New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ HK Entertainment) The Beatles' 'Sgt Peppers' Live, in its Entirety, as The Fab Faux Return to Washington, D.C. for April 15th Concert at Lisner Auditorium. Rolling Stone, Huffington Post, WFUV, New Yorker and
Others Highlight The Fab Faux in Recent Months. The Fab Faux will return to Washington, D.C. for the fifth year in a row, with an April 15th concert at Lisner Auditorium.
The special event, a presentation of HK Entertainment, will feature The Beatles' iconic 'SGT PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND' live, in its entirety, as The Fab Faux are joined by Creme Tangerine Strings and Hogshead Horns. A second set of fan favorites is planned as well.
For those of us who never got to see The Beatles in concert, we're fortunate to have The Fab Faux dedicate themselves to faithfully recreating some of the most extraordinary music ever written. Watch this extraordinary live, in-studio performance of The Fab Faux recreating 'Abbey Road', side two: https://www.vimeo.com/11237479
Friday, April 15th, 8:00PM
HK Entertainment presents
The Fab Faux
The George Washington University Lisner Auditorium
730 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
Lisner Box Office, TicketMaster, 202-397-SEAT.
https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1500462A88683F94?artistid=1044510&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=52Group For 50 or more tickets email [email protected] or call Hal Korin directly at 732-997-4253.
Rolling Stone, Huffington Post, New Yorker 'On the Horizon', WFUV, The NY POST Fall Arts Preview, Time Out NY, RELIX Magazine, USA TODAY, Metro NY and other key outlets recently weighed in on The Fab Faux, as Radio City Music Hall became the setting for an epic three-hour concert --'A Night In The Life - A John Lennon 70th Birthday Celebration.' The 9/25 event featured two sets of John Lennon's greatest music from The Beatles and his solo career.
A portion of the evening's proceeds benefited 'Spirit Foundation' - a charitable foundation set up by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Prior to the show, the band was honored to receive a personal note and bouquet of flowers from Yoko Ono.
Rolling Stone's David Fricke reviewed the event for his 'Alternate Take' blog, and praised: "The three-hour show was a daring and appropriate zigzag through the two Lennons inside nearly every song: the seeker and the realist."
The Huffington Post previewed the show, and buzzed: If "you want to blow your mind to smithereens...there is literally no group of musicians that could pay better tribute to this man and his musical legacy."
WFUV's John Platt reviewed the concert for his blog: "Instead of shtik they rely on their amazing musicianship to take the performance beyond slavish imitation to inspired heights. All five can sing lead, harmonize beautifully, and play multiple instruments."
The 9/25 concert featured The Hogshead Horns, The Creme Tangerine Strings and The Nutopia Choir. Special Guests THE QUARRYMEN appeared as well.
ROLLING STONE - Concert Review
Alternate Take Blog, by David Fricke, 9/27/10
Every Twist of Lennon: The Fab Faux Meet the Quarrymen at New York Tribute Show
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/david-fricke/blogs/DavidFricke_May2010/210806/38726
It wasn't everything you needed to know about John Lennon in a single evening - no "Twist and Shout," "Meat City" or "A Hard Day's Night." But it was close. The Fab Faux - the New York-based quintet of super-session men that covers the Beatles' catalog and solo legacies with note-perfect passion and no dress-up cheese - opened "A Night in the Life: John Lennon at 70," at Radio City Music Hall on September 25th, by jumping right to the extremes. They started with the climax of Revolver, "Tomorrow Never Knows," Lennon's 1966 trip to the Tibet in his head, then swerved right into the party gallop of "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" from 1974's Walls and Bridges. By the end of the first set, the Faux - bassist Will Lee, guitarist Jimmy Vivino, guitarist Frank Agnello, drummer Rich Pagano and keyboardist Jack Petruzzelli, all singers and spinning out on multiple instruments, with strings, horns and a choir for complete tonal authenticity - had segued from sumptuous folk-hymn ("Across the Universe") to Chuck Berry dada ("Come Together"), out of loopy "White Album" do-wop ("Happiness Is a Warm Gun") into crisp five-part-harmony helplessness ("No Reply"). The rapid succession from LSD daydreams in "Strawberry Fields Forever" to the harrowing fuzz-metal howl of "Cold Turkey" was a sly shocking capsule of Lennon's drug life in the late sixties.
The three-hour show was a daring and appropriate zigzag through the two Lennons inside nearly every song: the seeker and the realist. The second set began with Lee alone with a guitar, singing "Working Class Hero," and peaked with an extended circle dance of euphoric raw guitar solos by Vivino, Agnello and Petruzzelli in "'Yer Blues," while the pairing of "Imagine" and "Revolution," in that order, was a subtle reminder that Lennon had big dreams but despised mere bluster. There were several Lennons in that voice too, captured by the various Faux: Pagano delivered the psychedelic and rock-hard Lennon; Vivino did the swaggering John with a touch of New Jersey aggro. And Agnello brought out the boy still growing and learning, inside the man, in the peaceful Double Fantasy surrender of "Watching the Wheels."
There was another Lennon in the house: the one that wanted to be Elvis. For the intermission, the Faux turned Radio City over to The Quarrymen, three surviving members of Lennon's schoolboy-skiffle band. Len Garry, Rod Davis and Colin Hanton were all on stage with Lennon that day in Liverpool, in 1957, when he first met Paul McCartney. For this occasion, with a fourth member on bull fiddle, the Quarrymen played a pair of numbers from their old repertoire, including "Maggie May," which Lennon reprised on the final Beatles' album, Let It Be. It was an eerie and delightful interlude - a shot of living history amid powerful memories.
THE HUFFINGTON POST - Preview interview feature By Holly Cara Price, 9/16/10
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/holly-cara-price/the-fab-faux-celebrate-jo_b_719296.html
The Fab Faux Celebrate John Lennon's Extraordinary Life and Career with a Special 70th Birthday Concert at Radio City Music Hall Sept. 25
Legendary rock critic Dave Marsh once said of the Fab Faux, "All rock bands want to be like the Beatles; these guys have the nerve to BE the Beatles. Amazingly, they're so good at it you learn new things about the originals." And he's right. The band is quite literally a labor of love that was born years ago out of an elevator conversation between neighbors Jimmy Vivino (Music Director for Conan O'Brien) and Will Lee (bassist for Paul Shaffer's CBS Orchestra on the Late Show with David Letterman).
The band encompasses Vivino and Lee as well as drummer/producer Rich Pagano, keyboardist/guitarist Jack Petruzzelli, and guitarist Frank Agnello. The five principals contribute vocals and scads of multi-instrumental chops, most ably augmented by the four-piece Hogshead Horns (which includes alums from the SNL band, Blues Brothers, and Blood Sweat & Tears) and the Creme Tangerine strings. Their incredible stage shows have taken place at top venues in New York and L.A. as well as across the country and four times at Liverpool's annual Beatle Week.
Here let me interject that several years ago I went to see the band with some trepidation, being a dyed in the wool Beatles fan and having an innate horror of "tribute" bands who dressed up in collarless suits and shag haircuts. Not only was I pleasantly surprised by these fellows (who do nothing of the sort), but I literally was brought to tears by the incredible note-for-note accuracy of the material they played. It's one thing to listen to the original records - it's quite another to hear the incredible complexities of "Strawberry Fields Forever" or "A Day in the Life" or "Eleanor Rigby" and dozens of others played live, rounding out the Beatles' catalogue with live performances of songs they were never able to do on stage during their all too short performing career. For one thing, audiences screamed through their shows and made it difficult to hear anything - for another, the speaker systems of the time had not caught up to the technology needed to project music to a vast audience - and, most importantly, the Beatles stopped touring as their music got more complex (Revolver, Rubber Soul, Sgt. Peppers), being unable (and also unwilling) to reproduce those complex sounds onstage.
The Fab Faux stepped in decades later to fill an aching gap I didn't even realize was there, and believe me they've filled it beyond belief. I spoke to Frank Agnello about the John Lennon 70th Birthday Concert that they've planned for September 25th at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Lennon, had he lived, would have been 70 years old this year on October 9th. The band will be joined at Radio City by the Hogshead Horns and the Creme Tangerine Strings featuring the Nutopia Choir (Nutopia was a conceptual country invented in 1973 by John and Yoko, who declared themselves its ambassadors during John's immigration troubles with the U.S. government). There will be auxiliary players that evening to pitch in - including, said Frank, "our Bruce Johnson of the Fab Faux, Jim Boggia - he fills in when Jack or Jimmy is called away to do something, for instance the Conan tour," as well as redoubtable harpist Erin Hill.
"We've never done a show spotlighting a single Beatle before," Frank told me. "We've done albums and we've done a few Solo Years shows, but we've never done a show spotlighting a single Beatle - we're really excited!" He indicated that the set list of about 30 songs total would probably be two-thirds Beatles John and one-third Solo John.
The John Lennon 70th Birthday concert also marks The Fab Faux's return to Radio City Music Hall, following their sold-out 10th Anniversary event during which they delivered a marathon performance that began with "Magical Mystery Tour" and ending a full three hours later with "Hey Jude" with an audience of over 6,000 on its feet, swaying and singing along.
I asked Frank if there were any songs in the Beatles' vast catalogue that they had not yet tackled and the answer was only a very few: they've performed over 190 songs out of 213 total. They haven't done, for instance, "I Saw Her Standing There." Nor have they done the cover songs the Beatles recorded in their early career as of yet, tending towards the original material written by the band. And Frank has dibs on "'Till There Was You," just so you know.
How do they prepare the material, which is executed so impeccably in concert? Frank: "We all have headphones and we'll talk about who's going to play what part. Rich's parts and Will's parts pretty much take care of themselves and then it's just a question of deciding the other parts, how we're going to split them up. We don't do any lead vocal auditioning or anything like that, its all based on what songs we really have a desire to do, and that person will sing the lead vocal.... Jimmy had most of the lead guitar roles, when there was a second lead guitar Jack would usually step in, I would step in on lead guitar if both Jimmy and Jack were busy on keyboards, and other parts - I tend to get first call on the acoustic and on the electric 12-string parts. And we just divvy it up. Then at home we listen on the headphones, we get our parts as close as we can get them. And we'll come in for a couple of rehearsals after having worked on them separately at home. And that's how it all kind of comes together. We'll just fine tune from there."
I confessed that I'd cried with joy and amazement not once, but quite a few times when seeing the band perform songs I'd never imagined I'd ever have the chance to see and hear live. The records are great but to hear this material live in concert is a whole other dimension that we never had with the original band. Frank agreed, "Jack has said - people associate the Beatles with profound moments in their lives, and people will actually come to tears, the music's so important to them."
Have Paul or Ringo seen the band? Frank said no, but they are aware of them. "There's an interesting story that Will tells about Paul. When he played The Concert for New York in 2001 he told Paul about our band. He said, you know, Paul, I've heard you're not too keen on tribute bands but my friends and I, we try to do the stuff that you guys did after you came off the road. He said Paul without hesitation shot back, do you play "Tomorrow Never Knows"? That's all he wanted to know. And Will said, well yeah we do" (For those that don't know, Paul created the incredible samples that are famously heard in that particular song - and it happens to be one of the more incredible things in the Fab Faux overall repertoire).
The Beatles' music is so well known and well loved, that there's no way one could even attempt to do what the Fab Faux do - and do incredibly well - unless each musician were at the very top of their game. "I think people appreciate good musicianship," Frank stated. "We dig in when we play and we take the time to learn all the little details and play in a tight way. We have a really excellent rhythm section and Will is acknowledged of course as one of the best bass players probably in the world, so you cant go wrong with that, and I think people respond to good musicianship and a band that takes the time to do it right."
Of course I had to ask who Frank's favorite Beatle was, in the grand tradition of Tom Robbins in Still Life with Woodpecker (And I quote: "Bernard Mickey Wrangle had developed a psychological test of his own. It was short, simple, and infallible. To administer the test, merely ask the subject to name his or her favorite Beatle. If you are at all familiar with the distinct separate public images of the four Beatles, then you'll recognize that the one chosen reveals as much about the subject's personality as most of us will ever hope to know.") It's a question I like to throw into any interview with anyone from any walk of life, and of course it was even more appropriate in this one. The answer? John was his earliest favorite - and in fact at the age of six he was John for his first Halloween costume, but, "I've come to love them all."
If you're in or near Manhattan on Saturday, September 25th and you want to blow your mind to smithereens, get yourself over to Radio City and celebrate one of our greatest musicians and heroes of all time, John Lennon, with the Fab Faux. There is literally no group of musicians that could pay better tribute to this man and his musical legacy.
WFUV - Concert Review
By John Platt - Blog 9/26/10
https://blog.wfuv.org/?p=5676
The Fab Faux: All You Need Is Lennon
With the 70th anniversary of John Lennon's birth less than two weeks away, you know the hype machine is one at the Concert Hall of the NY Society for Ethical Culture on his actual birthday, Oct. 9 (with The Quarrymen, Glen Burtnick, Marshall Crenshaw, and Pete Seeger, among others) and another at The Beacon on Nov. 12 (with Jackson Browne, Patti Smith, Taj Mahal, Aimee Mann, et al.), but it's hard to believe anything could be more exhilarating than last night's concert by The Fab Faux at Radio City Music Hall.
I'd always wanted to see the Fab Faux and never managed to do it. Thanks to my friend Effie I was not only able to see them, but from the 10th row (about 40 rows closer than I ever sat at Radio City)! You probably know the Fab Faux are five of NYC's most talented session men, led by drummer Rich Pagano, bass player Will Lee (part of the Letterman's CBS Orchestra) and guitarist Jimmy Vivino (in the band Max Weinberg assembled for Conan). They often tackle one of the Beatles classic albums and do an uncanny job of replicating it in concert. Unlike typical tribute bands, they don't dress up in wigs and costumes. Instead of shtik they rely on their amazing musicianship to take the performance beyond slavish imitation to inspired heights. All five can sing lead, harmonize beautifully, and play multiple instruments.
Last night it was a smorgasbord of John Lennon songs, from both the Beatles and his solo career, and what a feast it was! Two and a half hours nonstop (with a two-song interlude by Lennon's pre-Beatles band, The Quarrymen, who, unlike Paul, really look like old geezers). The straight ahead early tunes, like "No Reply," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," "I Feel Fine" (with Jimmy recreating the landmark opening feedback) and "Norwegian Wood" (with Jimmy hauling out a sitar). Plenty of solo tunes, too, including "Jealous Guy," Mother," "Watching the Wheels," Instant Karma," and, of course, "Imagine."
The later Beatles songs really showcase their genius, when they somehow capture the production values of those complex studio arrangements, with the five Faux augmented by the Creme Tangerine Strings, the Hogshead Horns, and/or the Newtopia Choir. There was "Tomorrow Never Knows" (the show opener), "Rain," "Come Together," "Strawberry Fields Forever" (complete with the backwards coda and Lee and Pagano on dueling drum kits), "I Am The Walrus," "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," and, of course, "A Day in the Life" as the finale. For an encore, you knew they'd have to come back with "All You Need Is Love" (which they did), and then they ended with "Give Peace a Chance," which had the the whole music hall on its feet singing along. Truly a night in the life!
Best-selling Rock Critic and Sirius Radio Host Dave Marsh, said:
"The Fab Faux have the hardest job in the history of R & R and they pull it off damn well. All rock bands want to be like the Beatles; these guys have the nerve to BE the Beatles. Amazingly, they're so good at it you learn new things about the originals."
The Fab Faux brings together the talents of five of New York's most respected
musicians: Will Lee of Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Vivino, band leader of the new 'Conan' Show, Rich Pagano, who has performed with Rosanne Cash, Ray Davies and released a solo effort Blurt Magazine described as "one of the best albums of 2009," Jack Petruzzelli, who has toured and recorded with Joan Osborne, Patti Smith and Rufus Wainwright, and Frank Agnello, whose musical credits include Phoebe Snow, Marshall Crenshaw and Joey Molland of Badfinger.
ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE named the band as No 18 on a list of the "40 reasons to get excited about music." Rolling Stone also praised: "sometimes a tribute band sounds better than the original." In a live concert review, THE WASHINGTON POST's John Kelly blogged that the band had tackled "the task of reverse engineering the Beatles' late catalogue, obsessively learning every guitar figure, every drum fill, every lush harmony, every tap of the cowbell and shake of the tambourine, until the songs could be played in concert." THE HUFFINGTON POST raved: "They do the one thing, no amount of officially sanctioned Beatles merchandise can do... bring The Beatles music back to life."
The Fab Faux's Jack Petruzzelli recently appeared live on FOX-TV in Washington, D.C. to discuss the band's approach to recreating the albums of The Beatles, note-for-note. Watch the segment, here:
https://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/entertainment/the-fab-faux-performs-live-beatles-music-052110
THE WASHINGTON POST - 'CLICK TRACK' POP MUSIC BLOG - LIVE CONCERT REVIEW
https://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/05/in_concert_the_fab_faux_at_lis.html#more
The Fab Faux commemorated the 43rd Anniversary of The Beatles' performance on The Ed Sullivan Show with an appearance Late Show with David Letterman. Check out their fantastic recreation of 'I Am The Walrus' here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lknCpGbsJc
Recent interviews: The Fab Faux keeps Beatlemania alive and prospering:
https://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/movies/the-fab-faux-keeps-beatlemania-alive-and-prospering
Fab Faux bring Beatles tunes to New Brunswick
East Brunswick native Jack Petruzzelli plays keyboards & guitar
https://newstranscript.gmnews.com/news/2009/0930/front_page/011.html
The John Lennon 70th Birthday concert marked The Fab Faux's return to Radio City Music Hall, following their sold-out 10th Anniversary event, during which they delivered a 36-song marathon performance that began with 'Magical Mystery Tour' and ended three hours later with 'Hey Jude' -- with the audience of more than 6,000 people on its feet. Their 10th Anniversary 'Psychedelia!' concert was The Fab Faux's largest headlining concert ever, their largest-ever sold out concert, and their largest NY concert-to-date as well.
Visit https://www.thefabfaux.com/guests/FabFauxNews/ to see the full itinerary of upcoming Fab Faux tour dates!
The Fab Faux are now in a league of their own, consistently performing music that The Beatles themselves never played live. Beginning with a pair of concerts at Webster Hall in late '07, the band has reached a new level of fan support as well as media awareness, with growing coverage including ABC-TV World News Tonight with Charles Gibson, NPR, Rolling Stone, Associated Press, Reuters Newswire, NY-1 News, The New York Times, NY Post, New Yorker, NY Sun, Hollywood Reporter, Time Out NY, The Nation and much more. An NPR Morning Edition segment (https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18342562 ) praised the group as a "Collective that's about attention to detail." A Front Page feature in The Hollywood Reporter noted: "After nearly 10 years together, (they) find themselves in the midst of a surprising leap from club fringe to center stage..." Critics have weighed in, and have described the band as nothing less than "Brilliant" (AP). A live concert review in THE NATION.com described their show as "Almost magical." Read Jimmy Vivino's interview with EXPRESS (a publication of THE WASHINGTON POST, here,) https://www.expressnightout.com/content/2009/04/around_for_another_revolver_fab_faux.php Read Will Lee's interview with GLIDE MAGAZINE here: https://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/interview-will-lee-of-the-fab-faux/
The Fab Faux celebrated their 10th Anniversary with a sold-out concert at New York's legendary Radio City Music Hall, and delivered a 36-song marathon performance that began with 'Magical Mystery Tour' and ended three hours later with 'Hey Jude' -- with the audience of more than 6,000 people on its feet. Their 10th Anniversary 'Psychedelia!' concert was The Fab Faux's largest headlining concert ever, their largest-ever sold out concert, and their largest NY concert-to-date as well.
ABOUT THE FAB FAUX:
With a commitment to the accurate reproduction of The Beatles' repertoire, The Fab Faux treat the seminal music with unwavering respect, and are known for their painstaking recreations of the songs (with emphasis on the later works never performed live by the Beatles). Far beyond a cover band, they play the music of The Beatles so impeccably that one must experience it to believe it. Imagine hearing complex material like "Strawberry Fields Forever" or "I Am the Walrus" performed in complete part-perfect renditions; or such harmony-driven songs as "Because", "Nowhere Man", and "Paperback Writer", reproduced not only note-for-note, but with extra vocalists to achieve a double-tracked effect.
The musical virtuosity of The Fab Faux - in actuality five of the hardest working musicians in NYC - completely up-ends the concept of a Beatles tribute band. Far beyond being extended sets of cover versions, their astounding shows are an inspired re-discovery of the Beatles' musical magic, as The Fab Faux tackles the group's most demanding material live onstage in a way that has to be experienced to be believed.
Calling them, "the greatest Beatles cover band - without the wigs," Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke wrote, "the Faux invigorate the artistry of even the Beatles' most intricate studio masterpieces with top chops and Beatlemaniac glee." Approaching the songs with the intent of playing them live as accurately in musical reading and in spirit as possible, The Faux's breathtaking performances tend to dispel all concertgoers' previous notions of a Beatles tribute act.
The Fab Faux are a labor of love that was born in 1998 when neighbors Jimmy Vivino,
bandleader/guitarist for Conan O'Brien's new show, 'Conan,' and Will Lee (who's played with all 4 Beatles), bassist for Paul Shaffer's CBS Orchestra on the Late Show With
David Letterman kicked around the idea during an elevator ride in their NYC building. Rounding out the line-up are lead-singing drummer/producer Rich Pagano (Rosanne Cash, Patti Smith, sugarCane cups, etc.), guitarist Frank Agnello (Marshall Crenshaw, Phoebe Snow, etc.) and ace keyboardist/guitarist Jack Petruzzelli (Joan Osborne Band, Rufus Wainwright). All five principals contribute vocals, making the Faux's soaring harmonies as resonant as their multi-instrumental chops, which are further enhanced by the four-piece Hogshead Horns (with Blues Brothers, Blood, Sweat & Tears and SNL band alums) and Creme Tangerine Strings.
he Faux's high energy shows have generated serious buzz not only at top NYC venues including The Beacon Theater, Hammerstein Ballroom, and Webster Hall - with Beatles fans, movie stars and world class musicians in attendance - but at major dates in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Park City, Utah (Sundance), Philadelphia and Toronto, among other locales. They've headlined 4 of the last 5 years at Liverpool's annual Beatle Week, playing before 35,000 Beatle fanatics - while in England, they had the rare honor of recording an original song at Abbey Road Studios - and also delighted the masses performing live on the Howard Stern Show. Benefit and corporate dates have included events for JVC, the N.B.A. and the Michael J. Fox Parkinsons Research Foundation.
"It's not just a cover band," says the Faux's Pagano. "This is the greatest Pop music ever written, and we're such freaks for it." Imagine the instrumental complexities of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "A Day in the Life" performed part-perfect with an orchestra. The lush, multi-layered harmonies of "Because," and "Eleanor Rigby" sung note-for-note. The adrenaline rush of "Helter Skelter" and "Paperback Writer," delivered spot on...
Visit www.thefabfaux.com.
Upcoming concerts: https://www.thefabfaux.com/shows.php
News: https://www.thefabfaux.com/guests/FabFauxNews/
Hot on the heels of her BRIT Critics' Choice Award win and stunning performance, LAVA/Universal/Republic Records excitedly announces the U.S. release date of JESSIE J's debut full-length, W
