Let it Rain

On Monday night Jena and I took my Dad to see Rain: The Beatles Experience, or less cryptically, a Beatles tribute band. Years ago I had the opportunity to see Paul McCartney in concert thinking that was as close as I would ever come to seeing my favorite band live. Turns out Rain is a hell of a lot closer than I thought possible.

Joey Curatolo is amazing as Paul. There was never a moment when he was off, from melodies and more guttural sounds to the banter between songs. Just about the only flaw I could find was that John played guitar left-handed and so it was a little weird seeing him up there playing with a right-handed guitar. Joe Bithorn (aka George) was also great. George Harrison doesn’t get to sing as much but there were still some great songs, with the stand-out being While My Guitar Gently Weeps, in which he is also wonderful during the longest and most difficult guitar solo to appear in a Beatles song.

John and Ringo were performed well, but Steve Landes (aka John) and Ralph Castelli (aka Ringo) had perhaps more difficult tasks. John’s vocals changed so much from the early years through to the end that I imagine (no pun intended) it would be hard to be dead-on throughout (though he was mostly on — Come Together being perhaps the weakest in the set). As for Ringo, with only one vocal part, and only drums, it is hard to tell how accurate Castelli’s renditions are — though there was certainly nothing that came to mind.

Due to the no photography policy at the Orpheum for this show, I only had my little point-and-shoot with no flash. Needless to say, the photos I got were not good. Luckily Flickr user hddod has come through with the wonderful photos included in this post of a show in England.