The Fab Four brings the Beatles sound, a jam for Ukraine + 5 more top concerts to see

Beatlemania will return on Sunday, July 10, when the Fab Four once again take the Cape Cod Melody Tent stage. It has become almost tradition over the past decade for the Beatles tribute band to make the trek from their base in Los Angeles to Hyannis for a summertime show.

Read more about the band below, plus here are five more concerts to consider for the week ahead:

► To benefit the First Volunteer Surgical Hospital of Ukraine, there will be a "July Jam for Ukraine: A Mini-Music Fest & Benefit fundraiser from 3 to 9 p.m. Sunday, July 10 at Payomet Performing Arts Center (29 Old Dewline Road, North Truro). The venue is working with Kraina FM Ukraine, Ukraine242.com and WOMR to present the six-hour lineup of local and national acts.

The headliner is Canadian folk-rock singer-songwriter Jacob Moon, and other artists – who have all waived their fees to help — will include Dirty Water Dance Band, Stephen Russell, Chandler Travis, Blu Central, Woof Woof Meow, the Brooklyn Bluegrass Collective, Cary Morin and Lilli Lewis (fresh from the Montreal Jazz Festival) and more. Tickets: $25. 508-487-5400 or payomet.org.

► Session Americana is described as “a group of musicians’ musicians, a cast of top-shelf players, singers, and writers”: Billy Beard, Jon Bistline, Ry Cavanaugh, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting and Jefferson Hamer. The internationally recognized group, known for playing at the Toad and Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 14 on the outdoor stage at Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Falmouth Road (Route 28). Tickets: $35, $30 for members, $33 for seniors and veterans; https://artsonthecape.org/, 508-428-0669. If weather cancels, the show will be rescheduled for July 18 if possible.

► As part of the summer concert series at Naukabout Brewing Company (13 Lake Ave., Mashpee), Michael Glabicki, singer-guitarist of rock band Rusted Root, with Dirk Miller will perform on Saturday, July 9. The age 21+ show will open at 9 p.m., with Michael Glabicki at 10 p.m.; $45; https://www.naukabout.com/brewery, https://www.eventbrite.com

► The nationally known Jason Spooner Band will play at 5:30 p.m. Friday, July 8 at The Bandstand at Mashpee Commons to kick off the Route 28/Route 151 shopping plaza’s summer of free outdoor concerts there. Singer-songwriter Anna Daley Young will open the show for the band that’s touring with its new “Live from Stone Mountain” album, it’s sixth. The band plays a number of genres, including roots rock, Americana, blues, folk and groove-oriented jazz with undercurrents of reggae and soul.  For a complete list of Mashpee Commons summer events: https://mashpeecommons.com/upcoming-events/.

► Internationally known blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Chris Cain will perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 13, at the Music Room, 541 Main St., West Yarmouth. Cain has released 14 albums, including 2021’s “Raisin’ Cain,” which includes 12 original songs; $45-$85; 508-694-6125, www.musicroomcapecod.com.

Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll

Fab Four play, and look, like the Beatles

Having played all over the world, the Fab Four band has garnered high praise and even been hired to play at private events for well-known celebrities. But it’s the members’ passion for the music that has fueled their drive since they started in 1997, not the notoriety or the bumping shoulders with movie stars and rock stars.

“You never get sick of the music,” says bassist Ardy Sarraf, who plays Paul McCartney in the Fab Four. “If you get sick of the music, then it’s time to stop.”

The Fab Four shows no signs of stopping or slowing down anytime soon. The group recently played in Alaska for the first time and have tour dates scheduled through the rest of the year.

But what separates the Fab Four from other Beatles tribute bands? As Sarraf describes it, what they offer is a certain attention to detail to make it special, such as learning how to play left-handed to mirror Paul McCartney.

Formation of the Four

The Fab Four group got its start at a Beatles convention in Los Angeles. Sarraf was performing in a high school band in a competition there. He was approached by his future bandmates, who asked him if he wanted to join their group instead and “do this for real.”

Sarraf initially wasn’t intrigued by the idea. “I wasn’t into it at all. I was just doing original music and having fun with it,” he says.

Ultimately, he decided to join, and is glad he did. Sarraf describes himself and his bandmates as “Beatles nerds” and he means it – they try not to miss one detail in the Fab Four’s production. The clothes, the hair, the music -- everything about the Beatles is channeled through the Fab Four to create a kind of time machine for fans.

“We’re actors, we’re musicians, we’re makeup artists, we’re costume people,” says Sarraf. “All our costumes are custom-made. We’re pretty detail-oriented.”

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Sarraf even taught himself how to play left-handed since that’s how McCartney plays. And because they hang their hat on sounding as close to the Beatles’ studio recordings as possible, Sarraf says the Fab Four will even try to replicate imperfections of notes.

The Fab Four plays “almost 90 percent of the Beatles music,” he says, with the exception of the band’s more experimental music that would be difficult to achieve at a live concert and that the original group itself never attempted to perform live. The Fab Four, however, has plans to perform “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” sometime in the near future.

“It’s not as easy as it sounds,” Sarraf says when asked what he’s learned about the Beatles’ songs since making a career out of playing them. “People go, ‘Oh, it’s a Beatle band. That’s easy.’ But guess what? It’s not. None of the songs are easy. There’s no such thing as easy. People can go up there and strum a guitar and sing their version of a Beatles song, but to try and sound like each little strum…”

None of the members of the band went to a music school or are “trained.” Instead, they’ve replicated everything by ear.

“And you gotta think,” Sarraf adds, “20 years ago, there was no YouTube so you couldn’t find all the different Beatle tracks separated like they are. That was quite the chore.”

The group’s penchant for detail has paid off though. Not only has the band remained in demand over the years, it has also been hired to play private gigs for other musicians – including Foo Fighters founder Dave Grohl’s wedding and Kiss frontman Paul Stanley’s birthday.

The 'Yellow Submarine' that wasn’t meant to be

The Fab Four has not only taken its Beatle love to the music stage, the quartet has also been sought out in other media platforms. The members did the motion-capture work for “The Beatles: Rock Band” video game, and there was one other project that would’ve been a “dream come true” had it come to fruition: A “Yellow Submarine” movie remake.

Robert Zemeckis, director of “Back to the Future,” “Forrest Gump” and CGI-animated movies like “The Polar Express” and the Jim Carrey-starring “A Christmas Carol,” hired the Fab Four to play the part of the Beatles for what would have been an animated remake of “Yellow Submarine.” Their movements were captured and would be layered with the computer animation.

“We basically filmed everything. We did 90 percent of the filming and we were even in meetings with Robert Zemeckis and his creative team,” says Sarraf. Disney was involved with making the movie, but when Zemeckis’ most recent picture at the time — 2011’s “Mars Needs Moms” — didn’t do well at the box office, Disney “pulled the plug” on the Beatles project.

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“We were pretty bummed out because that would have been one of the ultimate feathers in our cap,” Sarraf says. They were shown the artwork of how the Beatles were going to look in the film, and Sarraf says it was “mind-blowing.”

Sarraf still holds onto the hope that — given the finicky nature of the movie industry — perhaps that project will someday see the light of day.

What to expect at Cape show

When Beatles fans converge at the Melody Tent on Sunday to see the Fab Four, they can expect a full-on trip back in time through the Beatles’ recording history. The Fab Four will cover the entire breadth of the Beatles catalog, from the early tunes played on “The Ed Sullivan Show”  with the suits and ties, to “Sgt. Pepper” and the band members’ later hippie looks.

“There will be as many songs and hits as we can fit into a two-hour show,” says Sarraf.

The show will continue as the band changes their costumes during the set, but when asked what is happening on stage during that time, Sarraf isn’t giving any hints.

“You’ll have to go to the show,” he says. “I can’t give it all away, man.”

To see the Fab Four

When: 8 p.m. Sunday, July 10

Where: Cape Cod Melody Tent, 41 W. Main Street, Hyannis 

Tickets: $34-47.50; members $28-41.50 

Reservations and information: https://melodytent.org/events/an-evening-with-the-fab-four-2/ 

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod music: Fab Four brings Beatles Sound to Hyannis, 3 concerts