Rain's Beatles Tribute Triumphs Both Aurally and Visually

To celebrate my 50th birthday last night, my wife and I went to see Rain: A Tribute To The Beatles at Toronto's CANON Theatre. While I was initially skeptical about the prospect, I had taken several people's secondhand word that it was just like seeing the real thing. So I ponied up the cash and purchased a couple of tickets in the left orchestra.

The live performance promised to fully recreate The Beatles' music and visual images, and included a musical director/fifth member to fill in the sound and instruments the four members of Rain didn't perform (the strings and brass from the Sgt. Pepper era and beyond).

The actual show featured the use of film clips projected on two large pseudo-televisions flanking the stage accompanied by soundtrack that was a medley of '60s music to establish the mood and context of the band's original performance. This staging technique allowed for the band's costume changes while keeping the two-hour show moving effectively.

The material performed was presented in chronological order (outside of a short retrospective acoustic set in the second half) and focussed on those visual images that were universally remembered by even the most casual Beatles fan. These include the February 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show including "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "All My Loving," a scene from A Hard Days Night, their Shea Stadium performance and later their 1969 live performance on the roof of the Apple Records headquarters from the Let It Be film. The first half ended with the Rain's tribute to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, beginning with the title tack and ending the first half with a stirring rendition of "A Day In The Life", the arguably The Beatles' greatest musical triumph. The song's sustained crescendo effectively led to the intermission.

Outside of the Apple roof appearance, the second half of the show was less driven by the known visuals. It opened with performance of "Hello Goodbye" and "I Am The Walrus," then stepped out of the chronological order to perform a trio of acoustic numbers from the band's mid-period; "Girl", "We Can Work It Out" and "Blackbird," which kind let the cat out of the bag about "Paul McCartney's" performance.

As we all know, McCartney is left-handed. "Paul" appeared on stage with a left-handed bass, and at times it didn't seem he was fully performing all of the notes. When we was handed his acoustic guitar to perform McCartney's "Blackbird," he played it right-handed. So was he playing the bass left-handed the rest of the show... curious minds want to know why!

There was a enthusiastic audience involvement, including freaked out screaming on command, and a sweet full-on sing along with "Yesterday," which left me teary-eyed. (Hearing some 2,000 people singing along to this classic ballad was the most heartfelt and memorable moment during the performance.) The biggest audience response in the second half were to the superb renditions of a couple of rockers, George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and John Lennon's "Come Together." Both featured spot-on guitar solos from the band.

The show ended oddly with Lennon's solo "Give Peace A Chance" segueing into the Abbey Road's "The End" before an encore of McCartney's two monster anthems, "Let It Be" and "Hey Jude." The former almost brought me to the same emotional level as "Yesterday," and the latter was a fitting end to a remarkably memorable performance.