THE FAB FOUR - Rock Log 031712

Ladies and gentlemen..THE BEATLES!

When Ed Sullivan uttered those words on February 9, 1964, the entire landscape of music changed.  The Beatles completely changed every facet of music with each new song they released.  So it makes sense that there are a multitude of tribute bands, one of which, The Fab Four, was at The Den tonight.  Randall, NK and Homework joined me for the trip to Uncasville.

The show was expectedly mobbed, but we managed to get some prime viewing space from the bar.  This is generally our preferred spot but when Hank Finkel (Google a photo for proper reference) decided to go back and forth approximately eleven times, it became a bit annoying.  Regardless, there was nothing that could derail this show from being a homerun.

This was simply put, an entertaining show filled with nostalgia and excellent reproduction of The Beatles music.  All of the music was played by the four musicians with nothing dubbed or piped in.  As expected, there were three segments which included “mop-top”, “Seargent Pepper” and “Let It Be” motifs.  To everyone’s appreciation, the show started with Ed Sullivan impersonator Jerry Hoban (was in Pulp Fiction)  cruising through an opening monolog before introducing the lads from Liverpool.  And these lads are; Ron McNeill (John), Frank Mendonca (Paul), Gavin Pring (George) and Erik Fidel (Ringo). 

Fidel was strong as Ringo, emulating the drums well and sounding serviceable during “A Little Help” and “Yellow Submarine”.  Mendonca was very good as Paul, looking similar sounding similar and playing the Hofner bass left handed.  McNeill and Pring were creepy good.  First Pring (left), looked like George’s twin, sounded like George’s twin, and played like Georges twin.  Now get this, he is from Liverpool.  His actions and mannerisms were spot on.  McNeil (right), the founder, was even closer to John than Pring was to George.  He was an instrumental master taking on guitar, keys and bass.  Honestly, looking at Pring and McNeil took me away to the 1960s and I believed I was actually watching The Beatles.

The show began with forty minutes of early stuff all done exceptionally well, from “She Loves You” to “Help!”  During the costume change break, Paul wooed the crowd with “Yesterday” followed by Ed Sullivan for a few words and then straight into “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”.  This era of Beatles music was a little shorter in time, lasting only twenty five minutes, but incorporating four Pepper songs and.  My Favorite of this era was the reprise which flat out rocked the house while leading into “A Day in the Life”.  “Penny Lane” was also done to perfection.   The Let It Be era ushered in more great songs such as and the absolute show-stopper of the night “Revolution” and ending the show with “Hey Jude”.

The problem with a Beatles tribute is that you can play for ten hours and after the show somebody will always say “I wished they would have played….”.  The catalog is so vast, so great and frankly so perfect.  I needed The Fab Four to remind me how perfect The Beatles music was and is.  These four lads from Liverpool created in seven years what the aggregate society of rock has not been able to duplicate in the forty two years since their break-up.  If you want to see a tribute band of the Beatles, I have been told to see Rain.  However, I cannot imagine it getting much better than The Fab four.  This band was truly fab and I would actually PAY to see them again.  You heard me, PAY!

I'd like to say 'thank you' on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition!

Vick