The Fab Four performed at Kent State Tuscarawas Performing Arts Center

The Beatles are not just a band. They are, well, the Beatles, The Fab Four, who changed everything the minute they opened their mouths on the Ed Sullivan Show in February, 1964, an eternity ago it seems. I’ve always been a flat-out fan, holding them in a tier all by themselves both for their work as The Beatles and through the solo careers of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Their careers are within my lifetime, but I never got to see them live. So to get just a taste of that experience at Kent State University Tuscarawas Performing Arts Center Thursday night, Sept. 15 was rather a thrill. I’m grateful to say the Beatles tribute band The Fab Four did not disappoint the mostly full house at the PAC that night. Grateful because I really wanted them to be good, and they were. To bring a greater sense of the live Beatles experience to the stage, The Fab Four included impressionist George Trullinger as Ed Sullivan to emcee the show. Trullinger constituted a Fab Fifth with his introduction and funny audience banter during the band’s costume changes. (They took no intermission or break.)The Fab Four is made up of Ardy Sarraf as McCartney, Gilbert Bonilla as Lennon, Joe Bologna as Ringo and Gavin Pring as Harrison. Pring, remarkably, is from Liverpool, England, birthplace of the real Beatles. The rest of the band are American born. The show traverses the hit span of the Beatles from 1963 “I Saw Her Standing There” through the Abbey Road album with “Here Comes the Sun.” There are sensible gaps in the repertoire presented. You can’t do “Norwegian Wood” without a sitar or “Eleanor Rigby” without strings, but the range of songs was enough to give a good feel for the Beatles canon. The first costume change saw The Fab Four return to the stage in the Sgt. Pepper outfits. They also added longer wigs, mustaches and sideburns as the evening went on. The group had an array of guitars onstage authentic to the Beatles original instrument choices — Sarraf even played left handed, just as McCartney — and they rotated them out frequently to achieve differing sounds.Sarraf as McCartney sounded remarkably like the real thing as did the rest of The Fab Four as they belted out the familiar harmonies, which transcend those of any other group. The Beatles were famously popular in countries where English was barely known. It was their distinctive sound and their mix of voices backed by Ringo’s sweet-spot driving rhythms that caught the global ear back in the 1960s. It is impossible to imagine that decade without a Beatles soundtrack. They also changed and evolved with the decade in which they are forever nestled from pop love songs to the later psychedelic mystery lyrics. Midway through the show Sarraf sat solo and gave a powerful rendition of “Yesterday.” Pring sang a medley of pieces associated with the late George Harrison, and Bonilla gave a touching tribute to the late John Lennon. The Fab Four and Trullinger as Ed Sullivan continually interacted with the audience, encouraging the screams that only enhanced the experience of almost seeing the Beatles live. The Fab Four brought everyone to their feet with appreciative applause at the end and returned to the stage for an encore of “Hey Jude.” The Beatles tribute The Fab Four continued the PAC’s reputation for bringing high-grade entertainment to the area and would be welcome back to KSU Tuscarawas any time.