Classic Albums Live brings the Beatles “Revolver” to Life at Roy Thompson Hall

On Friday, February 7, I entered the iconic and very prestigious Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto. I did this with some reservations about the show I was about to see. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. I had never attended a show by Classic Albums Live, but when I heard they would be performing my favourite Beatles album, the 1966 release “Revolver”, I figured that was a good way to test the ability of this troupe. Well, let me tell you that I was absolutely blown away by what I saw. CAL is an institution of music at this point. They perform a large repertoire of the worlds top musicians covering icon music from The Who, David Bowie, The Beatles and everything in between. Their disclaimer is “note for note, cut for cut” and after witnessing this Beatles presentation, I can assure you it’s not just a clever tagline.

From the first note of the George Harrison classic “Taxman”, they immediately laid down the gauntlet and set the tone for the rest of the show. It was a truly magical performance of one of the greatest albums ever made. No stone was left unturned with this 14-piece group featuring horns (Chris Roberts- sax, Steve Dyte – trumpet, Christian Overton – trombone), strings, (Erika Nielsen – cello, Maya Killtron – violin, Laura Bates – violin, Brielle Goheen – violin), and of course sitar (Anwar Khurshid). The core band was brilliant – guitars (Rob Phillips, Dave Azzolini), bass (Mark Stewartson), piano (Josh Hoffman) and drums (Ryan Granville-Martin) with the lead vocal talents of Kevin Bath with help from basically everyone in the band. The guitar tones, the drum fills, the harmonies. It was all there. When the horns weren’t blowing, the players were busy creating all the incidental percussion and background sounds that make “Revolver” the album that it is down to a science. The all-female string section was also fantastic, shining brightly on songs like “Eleanor Rigby”.

Revolver is a special album because it features a lot of contributions from all the Beatles members, whereas on other releases Lennon and McCartney do the bulk of the writing and singing. This album features three songs from George Harrison, “Taxman”, “I Want to Tell You” and “Love You To” which was amazing to see live with the sitar ripping hard. The album also features the biggest track by Ringo Starr “Yellow Submarine” which was sung by the drummer, naturally. The incidental background sounds also really stood out on this number. The album also features amazing deeper cuts from John Lennon such as “I’m Only Sleeping”, “She Said She Said”, “Doctor Robert”, “And Your Bird Can Sing” and the closer “Tomorrow Never Knows” which was another highlight of the show. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Beatles album without classics from Paul McCartney including “Good Day Sunshine”, “For No One” and “Got to Get You Into My Life” which showed the versatility and prowess of the CAL horn section. The presentation of the album was so impressive and to my ears flawless.

If that wasn’t enough, the band came out for a second set and did all kinds of classics including “I Am the Walrus”, “Magical Mystery Tour”, “Norwegian Wood”, “A Day in the Life” and many, many more Beatles classics to the delight of the nearly sold out audience.

I am a hard critic when it comes to anything Beatles as they are one of my favourite bands – I even used to play in a Beatles tribute show myself. But I would highly recommend this show if it ever comes back around, and personally look forward to seeing future Classic Albums Live presentations of the dozens of bands they do this for all across North America. So if you looking for a change of pace from the Bovine Sex Club or the Hardluck with your favourite someone this may be a great change of pace!

For more information check out www.classicalbumslive.com