The best Beatles tribute band in the world is coming to Rochester
When the Beatles packed up everything from their impromptu final show atop the Apple building in 1969, it left the door open for countless tribute bands to keep Beatlemania alive. Different Beatles tribute groups have come and gone, some better than others, but one will make you think you’re watching the real thing — and they’re coming to town this week.
The Fab Four will make their return to Rochester this Friday with a show lined up at Mayo Civic Center’s Dr. Charles H. Mayo Presentation Hall, presented by Riverside Concerts. Their show is renowned for its remarkable attention to detail and versatility within the Beatles’ massive discography, playing songs the original band never performed live themselves. Their precise and joyous act started in 1998 and has allowed the group to play to audiences around the world in the past two-plus decades.
Need to know more before you’re convinced? Here’s a few things to know about the people behind what they call “the ultimate Beatles tribute.”
Headlines of their own
The Beatles won eight Grammys in their short yet meteoric career, and their modern counterparts followed in their footsteps by bringing home hardware of their own. The Fab Four won an Emmy in 2013 for their PBS special, The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute, filmed the previous year in California. They have also appeared on major national TV shows like Good Morning America and Ellen, plus headlined International Beatleweek in Liverpool, England four times, most recently last summer.
Doing it all live
It’s a tribute band’s job to re-create the sound of titans gone by as best they can. The Fab Four have done such a good job of re-creating the Beatles’ sound, it might be hard to believe it’s all done without using backing tracks and lip-syncing — but the band has always make a point to keep their performance 100 percent live. The Fab Four’s former “John Lennon” and group co-founder Ron McNeil addressed their sound in a 2002 interview.
"It's pretty popular to lip-sync today, but that makes the music stiff,” he said. “Our show is all about being performed live — that's why people come to hear us. If they wanted to listen to tape, they could just pop one in at home.”
Continuing the legacy
The Beatles’ last planned show (excluding the aforementioned Apple rooftop gig) took place at Candlestick Park in 1966 — before the release of classic albums like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The White Album and Abbey Road. The Fab Four pick up where the Beatles left off and take on songs the original band never played live, giving us a small taste of what the future could have looked like if Candlestick didn’t mark the end of live Beatlemania.
“We just hope that we are doing a loving tribute to the guys,” McNeil said in an interview with us last year. “You know, every night we go out before the show and we have a sort of secret handshake that means — if the Beatles were in attendance watching the show, what would they think as a loving tribute to them? Hopefully we are accomplishing that.”
Becoming the Beatles
It’s not enough to just sound like the Beatles to be the “ultimate Beatles tribute,” as the Fab Four say they are. You have to act like them, dress like them, speak like them, and check every last detail. McNeil said that commitment to detail was what started the group in the first place.
“We said, ‘Look, why don’t we start the group and do as much as we possibly can.’ We decided we’re really going to learn every lick. We’re going to sound like them on every single note,” McNeil said.
It runs deeper than that, too — Ardy Sarraf (“Paul McCartney”) was born right-handed and learned to play bass right-handed. Once he joined the Fab Four, though, he switched everything and learned how to play bass left-handed.
"If I didn't [play left-handed], the audience would be jarred by the discrepancy," Sarraf said.
Show details
Where: Mayo Civic Center — Dr. Charles H. Mayo Presentation Hall
When: Friday, January 17, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $47 ($42.50 for members). They can be purchased online, through Riverside Concerts (in-person at City Hall or by phone), or at the Mayo Civic Center Box Office.
