Area bands saying yeah, yeah, yeah to music of The Beatles at Blind Pig tribute show Saturday

Posted on Wed, Feb 29, 2012 : 5:11 a.m.

Area bands saying yeah, yeah, yeah to music of The Beatles at Blind Pig tribute show Saturday

By Roger LeLievre

Alejandra O'Leary is co-organizing the Beatles tribute.

Beatlemaniacs should be in heaven Saturday night. That’s when around a dozen mostly local musicians and bands will come together to offer a night of eclectic interpretations of Beatles tunes at the first-ever Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Jam at the Blind Pig.

“We have some straight-up rock and roll bands on the bill, we have a hip-hop artist on the bill, we have some moody folk indie people on the bill,” said Alejandra O’Leary, one of the event organizers as well as a musical participant. “You can invite a broad range of artists to interpret these songs, its’ a natural fit. … Every album, every era, every facial hair is fair game. “It’s a good mix of Beatle-y bands and non-Beatle-y bands, I think,” she added.

Longtime local favorites George Bedard & The Kingpins will perform a special mid-show set of music from bands that influenced The Beatles. He’ll be followed by nearly a dozen others who will delve into the Fab Four’s formidable catalog.

PREVIEW

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Jam

Who: George Bedard & The Kingpins, Back Forty, The Finer Things, Hullabaloo, Alejandra O’Leary Rock ‘n’ Roll Band, Spencer Michaud, Wolfie Complex, Match by Match, Doug Mains & the City Folk, David Nefesh, Greatest Hits.
What: Ann Arbor area bands interpret The Beatles’ songbook. Tree Town Sounds’ Matthew Altruda hosts.
Where: Blind Pig, 208 S. First St.
When: Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 3. Show starts at 8:00.
How much: $10. Advance tickets available online

Also performing will be Back Forty (folk-rock), The Finer Things (young Ann Arbor pop trio), Hullabaloo (horn-based Latin jazz and swing band), Alejandra O’Leary Rock ‘n’ Roll Band (pop-rock), Spencer Michaud (singer-songwriter and guitarist), Wolfie Complex (bluegrass), Match to Match (dark indie-folk), Doug Mains & the City Folk (Lansing folk band with cello and strings), David Nefesh (Detroit pop-rock) and Greatest Hits (pop band that often covers The Beatles).

“My band—three-fifths of us are hardcore unredeemable Beatles geeks, so it just seemed natural for us,” said O’Leary. “But, obviously, everybody loves The Beatles and they have so many songs and so many different styles that you can get bands from all different genres to jump on board and find something to interpret from their catalog that works for them.”

Hopes are high that the show will be popular enough to make it an annual event, added O’Leary, who put the jam together along with Matthew Altruda from the local music-themed radio program "Tree Town Sound." Altruda will also host the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Jam. O’Leary said the event was inspired by the annual Folk the Police concert recently concluded and the way that show brought the music community together. “I feel like we need more of that, more chances for bands to come together and play for each other's’ communities and try to bring in people who might not even know about local bands,” she said. “What we’re really hoping is this will be a catalyzing event for the whole Ann Arbor music scene.”

She said that that covering a Beatles tune is more than just playing the song.

“There’s something really magical about those songs, and one of the challenges for the bands is to actually find Beatles songs they can really own with their sound. It’s very difficult to interpret their songs just the way (The Beatles) did them. Only really great (bands) can do that.

George Bedard and the Kingpins will kick off the show.

photo by Jeffrey Smith

"We went through a long process with my band of going through all the songs we loved to see if they would work for us to play them, not because they were too difficult to play, but did it sound good for who we are. I’m hoping the bands will all learn something about themselves by going through the song selection process.”

To help get in the spirit of the event, organizers are offering half-price admission for fans named Sadie, Rita, Pam, Michelle, and Prudence (ID required), and half-price admission for fans age 64 and up (ID required).

“We’ll see if there’s anyone named Prudence in Ann Arbor,” O’Leary said.

“What we really want at the end of the day is for people to come out to see one band they know and discover other bands that they didn’t know about,” she added. “We’re hoping it goes well and we pack the house so it will happen every year.”

Comments

Tommie Twotime

Fri, Apr 20, 2012 : 3:07 p.m.

Bunch of liberal hipsters in skinny jeans lol. I love that people are pretending to take the ann arbor music scene seriously!!

Matthew Altruda

Tue, Mar 6, 2012 : 1:34 p.m.

Liz Lemon? I love it!! Talk all the trash you would like because no one is listening. However, I would be happy to give you a hug and cheer you up. The Beatles show sold out and everyone good paid very well no thanks to you and your rotten apples. high5 Matthew Altruda ps.. Folk The Police was epic and you know it because you were there.

J. Sorensen

Thu, Mar 1, 2012 : 11:13 a.m.

"To help get in the spirit of the event, organizers are offering half-price admission for fans named Sadie, Rita, Pam, Michelle, and Prudence (ID required)" But not Jude's? Dang! I've always been a Jude and always loved that song dearly! Oh well... I'll be out in the alley with Rocky Racoon.

Steve Pepple

Thu, Mar 1, 2012 : 12:17 p.m.

Thanks for the morning chuckle.

aafan

Thu, Mar 1, 2012 : 12:34 a.m.

The whole point of the show is to create a musical community in the area by putting on an awesome show. No one is being forced to do this and no one is in this for the money. See you there!

shanrock

Thu, Mar 1, 2012 : 12:28 a.m.

Yay for aafan! To quote: "I am one of organizers of this event. This event is a chance for fans to not only be exposed to local bands, but to directly support local bands. Tickets are $10. The Blind Pig takes the first $280 and after that all the rest of the money goes directly to the artists. If the show brings in just 200 people (less than half the Pig's capacity), that's $1700 to split among 11 bands. Not a bad payout for playing 2-3 songs. Matthew Altruda is volunteering his time. Hopefully the show sells out and the bands do even better. Musicians deserve to get paid for their work, and this show is a testament to that truth. It is also gonna be a hella fun night." Time to make some lemonade out of that lemon! ;-)

Liz Lemon

Wed, Feb 29, 2012 : 11:58 p.m.

Maybe not bad for 2-3 songs on stage. But who walks on stage and just starts playing? No set up? What about the rehearsal time to get the songs right? What about the bands that have 4 or 5 or 6 members? How does that split out? What about the bands that could be out playing other gigs that featured just their music? The local music smorgasbords popping up of late smack of egotism on the part of organizers eager to "host" a huge show that's guaranteed to bring in a lot of people, but not to make sure the bands are taken care of.

aafan

Wed, Feb 29, 2012 : 11:29 p.m.

I am one of organizers of this event. This event is a chance for fans to not only be exposed to local bands, but to directly support local bands. Tickets are $10. The Blind Pig takes the first $280 and after that all the rest of the money goes directly to the artists. If the show brings in just 200 people (less than half the Pig's capacity), that's $1700 to split among 11 bands. Not a bad payout for playing 2-3 songs. Matthew Altruda is volunteering his time. Hopefully the show sells out and the bands do even better. Musicians deserve to get paid for their work, and this show is a testament to that truth. It is also gonna be a hella fun night.

Liz Lemon

Wed, Feb 29, 2012 : 10:39 p.m.

With all these recent shows featuring 10-15 bands like Folk the Police, this Beatle Cover Show, the Christmas Ugly Sweater Show, how exactly are organizers paying the artists a decent commission for their time? Or is this just about bringing in a ton of bands to pack the Pig while the bands do it for the "exposure" and no cash? I hardly think splitting the door among a dozen bands amounts to more than a few bucks an hour per band member. To quote Mr. Altruda from a Dec. 19, 2010 Annarbor.com article: "I have always felt that I was on the musicians' side of the business, fighting against the bureaucracies of the evil music business world. I'm not a musician, I don't play any instruments, but I've always considered myself on the musician's side. I've always carried myself that way." Oh have you, Tuna? It's hard to hear your words over the sound of your ego.

aabikes

Wed, Feb 29, 2012 : 1:49 p.m.

This is going to be a great event! A smorgasbord of live local music.