Artist: 1964 The Tribute
Date: August 12, 2010
Location: Merchantsauto Stadium

Comments: YEAH YEAH YEAH! The Beatles, London’s answer to Elvis, the hip, new Rock and Roll band leading the British Invasion is here!-well perhaps that’s how I would start a review of the real Beatles forty-six years ago. But, these guys are the closest thing we have to seeing the original line up in their classic form. The 1964 Tribute tries to recreate this initial invasion, albeit with better sound quality (well sorta) and mid-career numbers thrown in the mix. In terms of sounding just like the Beatles, they were truly terrific. I was standing in line waiting for my chicken tenders and fries and thend suddenly it was announced that The Beatles were hitting the stage. They rocked right into “I Saw Her Standing There,” if I had not been informed that it was showtime, then I simply would have thought they were playing the song on the radio. They were that accurate! The harmonies were perfect and they had all the energy and quick wit of the Fab Four. The show was split up into two sets with a brief intermission in between. The first set conisted of mostly 1964 tracks, with “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” and “I Should Have Known Better,” particularly standing out. The second set mostly contained post-64 tunes, which in terms of authenticity, this was a undeniable flaw. I know, I sound like a whining geezer of the Cavern Club era, but nonetheless I am a man of authenticity. It’s nice to throw in some later tunes, but when most of the second set features numbers you would not catch suit and tie era Beatles perform, that’s stretching it a bit much. Plus, there was plenty of better 64 and earlier hits they could have unleashed such as “And I Love Her,” “If I Fell,” “Misery,” “Anna (Go to Him),” “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You,” and others. Then again, to totally contradict that, I still highly enjoyed those later songs because I prefer that aspect of The Beatles catalog. A few other gripes (to needle drop an Anthony Fantano line) of mine were 1) the sound- not nearly loud enough. Now, don’t misconstrue me here. They sounded fantastic as The Beatles as stated before and I could hear their music fine. It wasn’t a problem of not being able to hear them, which was quite a factor in the actual Beatles shows. Instead, here the audio simply was not loud enough! I could hold a conversation with my mates and we could hear each other perfectly; this should never be the case. And since it was not loud enough, the music did not hit me as hard as it should have and therefore I could not get into the performance as much. In other words, head bobs and foot tapping sufficed. 2) We were in a baseball park and the stage was set at the mound and everyone was naturally in the stands. I was seated as close as one could be, but still I wish I was wayyy closer. At the same time, it wasn’t the nosebleeds, but it would have been far more exciting if we attendees could stand in the field. 3) The group’s interaction with the audience, while sometimes comical and perhaps accurate, more often than not got in the way of the show and well just was annoying. I also couldn’t hear what they were saying a few of the times. I will say, however, they did a decent acting job with each of their respected performances as the individual Brit musicians.

Grade: B+, I had more negative things to say then I usually do for a B+ concert, but the positives largely outweighed the negatives and I had a fab time re-living a 1960s Beatles gig, if only just a little bit.