Live Review: The Beatles First Five

Adelaide's biggest Beatles fans congregated at Adelaide Entertainment Centre to hear the sounds of, let's face it, the best band of all time. No bias, of course.

Five of Australia's (and Ireland's) finest: Kevin Mitchell (Jebediah, Bob Evans), Jack Jones, Wes Carr (Buffalo Tales), Paul Gray (Wa Wa Nee) and Ciaran Gribbin, along with The Please Please Me Band made up the ensemble that transported fans of all ages back to their favourite songs and memories.

Far from a Beatles karaoke night, the five primary band members each delivered performances that demonstrated their own passion, love and respect for The Fab Four, also delighting fans with displays of musicianship and guitar skills that had at least a few audience members feeling envious. And they knew it, too. Asking us if there were "any guitar nerds in the audience tonight?", Jack Jones began a lecture on the complexity of the opening chords to A Hard Day's Night while each member individually demonstrated its components. The amused audience "ooh"-ed and "aah"-ed as the familiar strums collectively struck into this fan-favourite and the show was away. Gribbin wasn't having any of the reserved crowd - they sat rather politely for the first half of the show - instead insisting they all stood up and danced with him and the band just before the intermission.

After a couple of refreshments, the audience returned visibly looser and seemingly pleased at having been given 'permission' to get up and move.

Jones stole the limelight several times on the night; first, executing an impressive and beefed-up guitar solo in Dizzy Miss Lizzy. Then, in contrast, his show-stopping, understated solo performance of Yesterday was moving and emotional. Accented only by a singular white floodlight, Jones with acoustic guitar alone on the stage, his voice was beautiful and unstrained as he captured the inherent sadness of this song. He did warn the audience ahead of time, however, stating, "It's about to get moist in here," and, judging by the tears streaming down crowd members' faces, that, too, was an understatement.

Another highlight of the show came during A Hard Day's Night when Carr displayed his musicianship and guitar chops on a 12-string Rickenbacker. Not one to shy away from his moment to shine, Carr ordered the house lights be turned up in order to "see the crowd's faces" before ripping into I've Just Seen A Face, during which he played along on acoustic guitar.

Not to be left out of the top-shelf performances of the night, Mitchell had his moment, too, captivating the audience on one of the few songs he played the guitar for while he warmed-up the audience with his Lennon-esque voice during You've Got To Hide Your Love Away. The Please Please Me Band did most of the heavy lifting musically, but this was one of the few songs where the guys chipped in their own exceptional guitar skills.

The high-brow performance was executed with style and in line with an evening of sentimentality. Far from a plain old cover band, Jones, Carr, Mitchell, Gray, Gribbin & The Please Please Me Band transported the audience with a fabulous and emotive night thanks to 40 of the world's favourite songs.