WILMINGTON — It was 12:30 a.m. early Monday morning, and after performing Beatles’ songs for more than three hours, The Threetles were ready to leave the stage at Wings to Go at Katie’s.
But the crowd had other plans. About five people had surrounded the Rehoboth Beach-based tribute band on stage, trying to get them to play their last requests. Others were chanting, “One more song!” It wasn’t quite the scene from the 1964 film “A Hard Day’s Night,” with the band running down the street and trying to escape the clutches of fans swept up in Beatlemania, but it showed the everlasting power of the Fab Four’s songs. Even though it’s been more than 47 years since The Beatles first entered a studio together to record “Love Me Do,” the band lives on through its music. Just last year, the first Beatles video game, “Beatles Rock Band,” was released, with The New York Times calling it “nothing less than a cultural watershed.” Also in 2009, all of The Beatles’ studio albums were re-released in both stereo and mono, giving fans their best listening experience yet with John, Paul, George and Ringo. Locally, The Beatles’ songs are still performed in bars and clubs. Their songs are in the sets for some of the state’s more popular cover bands, and Wilmington’s Paul Green School of Rock has even put on all-Beatles concerts, with teenagers getting in touch with their inner Mean Mr. Mustard. And on March 18 at the Schwartz Center (226 S. State St., Dover), the Canadian group Barrage will serve up a set of feverish, fiddle-led tunes that includes a blistering take on “Eleanor Rigby” (Tickets are $25; visit www.schwartzcenter.com). The latest local re-creation of The Beatles’ work comes Saturday night at Kelly’s Logan House, in Wilmington, when The Joe Trainor Trio will perform the 1969 Beatles album “Abbey Road” in its entirety – starting with the the trippy opening of John Lennon’s “Come Together” and ending with Paul McCartney’s closing ditty, “Her Majesty.” And it’s sure to be a unique interpretation, since the band has no guitar player. The concert, which includes an opening set by The Future Unwritten at 9:30 p.m., is a benefit for the Wilmington-based City Theater Company, which will receive a portion of the proceeds. The Joe Trainor Trio will also be performing songs off their piano-driven debut album, “Drive.” The choice to cover “Abbey Road” is timely. The Sundance Channel music series “Live From Abbey Road” kicked off its second season last week. Recording artists once again were inside the famed Abbey Road Studios in London where The Beatles recorded almost all of their songs. The show’s first episode was a tribute to the “Abbey Road” album, with acts like Counting Crows, Seal and Sugarland performing their favorite tracks from the record. Pushing the boundaries So why is The Beatles’ music so damn durable? “It’s so hard to chart new territory today, which is why so few bands even come close to that level of popularity or success based solely on their music,” says Trainor, whose group has re-created other albums at benefit concerts, like Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and Led Zeppelin’s “Led Zeppelin II.” “And it’s so obvious to say their songwriting was amazing, but it was also cutting edge for the time. “In 1966 through 1968, they were really trying to push the boundaries of popular music and it was a huge risk. They could have fallen flat on their faces.” Trainor also points to the many genres of music that The Beatles tackled – Tin Pan Alley, psychedelic and hard rock, pop, classical and Indian, among them “There hasn’t been anything these guys haven’t covered and they did it all in eight years – and years before anyone else,” says Trainor, who will sing and play piano during Saturday’s show with Kevin Niemi on bass and Mike Doroff on drums. A trio of back-up singers – Jill Knapp, Kerry-Kristine McElrone and Penny Carmack – will round out the group for the night. For The Threetles, made up of Cliff Hillis, Dennis Shocket and Pete Wiedmann, last weekend’s enthusiastic response to their set was nothing new. Even though they have played only about 10 shows over their two years together, they have seen the power of The Beatles’ music firsthand. The best example came at the Great Allentown Fair last summer, when the trio performed on an out-of-the-way stage while national acts like Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, Kelly Clarkson and Tim McGraw performed on the main stage. After a set filled with harmonies and deeper album cuts like “I’m Only Sleeping,” “Run For Your Life” and “This Boy,” they built up a large crowd from nothing. “We didn’t think anyone was going to come. We figured we needed a rehearsal anyway. There were all these bleachers out there, empty,” says Wiedmann, whose band (www.myspace.com/thethreetlesde) will next perform in both northern and southern Delaware this spring. “By the end, it might have been three-quarters full and we were like, ‘Holy crap!’ And when we were done, we had all these people walking up and thanking us. “Some had requests and others just wanted to share their love of The Beatles with us. It was so great. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something in that music that resonates with people, whether it’s the melodies, harmonies or the spirit that they invoke – the sense of pure joy that music can really bring out. It’s pretty extraordinary stuff.” For Trainor, his Beatles love obviously runs deep – so deep that performing “Abbey Road” in its entirety is actually a stripped-down version of an earlier idea. “In the past, I actually considered putting together a band and doing five nights of Beatles with two albums each night because I love them,” he says. “They’re just so great.”
