THE OBSERVATORY - Entry # 0001: THE ACT YOU'VE KNOWN FOR ALL THESE YEARS...

By MRAM
June 6, 2009

The Beatles.

Unfortunately, I was not able to see them in their heyday, but their music still lives on. I’m not a big fan of Tribute Bands, but there are a few exceptions.The fascination with these types of bands trips me out at times. Some people want to see Tribute Bands as an inexpensive alternative to seeing the real deal in concert. Others are just simply fans of the music and just want to go and listen. In my case, this is the only way to catch a glimpse of an act that has long been out of the public eye.

While we will never, ever get to see The Beatles live on stage again, let alone together, (unless John Lennon & George Harrison pull a Lazarus act and pop out of the ground like weed…er, trees.) I may have just found the next best thing: THE FAB FOUR.

Now I can honestly say I've seen The Beatles live in concert. OK, so they’re not the real Beatles, but they are about as close a facsimile as possible. During one of our landing expeditions…um…visits to Las Vegas last year, the gang and I caught several shows and the best one of the lot was THE FAB FOUR, a Beatles tribute band, at the Sahara Theater.

These guys play everything live "without any tapes, sequences or backing tracks!" These four very talented musicians dress, talk and act like the Beatles and cover the band chronologically with three signature Beatles wardrobe changes spanning 1963-1966. They then proceed into the psychedelic era from 1966-1967 and finally the trying times of the Vietnam war 1967-1969 (well, part of it anyway) up to the Beatles breakup in 1970.

This is one show that's well worth the $50 ticket price. I would gladly pay to see this tribute band again.

The Fab Four covers over 200 Beatles song and they played several of the songs listed on this page when I saw them including: Day Tripper, Strawberry Fields Forever, She Loves You, Twist and Shout, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Yesterday (Paul solo), With A Little Help From My Friends (Ringo solo), Here Comes The Sun (George solo), Imagine (John solo), Revolution and more. I didn't get a chance to write down the complete set list of the performance, because most Beatles songs are very short (2-3 minutes) and I was just too into this show.

Yes, it was THAT great!

In fact, looking through the group's song list, which includes dozens of hits, I don't think saying that The Beatles were the greatest band ever is an overstatement. Who has been a better band over a similar, relatively short period of time? The Fab Four deserve the best grade possible. Grade: A+

Check them out if you get a chance. On our planet we don’t have Tribute Bands. Once a band fades out or if a member passes or goes missing, we just put out their clones.