Abbey Road - The Orange Peel (01/14/17)

So last night was my first music event of the year after last weekend's snow event and it started off with a great show. I drove up to Asheville again. LOL. It's like my second home. Hmm perhaps third home if I throw in Sanibel as my number two. The band that was performing at the OP are called Abbey Road LIVE and as the name implies they played the Beatles 1969 classic album from the opening song on side one "Come Together" through to side two's epic "Medley". The band's members are from the Athens, GA area and have been touring since 2002. Unlike many Beatles tribute bands they do not dress the part with the wigs and "uniforms". These guys let do the music and their skills do the talking. Don't get me wrong; some of the bands doing the Mop Top tribute do a great job as well. I am thinking of The Return who I have seen a couple of times in recent years.


First thing I noticed last night coming into the venue was that it was an all ages show which is pretty darn cool when you see teenagers of the 2010s attending a show to appreciate music that is 50+ years old. Their parents did a great job exposing them to great music. Don't get me started with most of the noise that is on the radio bands nowadays! I will save that for another blog or ten. LOL.

So onto the show we go! I was all of 7 yrs old when Abbey Road the album was released so I can easily say that I did not hear this music in my little BBG world at that time. That was the year that my father died. Wow that's a sad remember when. My Mom was not a Beatles fan. She was more a Jerry Vale and Renée Martel and Ginette Reno fan. Okay that is more of a pleasant remember when. I actually like those artists. Jerry Vale was oh so smooth.

I probably really started hearing the songs in the mid 70s when I started listening to 97.7 CHOM-FM in my birth hometown of Montreal. Great thing back then on CHOM is that they would literally play any cut off the album and they would play it in its entirety. Here I'm referring to Lennon's classic paean to Yoko Ono "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". All 7m44s of it. Abbey Road LIVE did an awesome job on this bluesy stoner rock classic. A+ to Abbey's lead guitarist who I call the Tom Petersson look-alike. LOL.

The band members are great musicians. The Beatles were way more mature and experimental in their later days in their lyrical content and musicianship in comparison to the early Beatles stuff which was fun and all and risque for the times but kind of bubble gum to me. Just my opinion. I am not an expert. I like pop ditties from time to time but give me "Come Together", "I Want You" and "The Medley" any day. So they started off with the rock songs"Come" which segued into "Something" and I knew I was in for a special music night. Then came the pop songs "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darlin" and "Octopus Garden". The latter being one of my least favorite Beatles song. A close runner up to that tune would be "Yellow Submarine". Side One ends with "I Want You".

Side Two begins with another great George Harrison song "Here Comes The Sun". Such a beautiful song! Turns out this song was written in Eric Clapton's garden. George and Eric had an interesting and odd relationship. Think Patti! Abbey Road LIVE did an awesome version of it. That was followed by the pretty "Because" that was one of the few songs that Lennon, McCartney and Harrison all sang in unison. Sure they harmonized tons but most songs featured one of them on lead and not all three as one.

Then the highlight moment for me from the Abbey Road album was played which is the 15 minute medley that closes out the album. Beatles geeks like me love that song and can sing or mumble through all eight pieces of the Medley. As it was being played by Abbey Road LIVE I was looking around to see who else was way into it. There were quite a few us. Men mostly. Mostly in their 50s and bald, balding and baldest. LOL. Us geeks were there swaying, riffing, drumming and singing mumbling from "You Never Take My Money" all the way to the majestic "The End". The great Ringo drum solo was featured and was very cool.

That was the first set. 47 minutes of amazing music! A short break followed for costume change, rest break for the band and BBG sitting his butt down outside in the smoking section. I really do not miss smoking. No lecture forthcoming. LOL. Just an observation. They have seats outside in the smoking section and it was not too crowded hence my being out there. I am way too old and big to park myself on a floor.

Then the second set began and that featured a lot of the early and later Beatles songs that many people came to hear. You know like "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Don't Let Me Down", "Birthday", "Hard Day's Night", "Oh Bla Di, Oh Bla Da", "Hello Goodbye", Twist & Shout","Day In The Life", etc etc. That set lasted about an hour and boy oh boy people young and old were singing along during this set. They did an impromptu tribute to David Bowie and sang a great off the cuff version of "Changes". Cool thing that the band did was take some requests. Problem there is that the Beatles had so many songs and unless Abbey Road LIVE was going to play for four hours there was no way to get them all in. Abbey Road LIVE has more than 100 Beatles songs in their repertoire.

It was a great show! Highland Gaelic Ale is great beer! Dweezil Zappa is next on the docket.