Hey, I was listening to a bunch of old records by this group called, um, the Beatles? And you know what? They sound JUST LIKE the Fab Faux. It's amazing, like note for note.

The Beatles tribute band Rain played NJPAC yesterday afternoon. The five members of Rain can play, but the show, with its slavish impersonations and onslaught of strobes and smoke and flower-power visuals, indulges in something the Beatles had no truck with: schlock.

Flashback to First Night--December 31--in Montclair. Onstage, the Fab Faux, the mind-bogglingly good Beatles cover band.

"Happy New Year!" bassist Will Lee called to the audience. He's from Texas, but he spoke very well. (Years of playing in Paul Shaffer's Letterman band have ironed out his regionalisms.)

Guitarist Jimmy Vivino leaned into his mike and noted that on this side of the Hudson River, the correct greeting is "Happy New YEAZZ!" The audience, packed into the pews of the First Congregational Church on South Fullerton Avenue, shouted back in kind.