Bringing their magical history tour for a stop at John R. Emens Auditorium, "Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles," looks to educate audiences on the Beatles legacy through a multimedia-packed, historically-based concert.
Imaginations of all ages will be given a chance to glimpse into the illustrious career of the Fab Four as Rain performs a two hour concert of Beatles material, A to Z.
"It basically takes you from their early arrival in the United States, all the way through to when they broke up at the Abbey Road album and everything in between," Mark Lewis, keyboardist and percussionist for the band and manager, said.
Rain started as a Los Angeles band that performed original material, as well as some Beatles covers, however, due to the reception of the covers, Lewis and his friends decided to devote their time to Beatles tunes.
"We started to get a big following of Beatle fans, and next thing you knew, we decided ‘let's try doing a Beatles night on off nights at our nightclub,'" Lewis said. "We found that we were able to do quite well, next to what we were used to doing as a Top 40 band. A little light bulb went off going ‘maybe there's something to this.'"
Upon pursuing their newly discovered talent, Rain looked for any gig they could find.
Decades later, the band is now a nationally touring Broadway production.
"We got bigger and people that were interested in the show, that had more experience with Broadway-type touring shows, actual Broadway shows, got involved and came onboard. We started to do well," he said. "So we had the opportunity to really pull out the stops and try to go to Broadway. And that's what we did."
Despite lineup changes, the band has stuck to "maintaining the integrity of the Beatles and their music," learning that with every day in this life comes a little help from friends, authors, experts and technologies.
"It's ongoing. It's never-ending. There's new sources of isolated tracks out there. There's rare footage from people's personal archives. New books have come out all the time. There's all kinds of stuff that gives you insight into character and music," Lewis said.
Although Lewis never saw the Beatles perform live, he grew up during their prime, experiencing the everyday exhilaration that came with Beatlemania.
"It was the best. I feel like I'm very fortunate and blessed to have grown up in the sixties and got to hear the Beatles albums when they were brand new albums. That I was able to go into a record store the first day a new Beatles record came out and go and take the plastic wrap off it and put it on the spindle and listen to something like the "Rubber Soul" or "Sgt. Pepper" albums for the first time," he said. "On every level from song writing to production to arrangement, they were just so above anything else that was happening at that time. It was great. I can't think of anything that was as invigorating and exciting and rewarding as being able to open a Beatles album for the first time when it was all new and fresh."
Emens Auditorium hopes its audience can experience just a taste of the Beatlemania invigoration.
"The Beatles are one of those groups that touched the lives of millions of people. Many consider this to be the greatest band of all time. No record collection is complete without its representation. Demand for their recordings will probably live on for generations," Robert Myers, director of Emens and Pruis Hall, said.
While Rain's homage to the Beatles will come in the form of a concert, the band hopes that through multimedia and well-educated representation audiences will head back homeward with a greater appreciation for the band's legacy.
"When the show is over I think young kids come out having a full understanding of what the Beatles were all about. How they went through changes in the way they looked, changes in the way they sounded. Changes that went on in the world and it's all in the show," Lewis said.
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