Rain is in arena's forecast
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There never has been any shortage of bands that play Beatles songs, but only one seemingly carries its audiences back in time. For more than 20 years, the band Rain has presented a show that visually and musically recreates the history of the group from its first appearance on the "Ed Sullivan Show" in February 1964 to its final public concert, Jan. 30, 1969, on the rooftop of its Savile Row Apple headquarters in London.
The four hollow-point bullets that ended John Lennon's life also destroyed any hope the Beatles would create musical magic again.
When George Harrison died, another cornerstone of the foursome that's widely considered the greatest rock 'n' roll band of all time was gone. What remains is a musical oeuvre that continues to attract new listeners decades after the last note was recorded.
There never has been any shortage of bands that play Beatles songs, but only one seemingly carries its audiences back in time. For more than 20 years, the band Rain has presented a show that visually and musically recreates the history of the group from its first appearance on the "Ed Sullivan Show" in February 1964 to its final public concert, Jan. 30, 1969, on the rooftop of its Savile Row Apple headquarters in London.
At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the University of Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena, Rain will present "A Tribute to the Beatles." Tickets range from $37 to $50.
"Our goal is to give the audience the experience of seeing the Beatles live," said Steve Landes, who portrays Lennon. "We come at this from a professional musician's standpoint.
"We've all done other things, such as session work, backing up other artists and writing and recording our own music. And we were all part of the Broadway show 'Beatlemania.'
"We wanted to reach that Broadway-quality pinnacle on our own with this show. With the multimedia videos, full sets and more than a half-dozen costume changes, we've really brought this to a production-show level."
Rain is said to be the only band that can reproduce note for note the full range of the Beatles' discography live onstage. This obviously includes all the complex and challenging songs the Fab Four only performed in the recording studio.
"A big part of the process is using our ears and picking apart every song," Landes said. "We can't go to sheet music or anything like that, because that doesn't have the detail and authenticity we're striving for.
"So we pick up what we're going to play by listening to the records and delving into them any way we can. 'Sergeant Pepper,' for instance, has four vocal harmonies and four guitar parts.
"We've got two guitars on stage and three vocals. So we have to be creative and decide how to reinterpret it so the audience feels they are getting every part."
Rain evolved out of a Southern California rock band that formed in the mid-1970s and was originally called Reign. The group specialized in Beatles music and eventually took on the name Rain, which is also a title of a Beatles song.
The band gained national recognition when Dick Clark selected it to record the music for the 1979 made-for-television movie "Birth of the Beatles." Each of the make-believe Beatles got plenty of practice while touring with "Beatlemania."
Joining Landes on stage are Joey Curatolo, who portrays Paul McCartney; Joe Bithorn, who re-enacts George Harrison; Ralph Castelli, who plays Ringo Starr; and founding member Mark Lewis, who plays keyboard and percussion and represents the "fifth Beatle."
The five members of Rain have studied the music with meticulous care, ensuring every note and nuance is faithfully recreated. This top-notch imitation moved a critic with the Portland Oregonian newspaper to write, "The band contains better musicians than the Beatles, but then, they'd almost have to be in order to recreate the sound so well."
All the music Tuesday evening will be performed live, with no prerecorded tapes or sequences. Adding to the visual presentation will be historical film footage projected onto screens.
Rain has performed throughout Europe -- and, perhaps most memorably, in Liverpool, England, the Beatles' hometown.
"Presenting the show in Liverpool was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences," Landes said.
"We did our full show at the Empire Theatre, which is the big theater in town.
"It was packed with 3,500 people and they loved the show. The next night we did a small set at the Cavern Club, where the Beatles got their start. People had to be turned away.
"As a Beatles fan, I've seen the footage of them doing the song 'Some Other Guy' in the Cavern literally thousands of times. To get up there on stage and see it from their perspective had to be the most surreal thing I've ever done.
"Bottom line is we want to give the audience the experience of seeing the Beatles live by recreating the songs we all know and love."
"Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the John Paul Jones Arena.
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