BWW Reviews: EXPERIENCE THE BEATLES WITH RAIN Revisits the 1960's World of Peace and Love

EXPERIENCE THE BEATLES WITH RAIN has returned by popular demand to the Pantages for a third engagement, May 7-12, 2013. This adoring tribute will take you back to a time when all you needed was love and a little help from your friends!

As "the next best thing to seeing The Beatles" (Associated Press), RAIN performs the full range of The Beatles' discography live onstage, including the most complex and challenging songs that The Beatles themselves recorded in the studio but never performed for an audience. Together longer than The Beatles, RAINhas mastered every song, gesture and nuance of the legendary foursome, delivering a totally live, note-for-note performance that's as infectious as it is transporting.

The show began even before the band started playing with video quiz questions posted on large screens at each side of the stage. And to think I thought I could answer all the questions correctly. How was I supposed to remember that Ringo Starr was left-handed and what made him so unique as a drummer is that he played a right-handed drum set?

The members of RAIN are not only supreme musicians who resemble John, Paul, George and Ringo, they are also electrifying performers and well as mimics. The five band members are Joey Curatolo (vocals, bass, guitar, piano), Joe Bithorn (vocals, lead guitar, guitar synthesizer, sitar), Ralph Castelli (vocals, drums, percussion), Steve Landes (vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, harmonica) and Mark Beyer (keyboard, percussion).

The show opened with a replica of the Ed Sullivan Show set and early songs "She Loves You," "Please Please Me," "From Me To You," and "I Want To Hold Your Hand." I have to say at first I was bit disappointed that Joey Curatolo played the bass right-handed, but his skill and right-on vocals distracted me from thinking about it for too long.

Scene break to photos from the film "A Hard Day's Night" and a performance of the title song as well as "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You." After "Yesterday" was performed, we jumped ahead to 1965 watching videos from Shea Stadium. RAIN walked in wearing the classic tan jackets from that nationwide tour, and I certainly remember seeing them at the Hollywood Bowl in August 1965 that way. Songs during this scene included "Help," "Day Tripper," and "Twist and Shout" which got everyone up singing and dancing with the band. Great fun!

The next break treated us to videos of commercials from 1967, the summer of love. Laugh abounded during a Flintstones commercial in which Barney and Fred kick back and smoke Winston cigarettes as Wilma mows the lawn, and commercials for Curl Free and Prell shampoo, as well as Duz laundry soap which had a pair of nylons in each box. Again we were treated to examples of how the world was when the Beatles were transforming the world.

On to Sgt. Pepper, complete with full costumes and the songs "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Bans," "A Little Help From My Friends," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" (complete with light show!), "When I'm 64," and a very psychedelic "Sqt. Pepper's" reprise and "A Day in the Life." The last loud note of that song was accompanied by a video of an exploding atomic bomb. Ah yea, the cold war threat was very real at the time.

More summer of love songs included "All You Need is Love," "Magical Mystery Tour," "Strawberry Fields Forever" an especially poignant song knowing that John Lennon's memorial in Central Park is called Strawberry Fields.

Unplugged songs included "Blackbird," "The Two of Us," "In My Life," "Here Comes the Sun," and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" in which Joe Bithorn certainly was channeling George Harrison in one of the best numbers in the show!

As videos of the Vietnam War were shown and anti-war anthems by other artists were heard, we were taken to the later years the Beatles were tighter with "Come Together," "Get Back," and "Revolution" which again got the audience dancing, flashing peace signs. And the show ended with "and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make," but the audience was standing, applauding and wanted more.

And we were lucky to hear RAIN's renditions of "Give Peace a Chance," "Let It Be," and "Hey Jude" as their encore numbers which ended the show. The audience fully participated with all 3 songs, again recalling in my mind the new-found camaraderie I got attending Beatles concerts in the mid-60s.

Kudos to the fabulous eye-catching lighting and laser effects designer as they thoroughly enhanced the show's production. The multi-media elements, including the ever-present fog, videos of the Beatles arriving in America, on the Ed Sullivan Show, and at Shea Stadium, as well historical flashbacks to President Kennedy (who assassination was just 3 months before the Beatles arrived in America), love-ins, the Vietnam War, Haight Ashbury, and various pop festivals, took me back to what was going on in the world - and all of it was reflected in the Beatles and their music

RAIN got me thinking about how The Beatles and their music changed the world by awakening a generation's consciousness of what the world should be. Just standing and singing "Give Peace a Chance" with everyone felt just as anti-war now as it did back in 1969 when for the first time, a generation of young people was able to congregate promoting love and peace. I can only hope that people are still willing to work to make the world the kind of place we envisioned it to be back then. Let's do it for John and the boys!

Show information and tickets at www.raintribute.com

Joey Curatolo, Joe Bithorn, Ralph Castell, Steve Landes