Off to see Love...

I've only seen the making of (which was pretty cool) and a few excerpts of the show. 

For a die-hard Beatles fan, the bar is pretty high for this one. Though the few remixes I've heard were surprisingly interesting, against my apprehensions. And the Beatles music somehow lends itself to "visual poetry"...

We came in 30 minutes before the show began and were treated to instrumental mixes of a bunch of Beatles songs - it was cool to get to hear those songs I've heard a million times but w/o vocals and to rediscover them like that - just the band playing. The sound quality was amazing. I found myself thinking - woah dude, that band really rocked!

The opening act was pretty good - I felt it communicated the excitement around The Beatles and the 60s. But then they somehow lost me for a couple of songs/numbers. I'm not a big fan of choreographies, so even if it wasn't uninteresting and there was a lot of other things going on, my interest waned for a moment. The acrobatics just weren't what I'm used to.

But when they hit Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, they had me right back in. It was like traveling through time and being taken back in an old circus. There were a few acts afterwards which I didn't think were that impressive, but others were visually stunning - the bed sequence for Tomorrow Never Knows/Within You Without You was incredible. 

Lucy In the Sky was also pretty cool, as was A Day in the Life. The Strawberry Fields Forever mix sent a few shrivers down my spine - and the visuals complemented the song beautifully. Those drums at the end were pounding - I'd never realized how huge that section of the song sounded.

From what I saw on the making of DVD, George Martin himself oversaw the audio installation, and I think that it shows. The music was stunning - as I said, I've heard those songs a million time, but in that context, they really grabbed me. I wouldn't have thought that I could get so emotional listening to The Beatles, but it was just magic.

And kudos to George Martin's son for those amazing remixes - he really didn't cut any corner, everything fits to a T.