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On his 1990 album Tripping the Live Fantastic Paul McCartney introduces “The Long and Winding Road” by saying, “Right now we want to go back through the mists of time…to a time they call ‘the 60s’…”  Last night, those mists enveloped a small area of Kansas City at Starlight Theatre’s opening night performance of Rain – A Tribute to the Beatles and transported an audience of young and old alike back nearly 50 years.

“Tribute” is a fitting label. While a “cover” band need only be a bunch of guys (or girls!) who perform the songs of a specific group or genre, a “tribute” band strives more vigorously to become that band. Rain achieves this goal with remarkable precision, transmogrifying four guys from Philadelphia (Steve Landes), Brooklyn (Joey Curatolo), New York (Tom Teeley) and San Gabriel (Ralph Castelli) into the four iconic lads from Liverpool (John, Paul, George and Ringo, respectively). A fifth performer – Mark Beyer – provides additional accompaniment on keyboards and percussion.

There may be at least a few readers out there who had the good fortune of attending a real Beatles concert, and to those folks I humbly genuflect. Given the short period during which The Beatles actually performed live, and given the much smaller size of concert audiences back then, you indeed can count yourselves among a very elite group. People who have such an enviable basis for comparison should come away from “Rain” feeling like the fortunate beneficiaries of a few hours of time travel. The intervening generations – with only recordings and/or archival footage as the basis for comparison – will witness the physical incarnation of an experience that had, until now, remained locked within the confines of their imagination.

My biggest “complaint” is that the concert was surprisingly short (translation:  they were so good I wanted more). Due to some technical difficulties, the show began 10-15 minutes late (around 8:15 P.M.) and, even including a 20-minute intermission, was over by 10:00 P.M. The technical difficulties drifted throughout much of the first three sets and may have explained some of the transitional awkwardness. The “live” video feeds had an awkward delay compared to the (really) live band standing just a few yards away, and this did not fully sync-up until the middle of the 4^th set. Within the context of such a short show, the sets flew by way too fast:  1964 Ed Sullivan quickly giving way to Shea Stadium (1965–66), and closing pre-intermission with the Sgt. Pepper era. Post-intermission, “Flower Power/Summer of Love” Set 4 (1967–68) moved swiftly into the closing “Abbey Road” Set 5 (1969–70). In some sense, the show’s brevity seemed all too appropriate, reinforcing just how short a time the Fab Four spent on the world stage. One could imagine the news of their 1970 break-up feeling a lot like the “it was over so quickly, and I still want more” emotions during the walk back to the car.

Warning: this paragraph is for the purists (I know you’re out there). Purists who go looking (or listening) for imperfections will find some – but there are always going to be those who expect a “tribute” band to channel every nuance flawlessly. First and foremost, the music is real, as clearly noted in the program: “All the music is performed live with no pre-recorded tapes or sequences.” But even I (far from a purist) was taken aback when I first realized that Paul was playing right-handed (blasphemy?)…but I quickly got over it. Stylistically I found Ringo to be a tad too energetic compared to the original, who always had (and has!) a subdued presence that accentuated without encroaching. While the signature Ringo head-bobble was ever-present, I would have preferred a slightly less aggressive technique, especially on the hi-hat which was, at times, over-played. On “This Boy,” John, Paul, and George’s harmonies were perfect but Ringo was doing some weird polyrhythm riff on (again) the hi-hat that drove me crazy. George for most of the night tended to wear his guitars lower on his chest than would be considered historically accurate (and it seemed to drift lower as the night went on), but Teeley’s technical prowess as George was amazing, especially in the later sets when he was really tearing up the higher-energy rock solos. Vocally, John and Paul were the most consistent; each was nearly flawless all night. There were times where you would swear on a stack of Bibles that it was really them. The result: goose bumps. The few songs that George and Ringo fronted were a little less consistent, but quite good overall. Ringo was the weaker of the two and in one song actually drifted into some weird cockney accent for a few bars.

Out of purist mode, let me be clear:  these guys are good. Their bios make it evident that each has been fixated on their respective Beatle since adolescence and the dedication and reverence shine through on stage. The overall flow of the show was pretty good, with sets 1, 4 and 5 being the best. Sets 2 and 3 seemed to have some structural problems with transitions between songs being awkward. But they really hit their groove after intermission (sets 4 and 5) where they peaked with the very subdued and intimate acoustic set that included near-perfect renditions of “Girl,” “We Can Work It Out,” “I’ve Just Seen A Face,” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” followed, towards the end (in set 5) with equally-accurate performances of the high-energy “Come Together,” “Get Back,” and “Revolution.”

Rolling Stone recently has generated quite a bit of controversy by ranking the top-100 Beatles songs of all time (“A Day In The Life” taking the top spot). After experiencing Rain, this strikes me as a rather impossible task, somewhat akin to asking a parent to pick their favorite child. The Beatles were ahead of their time at the time; in many ways they are ahead of their time now. In every song there is a spark of genius that gives it ample gravitas to claim top-rank status in its own right. So no matter which song you may hold in your heart as your #1 – even if it’s not one of the songs performed in the concert – you’re sure to find a favorite anyway...

REVIEW:
Starlight Theatre
RAIN – A Tribute to the Beatles
Runs September 7–12 (reviewed Tuesday, September 7)
Starlight Theatre
4600 Starlight Road, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-363-STAR or online at www.kcstarlight.com

By Christopher Guerin

Traditional and New Classical music, and Theatre Contributor (Past writer)
Christopher Guerin holds degrees in Music Education, Music Business, and Music Theory & Composition, the latter from the University of Massachusetts (Lowell) College of Music where he co-founded the college's Composers' Guild, and, in 1985, won the Artin Arslanian Composition Award. During college, he also obtained some musical theatre experience as a member of pit orchestras for Threepenny Opera and My Fair Lady. Since 1989, Christopher has been in the very non-artistic corporate sector, where his creative energies have been put to more mundane endeavors 

Christopher credits his musical motivations to his late father, who was concertmaster of the Springfield (MA) Community (pre-cursor to the city's current Symphony) Orchestra and performed popular music on radio in the 1930s. Christopher began his classical training in 1972 at age 10, began teaching at 16 (continuing to take private students throughout college), and traveled extensively with a youth orchestra - including to New Zealand in 1980. After college, and until 1989, Christopher focused on the business end of music as a successful sales manager for one of New England's largest music chains.

Over the past 20 years, Christopher's expertise has focused on medicine as a life risk underwriting officer for a large Midwest insurance group. His past duties included responsibility for risk underwriting in Pacific Rim markets where he traveled extensively to Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand and Burma. Time permitting, he has continued to compose intermittently throughout this period. Christopher is married to Paula, a fellow musician he met during college, and together they have "composed" their magnum opera in three very creative children - an architecture student (go K-State!), an aspiring classical pianist, and a budding writer/journalist. He and his wife relocated from Massachusetts to the Kansas City area in 1997.