The Fab Faux Covers Sgt. Pepper’s

In fact all of the members of The Fab Faux are huge Beatles geeks that know every little detail about every single song. The band was thrilled to have Geoff Emerick, who engineered Sgt. Peppers and many other Beatles’ albums, participate in a question and answer session before the concert began. Many of the baby boomers attending the concert had no idea the Q&A session was part of the bill and started obnoxiously fainting applause and yelling insults at Emerick.

To be fair, both the interviewer and Emerick were sitting far away from their mics, and the interview was hardly audible. That being said, the obnoxious behavior of the crowd made me embarrassed to be sitting in the balcony, where the majority of the cat calls originated. Things got so out of hand that Fab Faux members Will Lee, Jimmy Vivino and Rich Pagano came out to scold the crowd for their complete lack of respect for Emerick. You don’t see bands curse out their crowds everyday, but in this case it was extremely appreciated.

After a few minutes Emerick finally finished speaking and left the stage to a huge standing ovation from the 90 percent of the crowd that weren’t complete douchebags. The Fab Faux finally took the stage after a 10-minute break and proceeded to nail one song after another from Sgt. Pepper’s. One of the first things that stood out from their performance was the level of musicianship. Not only could each member play multiple instruments well, but all five band members had incredible voices. The melodies on She’s Leaving Home were particularly impressive.

One of the most entertaining aspect of the show was watching Will Lee of David Letterman’s band play bass. Lee couldn’t hide his enthusiasm for the music, showing incredible stage presence throughout the evening. When Lee would get excited and jump around to the beat, the crowd would get fired up and respond with cheers and applause. It was really weird to see Will Lee talk and sing after seeing him play so reserved on Letterman for so many years. He needs to get behind the mic and lead a band more often.

Photo by Sandrine Lee

The best part of seeing a Beatles’ cover band is that you never have to worry about hearing a shitty song. Each of the songs from Sgt. Pepper’s is a classic, and the rest of the two-hour set featured some of the best songs ever written. One minute the Faux played the extremely potent You Can’t Do That from the Beatles’ early days just to follow it up with 1968’s Revolution without missing a beat.

I’ve seen Jimmy Vivino play as part of Conan O’Brien’s house band as well as sit-ins with jambands all over the city, but I got a real display of his talent on Saturday. Not only can he wail on the guitar, he has incredible range and held shit down on the sitar for Within You Without You. He also displayed a Steve Kimock-like collection of guitars, playing an SG, Telecaster, Les Paul, Epiphone Casino and others throughout the evening. Vivino had to channel three different guitar players throughout the night, and he did an amazing job portraying their respective sounds.

Sgt. Pepper’s features various string arrangements and horn lines, so at various points throughout the show the Faux were joined by the Creme Tangerine strings, The Hogshead Horns and Erin Hill on Harp. When I’ve seen Paul McCartney play he would just have his keyboard player play those parts on his synthesizer. The Fab Faux did the audience a service by having musicians play the actual instruments instead of relying on a crappy synth patch. It seemed like the Faux spared no expense trying to give the most accurate performance possible, and as a member of the audience it was extremely appreciated.

Photo by Sandrine Lee

After a rousing encore of I Am The Walrus and Got to Get You Into My Life, the band left the stage to a standing ovation. Now that I’ve seen The Fab Faux cover Sgt. Pepper’s, I’d really like to hear them play Revolver and Abbey Road. As a huge Beatles fan it is amazing to see these epic tunes performed incredibly well in concert. I’ve seen a bunch of Beatles cover bands, but nobody holds a candle to the Faux.

The Fab Faux return to the stage on October 13th in Keswick, Pennsylvania where they will perform Revolver in the afternoon and Abbey Road at night.

The Fab Faux

September 15th, 2007

Beacon Theater

NYC, NY

Set: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band > A Little Help From My Friends, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Getting Better, Fixing a Hole, She’s Leaving Home, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!, Within You Without You, When I’m 64, Lovely Rita, Good Morning Good Morning, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), A Day In The Life, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Lady Madonna, And Your Bird Can Sing, Paperback Writer, Rain, Anytime At All, You Can’t Do That, Revolution, Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey, Across The Universe, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Oh Darling, Golden Slumbers > Carry That Weight > The End

Encore: I Am The Walrus, Got to Get You Into My Life

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0 Responses

  1. My folks went and saw this show, too…and my mom totally raved about it. I even got this email: “we just got back from the fab faux concert and it was the best. each one is more talented than the next. one day you must go see them. we had a ball.”

    Scotty, a word of warnings — if you fuck up, you may be replaced by my mother.

  2. The show was just off the charts. I can’t get enough of hearing that keyboard/guitar player sing Oh Darling. So amazing.

    Next up for me…Abbey Road at the State Theater in New Brunswick!

  3. i heard that dan from third eye visuals blew up the spot!
    haven’t seen his work since he was out on tour with Patti Smith a few years back…what else does he/third eye visuals do?

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