Group captures Beatles' magic

Times sure have changed.

Not a very profound observation, but an unavoidable one at Saturday night's opening of the Evansville Philharmonic's Pops Concert Series. Classical Mystery Tour, a terrific band which bills its program as a tribute to the Beatles, played to a packed house at the Victory Theatre. A recreation of music originally conceived by 20-something British rockers for teenagers brought the house down to an audience which was ... ahem ... slightly older than the original target audience of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

I'm always uneasy with "tributes" to rock artists, probably because they are usually wretched imitations of the original. But not these guys. Classical Mystery Tour look, sound, and move like the Beatles. They are — how it galls a critic to say it — perfect. I simply cannot imagine how you could create a more authentic Beatles concert.

From the minute they came on and kicked off with "Got to Get You Into My Life" until the end of the last encore, "Can't Buy Me Love", they recreated every aspect of the originals down to the most minute details, musically and visually.

Of the four band members, Jim Owen and Tony Kishman — as John Lennon and Paul McCartney respectively — bore the closest physical resemblance to the originals. Owen not only looks like John Lennon, he flawless recreates Lennon's nasal Liverpudlian patter and distinctive singing and Kishman sounds to an astonishing degree just like Sir Paul.

Tom Teely doesn't really resemble George Harrison very much, having a much more imposing physical stature than did Harrison, but his recreation of George's stage mannerisms — the guitar held straight across the body, the backward kicks from the knees — are spot on and he is a terrific guitarist.

The drummer, Chris Camilleri, doesn't look a thing like Ringo Starr (neither does anyone else) but he is a very impressive rock drummer.

Ringo's playing always seemed to me to be a neglected part of the Beatles magic. He played far more interesting parts than your typical drummer, and last night you could see just what a great contribution he played. Camilleri, just like the other three, gets every note just right, every fill and every stroke just — aaaah, here I go again! — perfect.

To my ear, the most impressive thing about the evening was the high level of energy and sense of spontaneity Classical Mystery Tour had all evening.

When they played alone, without the accompaniment of the orchestra, they rocked and they rocked hard (for those who forgot that the Beatles were, at bottom, a rock band); then with the orchestra, they moved seamlessly into music that the Beatles never played in live performance and made it sound as fresh as it was in 1968.

This was a great evening, and the most fun I have ever had at a Pops concert. The smart money says this will be one of the highlights of the season and I'm glad I was there.

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