Attend any tribute show staged by a cadre of professional and polished performers and you know you'll hear a host of big hits produced by the beloved band receiving the tribute.
But in what order those hits are typically played, by the group on stage, is up to the group on stage and how they're feeling that night. Will the tribute artists go with the band's early stuff? Or novelty songs? Deeper cuts? Later surprises? You'll have to wait and see.
If you know your Beatles though -- and we're just betting you do, through and through -- and you're specifically a scholar of the quartet's Southern California shows, then you'll know exactly what will be played when The Fab Faux strap on their guitars and grab their drumsticks in Northridge on Saturday, Oct. 17.
The supertribute group -- guitarist Jimmy Vivino fronts Conan O'Brien's house band and bassist Will Lee has rocked with all four Beatles -- are riding the Magical Mystery Tour Bus straight for the Valley Performing Arts Center to rock, in full, the Fab Four's set lists from their much-written-about Dodger Stadium and Hollywood Bowl shows.
You know all the lore, surely, so we'll wait patiently as you fill us in. What? Oh, you're so right, dear Beatles buff: The Dodger Stadium show was the band's penultimate live concert, an event forever tied to Aug. 28, 1966. The Hollywood Bowl set list is from a couple of years before. Tell us the date. Again, you're correct: It was Aug. 23, 1964.
If you don't know all the songs, in order, from those concerts, a minute spent with Google will surely fill you in. If you want to see the Oct. 17 gig without Googling first, consider the first guitar strum to each new ditty as something fresh.
There is, in short, no right or wrong way to enjoy an accomplished tribute to an iconic band, and there's no set way to enjoy a show where the set lists are established from the get-go.
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And there is, unfortunately, no way to jet back to 1964 or 1966 to watch those historic concerts all over again. But thanks to The Fab Faux and a one-night-only, "Yesterday"-summoning show, you can be at both SoCal venues again for a few hours.
Of course, if you actually were there, you'll need to puff your chest and wear any memorabilia you kept, just to make everyone in the audience a mite jealous, in the best sense.
Who wouldn't brag that they saw the Beatles live back in the day? It's practically required and joyfully expected.
