You couldn’t have dialed it up any better.
Sunday night’s final performance for 2014 Festival in the Park brought out the crowds. And, the perfect weather did its part in making the return to the redesigned and reconfigured Elmwood Park Amphitheater this year a huge sensation.
A new stage, new design, new seating and easy access were all crowd pleasers, clearly making the Elmwood Park venue the Grande Dame for future festivals and performances.
Friday night saw 38 Special as the feature group, with country acts Montgomery Gentry and John Michael Montgomery following on Saturday.
But, Sunday evening’s headliner, 1964 The Tribute, a compilation of early Beatles music with Mac Ruffing as Paul McCartney, Mark Benson as John Lennon, Tom Work as George Harrison and Bobby Potter as Ringo Starr had concertgoers from 7 to 70 singing, clapping and dancing in the aisles.
Choosing songs from the pre-Sgt.Pepper era, ” 1964 ” astonishingly recreates an early 60’s live Beatles concert with period instruments, clothing, hair styles and on-stage banter. The group spent 25 years of research in putting the details into place.
Potter, an Indiana native, began playing drums in the 5th grade and taking snare drum lessons in the 7th. He made it a personal goal to be like Ringo Starr.
Benson, aka John Lennon, started playing the guitar at age 17 and lived in Akron, Ohio where he learned to build, repair and restore guitars. He has restored all the instruments for “1964.” Over the years he has sold vintage instruments to performers such as The Rolling Stones, The Who, Bad Company, The Eagles and The Doobie Brothers to mention a few.
1964 has played all over the world and have appeared at Carnagie Hall 11 times.
“We’re not anywhere close to the age the Beatles were,” Work has noted. “I’m sure many people will comment ‘ they’re starting to look a little old to be doing this,’ but people are still coming. Just being a musician keeps you young at heart.”
Sunday night, the group, and thousands in the overflow crowd, all seemed to relive those younger days.
Bill Turner
