MEET THE BEATERS

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a hardcore Beatle fanatic. I've loved the greatest rock group in history group since I was a kid and have spent a lot of time (and money) listening to their music, watching their DVDs, reading countless biographies, and collecting memorabilia. I've seen Paul McCartney in concert four times and Ringo Starr once (sadly I never got to see John Lennon or George Harrison perform live).

To me, the universal appeal of the Beatles are their timeless songs. I am of the opinion that if you don't like the Beatles music, then there must be something wrong with you. My three kids love the Fab Four and judging by the amount of T-shirts I see around town, a lot of people in Thailand do too. So when I learned that there was a full-fledged Thai Beatles tribute band that performs regularly at a local restaurant, I just had to go check them out.

The Beaters can be seen live on stage every Wednesday night at the Log Home on Sukhumvit Soi 55. I wasn't really sure what to expect from them, but I was immediately impressed by their skill and obvious love for the material. They played every song flawlessly and seemed to be having a good time doing it.

Most of the songs in their set were from the earlier Beatles albums including "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "All My Loving," "I Feel Fine," "Ticket to Ride," "Can't Buy Me Love," "Nowhere Man," "Day Tripper," and the Beatles version of Buddy Holly's "Words of Love." Based on their costumes, I expected the whole set to comprised of songs from this part of the band's career, and was pleasantly surprised to see them roll out such later classics as "Let it Be," "Hey Jude," "I Will," "Don't Let Me Down," "Across the Universe," and my all-time favorite "A Day in the Life." Many of these were requests from the audience and I was tempted to see if I could get them to play something really obscure like "Helter Skelter" or "Hey Bulldog," but I didn't get a chance because I was too busy enjoying the show.

Sure, there were little things I could have nitpicked about the performance, like the fact that "Paul" was right-handed...

"John" sang lead on "Taxman..."

While their "George" supplied the main vocals for "Twist and Shout."

"Ringo" didn't even sing at all, even when the band played "Yellow Submarine."

But all this didn't really matter. These guys were having a good time and the audience was too and that's what's important. They were really nice too and seemed to appreciate the shirt I was wearing.

On a personal note, the Log Home will always hold a special place in my heart because it was the site of my son Max's debut on guitar a few Sundays back.

He played a great version of "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks backed by a full band and I was pretty impressed by his performance (not to mention quite proud). I think this kids got a future (if he keeps practicing). Keep it up buddy!