American English: the Complete Beatles Tribute March 16, 2013

American English: Strange Name for Pretty Good Beatles Tribute

                    By Glen Creason

    If the concert “American English” as heard at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts was any yardstick it appears that myself and a couple of thousand more of my generation never got their fill of the Beatles. Even though we have been listening to their seemingly endless songbook for over forty years those great songs just never get old. Billed as “the complete Beatles Tribute” this meticulously produced show, featuring four neo-mop-tops, had a very precious legacy to uphold in front of many silver-headed fans in the audience who may have actually seen the originals back when gas was 27 cents a gallon. Actually, this was not such a tough crowd. Throughout, they sang and clapped and even twisted in time with a huge helping of the lads wonderful tunes drawn from three periods of Beatlemania.

     I would have to say the concert had five stages: 1. “these guys aren’t the Beatles! 2. “Gee…these guys aren’t too bad. 3. Oh, I love that song!” 4. “gee…this is fun!” 5. What amazing memories of a great time and great band. Frank Canino, Eric Michaels, James Paul Lynch and Tom Cable were the imaginary four lads from Liverpool and they never broke character even when they had slight wardrobe malfunctions or the stage was dominated by keyboard wizard Ken Zemanek who plays a non-speaking part of producer George Martin. There was lots of what most of us came for...Beatle songs! Over thirty of the old gems and some even a bit esoteric like “Til” or “Roll Over Beethoven” or “Act Naturally.” Set one may have started a little slow with a sort of jittery “All My Lovin’” but picked up steam with sure fire winners like “ Hard Days Night,” “Can’t Buy Me Love” and a totally rocked out “Twist and Shout” that had many a middle-aged (or older) sacroiliacs swiveling. After a short intermission the more psychedelic stuff came out along with solo material and some of the best sound of the evening took place with “Sgt. Pepper,” “Lovely Rita,” “Magical Mystery Tour” and a rousing finale of “Revolution No. 9.”

     John and Paul were close enough and Ringo was pretty much Ringo but James Paul Lynch holds this production together as George whose strong guitar work made the show terrific and demonstrated how important the under-sung Harrison was to the greatest band ever.