By Wanda Swenson
I took a trip back to my teen years a week ago when I attended the Battle of the Bands concert at the Corn Palace. The bands were Jumping Jack Flash, a Rolling Stones tribute band and Abbey Road…yep, you guessed it, a Beatles tribute band. My hubby and I have heard Abbey Road three times in the past and really enjoyed them, so we knew it would be worth the $15 just to hear them. We were pleasantly surprised with the performance of both bands.
I was never a fan of the Rolling Stones, but the performance of Jumping Jack Flash was top notch. The lead singer really had the Mick Jagger impersonation down with actions and vocals. He even left the stage and walked up and down every aisle in the Corn Palace singing and charming the audience. That band had the crowd pumped with their performance of “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” and “Under My Thumb.”
As I mentioned, we had heard Abbey Road at performances in Sioux Falls before, but the moment they came onstage, we knew this Abbey Road was not the same band. These performers were much younger than the guys whom had been in the original group and their sound, although good, was not of the same caliber as that original band. They played all the great Beatles songs and we sang along with every word… isn’t it amazing that after 50 years we still know the lyrics?
An interesting slant on their performance was the costume changes they made to distinguish the transformations the Beatles made in their career. The first set modeled the Beatles as they appeared in 1964 when they made their first appearance in America…black skinny pants and jackets, white shirts with black ties and mop tops.
For their second set they presented as Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with colorful clothes and longer hair and the third with casual clothes, wire rim glasses and even longer hair. It was effective and maybe even made their music sound better.
The premise of the concert was for the audience to decide which band was the best as the performers belittled and poked fun at each other during their sets trying to sway the audience decision, although no final vote was tallied or prize given. The two groups even joined forces to sing together at the end of the concert, which made for an enjoyable finale.
All in all the evening was fun and relaxing and a nice trip back to the ‘60s when our lives were simpler and we could “Imagine” what the future would bring.