You may say I'm a dreamer

Ahh, the cover band. The chameleons of music. By taking the appearance of a successful band, they are able to enjoy success without any origniality of their own. Usually, a cover band is nothing but a bunch of guys who lack the talent or wherewithal to create anything of their own, so they usurp the material of musicians they admire. More often than not, the result is a sad retread, as the players perform 'tributes' to their idols, and ruin those songs for fans. But other times, when the band has so much respect for the material, you get to see something special. I went to see Rain: The Beatles Experience on Saturday night at the Orpheum Theatre, and those boys know how to pay tribute. The band has been around in different forms since the mid-70's, doing cover performances. The members of the Broadway production Beatlemania joined up and with just one change since then, the current lineup has been together since 1997. The band includes Joey Curatolo, a Brooklynite who taught himself guitar at 10, and portrays Paul McCartney. Steve Landes, from Philly, does a dead-on John Lennon, and also taught himself guitar at the age of 10. Joe Bithorn, from Manhattan, makes his guitar weep as George Harrison, and is also a self-taught guitarist at a young age (I sense a pattern). Ralph Castelli, a Los Angelino, played drums at 6 years old, and now masters Ringo Starr's brand of precise, cadenced drumming. The band was started and kept on track by keyboardist Mark Lewis, who plays piano and inserts whatever background instruments are necessary, like orchestral violins or the sound effects on "Day in the Life". We'll call him the George Martin of Rain.

Not only does the band painstakingly recreate the music, chord for chord, but they also recreate the atmosphere of the time periods. For example, when they do their first set, they are dressed like the Fab Four as they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and they play songs like "Twist and Shout" and "That Boy". Then they changed into different suits to play their next set, the 'Shea Stadium set', with hits like "Day Tripper" and "Ticket to Ride". Then they were transformed into the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Tribute Band, neon silk suits, mustaches and all. They played songs like "Day in the Life" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" while a modified version of the famous album cover graced the screen above them. Following a short intermission, they play the 'Summer of Love set', when the boys were transformed by spiritual reawakening, playing songs like "All You Need is Love" and "I Am the Walrus". They played a short acoustic, "jam session" where songs were bandied about, like "Blackbird" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Then they changed again into their more demure Abbey Road outfits to play the rest of the show, including "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun". They played a whole slew of songs. I didn't keep track during the show, but I think I can remember this list. Keep in mind that the list is not perfect, and far from ordered correctly, but here you are, nonetheless.

Set 1:
"All My Loving"
"I Saw Her Standing There"
"Twist and Shout"
"That Boy"

Set 2:
"Day Tripper"
"Drive My Car"
"Yesterday"

Set 3:
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
"With a Little Help From My Friends"
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
"Day in the Life"

Set 4:
"Penny Lane"
"Hello Goodbye"
"I Am the Walrus"
"Blackbird"
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
"All You Need is Love"

Set 5:
"Come Together"
"Something"
"Here Comes the Sun"
"Across the Universe"
"Revolution"
"Get Back"
"Golden Slumbers medley"

Encores:
"Imagine"
"Let It Be"
"Hey Jude"

I'm pretty sure I got most, if not all of them, and let me tell you, it's a pretty solid playlist to hear in concert, considering the last single the Beatles played in concert was 1966's "Paperback Writer". They never had the headache of trying to adapt the complex sounds of Sgt. Pepper's into a live performance. But Rain did, and did admirably. The crowd was a mixture of aging hipsters and the under-20 set, with a liberal sprinkling of Gen-Xer's for good measure. The band kept things going between songs with light banter, in perfect Liverpudlian accents, and kept people enteratined between sets with footage of the changing eras. It's amazing how much the world changed within the eight years the Beatles were together. From the button-down straight-laced early sixties, to the Summer of Love, to Vietnam. They also played some ads from back then, including one hilarious one, where Fred and Barney, who can't stand to see their wives working so hard, decide to take a break in the backyard, and light up some Winston's, with their smooth menthol flavour.

The key to a good tribute band is the level of commitment. When you see some subpar musicians in full KISS getups, you have to give props for the effort, but it's still crappy sounding. When I saw Micheal White and the White, they didn't give two shits about looking like Led Zepplin, but they rocked so hard, nobody cared. The boys in Rain have it down on both counts. They play the Beatles music tighter than the Fab Four themselves would, I'd wager, since these guys are trying so hard to nail the studio sound, whereas John would come on stoned and wank his way through it, while George would just be put out by the whole thing. Plus, they have the look and performance down pat. It's like a dream world, where Lennon wasn't shot, and Harrison wasn't stabbed and everybody got along and just played their bloody hearts out. And that's the greatest tribute of all.