Legends in Their Own Time

My wife and I made our annual trek to the Mn state fair in search of show rabbits, the state's biggest boar, blue ribbon food bargains, and free music, among other things. My wife's sister came along for the first time this year to sample that unique state fair experience - one part deep fat fried anything, one part people watching. We had scoured the fair website for the free stage schedule and took in the flat-picking championships. "Flat-picking" sounds impressive, but it's mostly just picking a complicated bluegrass-style melody on the steel-string acoustic guitar with a pick, usually with a cohort along to provide the rhythm. Too much for yours truly to attempt, although I think I recognized some of the chords the other guitarist was playing. Fun to watch, but I had come to rock, so to speak, so it was on to the evening free stage appearance of the Beatles tribute band "Liverpool Legends." This band, based out of Branson, Mo (now don't hold that against them until you've heard me out) has the advantage of being managed (or at least had the stamp of approval) of George Harrison's ("Yes, that George!," as their promotional blurb points out) sister Louise. We arrived just as the previous performance of the talent show let out, so we were able to elbow our way up to second-row seats. The equipment on stage certainly looked authentic, down to vintage-looking Vox AC-30's and Ringo's Ludwig drum kit. When the boys hit the stage, we were treated to Fab-Four lookalikes, in the dark suits and moptop hair of roughly the "Help!" era. They not only looked like the Beatles (some poor fella looked enough like Ringo to be his twin - as "George" said in his stage patter, "Your nose is big enough that I can pick it from here!"), but sounded exactly like them as well. I was amazed - their stage act was "spot on," as the British would say, down to the correct Gretsch, Hofner and Rickenbacker guitars and "John's" bobbing up and down to the beat like a marionette. They even bowed after each song, which is a Ed Sullivan-era detail that I remembered watching them back then as a 12 year old in my grandparent's living room. What's more, they came out after intermission as the "Sgt. Pepper" band, authentic down to the neon costumes from the album cover and George's day-glo hand-painted, psychedelic Strat. They soon had us up on our feet dancing and screaming. They played the big ones - "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "I Saw Her Standing There," "Yesterday," "Got to Get You Into My Life," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," etc. They played stuff the Beatles themselves never got to play in concert; for example, with the help of a "fifth Beatle" on keyboards and synth in the shadowy back of the stage, they played a letter-perfect version of "A Day in the Life" that had my jaw hitting the floor. Too soon it was over, after the cell-phone waving encore of "Hey Jude," they left us screaming for more. Well, "I'm a Believer", as the Monkee's used to say (the were, after all, America's answer to the Beatles, but that's the subject for another blog), and it was a bit of heaven for this rabid Beatles fan. Check out the band on their web page, www.liverpoollegends.com, check 'em out if they're ever in your town (or you're in Branson), and, until next time, keep on rockin'!