SEQUIM — Those who were there last year recall it like yesterday: “Yesterday,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and on and on, till about 2,000 people were singing, dancing, “moving and shaking,” remembers Mickie Vail.
She beheld the scene, never before seen in Sequim. The Beatles, live at the bandshell.
The Beatles’ music, that is, reinvigorated by the Kirkland-based tribute band Creme Tangerine, which gave a free concert at the 2010 Lavender Festival.
“There were all ages, from little kids to grannies,” said Vail, operations director of the Lavender Farm Faire.
The Tangerine will be back Friday to shower Sequim with the sound of the Fab Four. Admission is free to the concert from 7 p.m. till 9 p.m. at the James Center bandshell just north of Carrie Blake Park at 202 N. Blake Ave.
Jeff Lockhart, Creme Tangerine’s drummer, had to miss the gig last year due to an emergency trip to California. But did he ever hear about it.
His bandmates told him: “Jeff, it was the best show ever; the crowd went crazy; we signed autographs.”
Now Lockhart, who said the group is “stoked” and “honored” to be asked back, is promising to “bring the party.”
The two one-hour sets will feature plentiful Beatles classics including a freshly formed batch from the “Sgt. Pepper” era, post-Beatles songs such as Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Live and Let Die” and the solo Ringo Starr hit “It Don’t Come Easy,” plus an early Beatles medley with the covers “Roll Over, Beethoven,” “Rock and Roll Music” and “Please, Mr. Postman.”
Creme Tangerine does not try to dress or do their hair like the Beatles. Instead, the group seeks to be “a really good rock band with Beatles material,” said Lockhart.
The point here is to deliver nonstop favorite songs so the people can forget their worries for a night.
“Let your hair down and kick your shoes off,” Lockhart advised. “We’re going to be a good time.”
Sequim audience raves
Right after Creme Tangerine’s show last year, new fans started phoning and emailing then-Lavender Festival director Scott Nagel, singing the band’s praises and urging him to book the group again.
And as soon as Nagel, who moved over to the simultaneous Lavender Farm Faire, got the permit to hold the Lavender in the Park festival at Carrie Blake Park, he made sure the band could return to Sequim.
And though the Tangerine is busy just about every weekend throughout the summer, its Sequim price was the same as last year, Nagel said.
Formed nearly nine years ago, Creme Tangerine took its name from a line in “Savoy Truffle,” a little-known George Harrison tune on the Beatles’ White Album.
Honing music
Ever since, the bandmates have been sharpening “faithful versions, not carbon copies,” of the moptops’ music. These days, they’re often including songs from iTunes’ most-downloaded ranking; “Here Comes the Sun” hovers around the top of that list, Lockhart said.
“We might throw in ‘I’m a Believer,’” Neil Diamond’s song made famous by the Monkees and later Smash Mouth, and even “Rock and Roll” from Led Zeppelin, he added.
Lavender in the Park will have 16 food vendors plus a beer and wine garden open for the concert.
And if fans don’t get enough Creme Tangerine, they’ll have some more in six weeks. The band will return a third time to the North Olympic Peninsula, to play at Olympic Cellars Winery in Port Angeles on Aug. 27.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.