Abbey Road review from the Washington Post

["Brian Cady" <cadyb@home.com>]

On line at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17746-2001Jul18.html


'Abbey Road': The Wanna-Beatles
Thursday, July 19, 2001; Page C10

To borrow a sports cliche, it was a show of two halves, and one was more
credible than the other.

The first portion of "A Walk Down Abbey Road: A Tribute to the Beatles"
Tuesday night at Wolf Trap was an FM oldies blowout, with hits from Alan
Parsons, Todd Rundgren, the Who (represented by bassist John Entwistle) and
Heart (vocalist Ann Wilson), performed with varying degrees of enthusiasm by
the artists and four additional musicians.

The nostalgic patrons could have left at intermission without feeling
cheated after hearing such chestnuts as "Hello, It's Me," "Barracuda," "Eye
in the Sky" and "My Generation."

The second half of the show found the eclectic "supergroup" -- including
David Pack of Ambrosia -- romping through the Beatles catalogue with
abandon, doing "Back in the U.S.S.R.," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "Day
Tripper," "Here Comes the Sun" and "Ticket to Ride," among about a dozen
others, turning the Beatles' studio pop craft into '80s-style arena rockers,
complete with a vocally muddy sound mix and guitar-driven bombast.

There were moments of tastefulness -- Wilson's flute during "Fool on the
Hill," Rundgren's solo acoustic "Hide Your Love Away" and Parsons's delicate
"Blackbird" -- but in the end the ensemble was simply an impressively
talented cover band that was better off doing its own music. We can only
imagine what the Beatles would have sounded like doing these songs live; the
show may have been a heartfelt tribute, but it's too bad the originals
weren't around to defend themselves.

-- Buzz McClain
© 2001 The Washington Post Company

        -Brian in Atlanta
         The Who This Month!
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