Monday, October 22, 2012

Fab Faux







































The Fab Faux are a Beatles tribute band, which sounds like something to avoid, and yes most tribute bands are in fact pretty corny.  (In case you don't know, a tribute band dresses up like the band in question and pretends to "be" the band.)

However this band is not so much a tribute band as a group of talented session musicians who love the Beatles, and play their music the way an orchestra might play Beethoven.

The band was formed by Will Lee, the bassist from David Letterman's band, and oddly includes the guitarist from Conan O Brien's band.  All five members are quite talented session musicians.

What makes the Fab Faux so strong is how accurately they recreate the music - right down to the specific tone on a guitar or tiniest sound effect, they make sure everything is exactly the way it sounds on record.  Well, mostly.  At other times, they will do some interpreting and expanding - always in a way that seems perfectly right.  For instance extending the end of Strawberry Fields Forever with a wild drum duet.

For this outing, the band did the entire Magical Mystery Tour album.  It wasn't quite as ambitious (and amazing) as The White Album, which they'd done in this same theater a few years back, but it was excellent nonetheless.

While discussing the Beatles, I must mention this cool story about a guy who stole the head of Paul McCartney off an Abbey Road Sunset Blvd. billboard way back in 1969.

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/10/bring_me_the_head_of_paul.php