As part of a massive Christmas gift collection to multiple family members, my sis gave us all tickets to go see 1964: The Tribute in Carnegie Hall in New York City. 1964 is the best The Beatles tribute band in the World according to Rolling Stone, so this was destined to be a great time.
The original plan was to bring myself, Beth & Drew Newman (sister & bro[ther-in-law]), my parents (both are fans, but my mom is a HUGE The Beatles fan!), Drew's parents (Older Newmans), and two family friends of the Newmans. The family friends of the Newmans opted to not attend the adventure, and yes it was an adventure which I'll get to in a minute, so Mr and Mrs Shmitch who are long time friends on my mom's were summoned and ready to travel to NYC in a matter of minutes! Literally, in less than 1.5 hours they were called, packed, and over my parents house ready to go. Impressive from a Sanborn perspective. But wait Bill, why were they packed? NYC is only a short train ride away. Correct Sir/Ma'am, but the concert turned out to be just part of the "adventure".
So we decided to stay overnight, because the show was at 8pm and we were not entirely sure when it would end (turns out roughly 11pm) and we did not want to travel late night/early morning. Mrs Newman was kinda enough to reserve three rooms for us the the Hilton at Avenue of the Americas. Schweet place, fyi! She has a ton of travel "Hilton points" from traveling for her job, so she was able to hook us up in style in the Big Apple! But it gets better! We took the train into NYC (they all got on at Hamilton, but I met them and jumped on at the New Brunswick station). What we didn't plan was getting from Penn Station to the hotel to drop off our luggage. Not to worry, sure we can get a cab or something. No no no. Not good enough for us! As we left the station we found a limo driver with a big, empty limo looking for some Beatle-bound individuals with no transportation in the big city. That's right! We ended up taking a limo from the train station to the Hotel. Ballin'! Even better, we asked the guy to take us back to the train station the next morning. 'No prob' replied the guy. Niiiiice! So, like true VIPs we rolled up to an awesome hotel in fashion. Once there, Drew wanted to go up to the 'Executive Lounge' and hang out till dinner. Again, fancy stuff. We waited till free appetizers were served and we munched on those. Then, went to dinner haha. Yeah, eat and then leave to eat. We just went to restaurant in the Hotel which turned out to be the lowest point of the trip with mediocre food and service. Then, The Beatles! Well, almost.
We walked a few short blocks (or really long blocks according to some members of our entourage [cough::Mom::cough]) to Carnegie Hall. Beautiful place! By far, one of the best performance halls I have ever set foot in. The show was great!! The opening act was Gary Mule Deer (real night) who was mostly stand-up comedy with some great music mixed in. Interesting character and yes, definitely a character. He was followed by 1964! These guys, sounded just like The Beatles! The show was freaking fantastic! They had authentic instruments, accents, even hair cuts! There guys had The Beatles down to a 'T'. They played just about all the favorites like Love me do, She love You, Eleanor Rigby, Yesterday, Twist and Shout and tons of others! Very solid performance! A great time had by all, both young and old.
The original plan was to bring myself, Beth & Drew Newman (sister & bro[ther-in-law]), my parents (both are fans, but my mom is a HUGE The Beatles fan!), Drew's parents (Older Newmans), and two family friends of the Newmans. The family friends of the Newmans opted to not attend the adventure, and yes it was an adventure which I'll get to in a minute, so Mr and Mrs Shmitch who are long time friends on my mom's were summoned and ready to travel to NYC in a matter of minutes! Literally, in less than 1.5 hours they were called, packed, and over my parents house ready to go. Impressive from a Sanborn perspective. But wait Bill, why were they packed? NYC is only a short train ride away. Correct Sir/Ma'am, but the concert turned out to be just part of the "adventure".
So we decided to stay overnight, because the show was at 8pm and we were not entirely sure when it would end (turns out roughly 11pm) and we did not want to travel late night/early morning. Mrs Newman was kinda enough to reserve three rooms for us the the Hilton at Avenue of the Americas. Schweet place, fyi! She has a ton of travel "Hilton points" from traveling for her job, so she was able to hook us up in style in the Big Apple! But it gets better! We took the train into NYC (they all got on at Hamilton, but I met them and jumped on at the New Brunswick station). What we didn't plan was getting from Penn Station to the hotel to drop off our luggage. Not to worry, sure we can get a cab or something. No no no. Not good enough for us! As we left the station we found a limo driver with a big, empty limo looking for some Beatle-bound individuals with no transportation in the big city. That's right! We ended up taking a limo from the train station to the Hotel. Ballin'! Even better, we asked the guy to take us back to the train station the next morning. 'No prob' replied the guy. Niiiiice! So, like true VIPs we rolled up to an awesome hotel in fashion. Once there, Drew wanted to go up to the 'Executive Lounge' and hang out till dinner. Again, fancy stuff. We waited till free appetizers were served and we munched on those. Then, went to dinner haha. Yeah, eat and then leave to eat. We just went to restaurant in the Hotel which turned out to be the lowest point of the trip with mediocre food and service. Then, The Beatles! Well, almost.
We walked a few short blocks (or really long blocks according to some members of our entourage [cough::Mom::cough]) to Carnegie Hall. Beautiful place! By far, one of the best performance halls I have ever set foot in. The show was great!! The opening act was Gary Mule Deer (real night) who was mostly stand-up comedy with some great music mixed in. Interesting character and yes, definitely a character. He was followed by 1964! These guys, sounded just like The Beatles! The show was freaking fantastic! They had authentic instruments, accents, even hair cuts! There guys had The Beatles down to a 'T'. They played just about all the favorites like Love me do, She love You, Eleanor Rigby, Yesterday, Twist and Shout and tons of others! Very solid performance! A great time had by all, both young and old.
Comments