rubber soul revolver: review

I had the privilege of catching the Sydney instalment of The Beatles Live presents Rubber Soul Revolver at the Opera House this past weekend. The two+ hour long show ran through each and every song of The Beatles iconic albums Rubber Soul and Revolver. Finishing off with two very special singles, the show was a rollercoaster ride of sound, dreamscape, and talent.

At the forefront of the Rubber Soul Revolver show was the quiet and passionate Husky Gawenda, the calm and talented Fergus Linacre, the jubilant Jordie Lane, and the honest and professional Marlon Williams. The group forms an unlikely quartet, but they pulled off the complex and hauntingly beautiful songs of the two albums with grace and style.

I lost myself in Michelle, Eleanor Rigby, She Said She Said and the finale of Day Tripper. Although not on my very top list of my favourite Beatles albums, it’s hard to say that the experience of hearing both albums performed live wasn’t top quality. Any Beatles song, to me is an important and ethereal experience.

I found it interesting that a huge host of musicians was playing music that was created by just four people. It really makes a statement for just how incredible The Beatles really are. Just the four of them created such intensely relatable, yet at the same time strangely massive and complicated, songs. It really makes you realise that there will never be a band quite like The Beatles ever again. Their legacy lives on through concerts like these and through the experience of hearing just how unique they are.

Something very much ruined my night, however. It had nothing to do with the talented musicians on stage at all though. It was to do with the audience members behind me.  A group of two couples, middle aged, spent the whole evening talking loudly to each other; commenting on the music and speaking about who knows what else. All I know is that they were drunk and annoying. I couldn’t get lost in the music – every two seconds was spent trying to block out the chatter behind me. It was infuriating; I wanted to lose myself, to enjoy the music, to get as close as I could to what it would be like to listen to a live Beatles concert!

I truly felt my inner age shining out – I am definitely an old soul. However, the principle of the thing still gets me. Everyone these days spend the majority of their time at concerts talking and not paying attention to the music (and don’t even get me started about spending the entire time snapping photos and checking in on Facebook). And this is not at all reminiscent of when The Beatles performed live and you could barely hear them over all the screaming girls. That was Beatlemania, that was a bunch of girls letting their passion for the music out in full throttle. What was happening behind me was just ignorance towards what The Beatles were, towards what they still are; a great band, deserving of all the time and attention we can give them.

But I’ve diverted too far. The concert itself was amazing. It was an experience of a lifetime. It was exactly what I’d expect The Beatles performing live to be like – dreamy, nostalgic, and absolutely mind blowing.