songs?" Lee asked. "After all these years, we are still trying to get them right."

Devoted to the accurate reproduction of Beatles repertoire, the five-year-old band have caused a buzz among Beatle fans, flooding venues like the Bowery Ballroom and Irving Plaza in New York City.

For the past two summers, the band performed in the Beatles’ hometown of Liverpool, England, performing concerts as part of Beatle Week festivities, including an outdoor concert before 35,000 people on the Yellow Submarine Stage.