Last night I saw The Fab Faux at a free concert at the World Financial Center near Battery Park City. I was with friends who invited me to attend. As a lifelong Beatles fan, I was looking forward to seeing them perform, given the preconcert info I'd received from said friends: the Faux reproduce the Beatles' tunes as you hear them on their records, as close to a note-for-note reproduction as possible, and delivered by some of the best musicians around, including Will Lee (The Late Show with David Letterman) and Jimmy Vivino (Late Night With Conan O'Brien).

To put it bluntly, if you've seen any Beatles' tribute bands, no matter HOW good you thought they were, put them to bed, now. None of them can hold a candle to The Fab Faux. For one thing, all Beatles tribute bands always feature four musicians only only - they cannot play any of the Beatles' tunes which feature horns, strings, keyboards, special effects, etc. To wit: according to my friends, who have seen TFF a number of times, TFF shows are all different, and at some shows, they devote a performance to playing every song on a particular Beatles album, including - wait for it - The White Album. Uh huh. Yes, that means Revolution No 9, too. They've performed, in their entirety, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, Revolver, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Magical Mystery Tour, to name a few. They are often joined by a four-piece horn section (which includes Lew Soloff from Blood, Sweat and Tears), and a cello/violin group called Cream Tangerine.

Last night was a mixed-bag special (Note: H - Horns, S - Strings):

1. Any Time at All.
2. Revolution
3. Martha, My Dear (HS)
4. I Am The Walrus (HS)
5. Nowhere Man
6. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (note-for-note guitar solo by Vivino resulting is a standing ovation)
7. Tomorrow Never Knows
8. Penny Lane (H)
9. Got To Get You Into My Life (H)
10. Good Morning, Good Morning (H)
11. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Reprise (HS)
12. A Day in the Life (HS)
ENCORE
13. Paperback Writer
14. Everybody's Got Something To Hide (Except For Me and My Monkey)
15. Helter Skelter