Rain does the Beatles

Many years ago, Burt took me to see Rain, a Beatles tribute band. The members of Rain were musicians who toured with the show, Beatlemania. In preparation for this touring audio visual tribute to the Beatles, thousands of musicians were auditioned. They had to play, sing and look like one of the four Beatles. After the show closed, Rain formed. They each had an uncanny physical resemblance to one of the Fab Four.

One of the benefits of cover bands who are doing a tribute to a well know band with a lot of albums is that they can pick and choose from the whole catalog of the band they are imitating. Real bands usually blend some of their hits with material from their latest albums. The bands doing only greatest hits in concert are usually at the end of their careers. They have often reformed after splitting up and there are often new people that were not band members when the original hits were recorded.  Some of these retreaded bands are touring under the original name with only one or two of the original members. They may reproduce the original hits but they are really tribute bands themselves if they have a lot of new players.

The Rain show was incredible. The four were note perfect on the Beatle songs, often using backup tape and machines to fill in the sound of additional musicians. Because they moved thru the songs in chronological sequence, there were frequent costume changes, including wigs, to mimic the appearance of the Beatles at different stages of their long career. They were obviously having a good time on stage, staying in character and bantering in Liverpool accents. It was really fun and thrilling to follow the arc of one of the most famous bands of all time as their appearances and musical styles changed through time.

Burt and I love to go to live shows, especially of the bands whose music provided the sound track for different stages of our lives. The Beatles have been there from the beginning. They created such amazing and memorable music. You can always hear their songs on the radio or play the CDs. But there is something about a live performance that can’t be duplicated. With only two of the originals left, we will never see the Beatles on stage again but excellent tribute bands like Rain can bring back live performances of their songs. Rain is still playing on Broadway in New York.