Arts & Entertainment
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles, making its Detroit debut,
covers the Fab Four Ed Sullivan to Abbey Road.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
M
ark Lewis remembers how
much his mom wanted him to
be a serious professional pia-
nist. She loved the instrument and made it
her hobby.
Whenever there was a top keyboardist
performing on the TV variety show hosted
by Ed Sullivan, his mom would call him
into the room and repeat that, with prac-
tice, he could do as well.
One Sunday night in 1964, from a dis-
tant room, Lewis heard music that was
very different from the sounds his mother
called to his attention. They came from the
Beatles making their debut appearance in
America, and the modern riffs were much
more to his liking.
Lewis quickly became a fan. He even
wore a collarless gray suit, similar to one
seen in the rocking quartet's wardrobe, at
his bar mitzvah.
Lewis, through high school and col-
lege, didn't indulge in thoughts of finding
a prosperous career in entertainment
although he did play in local bands.
Gradually, when he and four friends
started concentrating on Beatles' songs,
they found their niche and launched Rain,
a tribute band appearing Thursday, March
19, at the Masonic Temple Theatre.
"We cover the music of the Beatles, from
their earliest hits to the end of their career
together" says Lewis, 57, who is the fifth
member of the group and plays the piano
offstage as four others take the parts of
Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo
Starr and John Lennon. "Sometimes, we
even venture into their music a little bit
after they broke up. We might do a song
like Imagine' because it's very emotional.
"We like to give audiences a feeling of
what it would be like if they were able to
sit in a beautiful theater with great sound
and see the Beatles perform their greatest
music. We have a multimedia setup that
takes them to the era and gives them a
feeling of what was going on in the world
when the songs were introduced:"
To accomplish this, the concert fea-
tures five different scene changes, three
video screens and live camera projection,
combining television commercials and
historical video footage from the '60s. The
backdrop might show films suggesting the
space race or the hula-hoop fad.
Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles features, left to right, Joey Curatolo (Paul
McCartney), Ralph Castelli (Ringo Starr), Joe Bithorn (George Harrison) and Steve
Landes (John Lennon).
The band, with Lewis also taking on
management roles, reaches from early hits,
such as "Can't Buy Me Love" and "I Want
to Hold Your Hand:' to the later numbers,
such as "Here Comes the Sun" and "Come
Together."
Rain did not start out as a tribute band.
Members were more interested in writ-
ing their own music and performing at
California clubs.
Along the way, they decided there might
be more interest in their songs if they
mixed them into a show that featured
Beatles' hits.
"We couldn't survive in the 1970s doing
just our own music:' explains Lewis, who
earned a psychology degree from California
State University-Northridge and thought
that Beatles music would provide a living in
times of limited musical success.
"Clubs would promote us as doing a
Beatles' night, and we started to get a fol-
lowing.
"As we moved on, Dick Clark hired us
to do a soundtrack for a movie called The
Birth of the Beatles. He couldn't use the
actual tracks legally so he found sound-
alikes, and that catapulted us to the next
level. We went on to casinos and fairs, and
our tours expanded."
Rain members who wanted to spend
more time working on their own music
left the group early.
The current musicians — Joey Curatolo
(McCartney), Joe Bithorn (Harrison),
Ralph Castelli (Ringo) and Steve Landes
(Lennon) — have joined in bringing
their show to wider audiences with Rain:
The Beatles Experience, which has aired
on PBS stations, including Detroit Public
Television-Channel 56. Their Web site,
www.raintribute.com, offers recordings of
live performances.
"We feel honored to play this great
music, and we believe it's our job to play
the songs as they were performed on the
recordings:' Lewis says.
Rain, about to be in Detroit for the first
time, will go through multiple costume
changes to present numbers in ways that
reflect authentic styles when the songs
were on the charts.
"Although we've never met any of the
Beatles, I feel like I know them and have a
deep understanding of their music:' Lewis
says. "We've done research to know what
they were doing at the times they were
writing their hits."
Lewis, who lives in Nevada with his
wife and two sons, looks forward to see-
Keyboardist/manager Mark Lewis
performs offstage.
ing extended family during his visit to
Motown. David Rosenfeld, his nephew by
marriage now living in California, is from
Michigan and still has relatives in the area.
"My wife, Debbie, has been a stay-at-
home mom because I'm away so much of
the time:' says Lewis, happy that the con-
cert is appropriate for people of all ages.
"Both our boys, 20 and 15, are musicians,
and they have had bar mitzvahs.
"I'm very proud of my heritage, and
I want to hand the culture down to my
kids. We belong to a temple and go on the
holidays."
Rain members consider themselves
trailblazers in the field of tribute bands.
"We've evolved over a period of many
years and haven't looked back:' Lewis says.
"My motivation has involved making Rain
more and more successful, and I've used
my business sense as a guide." El
Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles will
be performed 7:30 p.m. Thursday,
March 19, at the Masonic Temple
Theatre, 500 Temple Ave., in Detroit.
$25-$75. Information: (313) 471-6611.
Tickets: (248) 645-6666 or
www.OlympiaEntertainment.com .
March 12 . 2009
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