The Fab Faux

I just got in from my first Fab Faux concert.

What, you ask, is the Fab Faux?

It is a group of five core musicians, plus friends, who do Beatles tunes live, in a way that’s so accurate as to be frightening.

The most easily identifiable members of the group are Will Lee (Letterman show bassist) and Jimmy Vivino (Conan show guitarist).  They have been doing this for about eleven years; a veritable overnight sensation.

My friend has seen them rather a lot.  He had spare tickets for today’s show so we were invited along.  Front row is not a bad place to sit :)  My first big surprise was Frank Agnello, a fellow left-handed guitarist.

Jack Petruzzelli plays keys, guitar, percussion, and sings.  Rich Pagano plays drums and sings (very well).  My friend’s son took a lesson with Rich earlier this year, inspiring him to sing as well as play the drums.

These guys were tight, hot, accurate, entertaining, and appeared to be having a tremendous time. Have you ever heard any group do “Because” live, complete with instrumentation and all harmonies?  It rendered me speechless.

Audio aside, the visuals were enough to keep the most attention-addled person busy.  Will Lee was dressed in some sort of union jack suit and did not remain in one spot for more than two seconds.  For those looking a little harder, the most interesting part was watching the members pick up little noisemakers to do small parts in songs.

My favorite bit was watching to see what Frank was going to do next.  He had a keyboard with all sorts of odd noises, plus a theremin-like controller.  ”Penny Lane” featured a tiny bat used to strike a small cymbal at just the right time.  ”A Day in the Life” brought out a humongous alarm clock.  His dry presentation made this a whole lot more amusing for me.  Wish I could have chatted with him afterwards.

I know this is tantamount to blasphemy but I think these guys sound better than the Beatles were ever able to in a live setting.

The FF don’t play out a lot but if you have the chance, you really need to see them.  Hit their website for more info and samples.

TECH REPORT

The venue was the State Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  Front row had me staring a pair of eighteen inch direct radiators in the face.  On the floor in front were a few double fifteen inch bass boxes.  By the eighteens was a tiny full range Meyer box.  At no point was any of this deafening, although it was a bit visually obstructive.

The sound was surprisingly good.

Jimmy Vivino played guitar, keys, and percussion.  The guitars included an SG, an Epi Casino, and a pair of Strats (one maple, one rosewood board), as well as a red Les Paul.  Most of this ran through a Vox AC30 (separate head and cab).

Will Lee played a Hofner Beatle bass for a few tunes then stuck with a white Rick 4001.  The low end was punchy.  He played through a tall Vox stack of some variety (I’m bad with Vox).

Frank Agnello naturally caught most of my attention.  The only righty conversion was an Epi Casino (with Bigsby).  Also appearing were (factory lefties) a Les Paul Standard, R6 LP Goldtop, J-45, and an Am Std Tele.  He definitely outdoes me in Les Pauls but I’m all over him on Strats :)