I just made it home from a great concert. Corey called this afternoon with tickets to 1964: The Tribute, the “number one Beatles Tribute show on Earth” according to Rolling Stone. I’ve been a Beatles fan since college, so I was excited about the show, especially since the tickets were a gift from another friend from church. Corey and I walked into the Von Braun Center about five minutes before show time and we quickly realized that we were the youngest people in our section of seats. I should rephrase that: we were by far the youngest people in our section. Not a lot of fellow Gen-Xers in the crowd.

But it didn’t matter. After a great opening act, we were treated to an hour and a half of absolutely great music. I didn’t really know what to expect from a tribute band, but these guys were awesome. It was uncanny how much they sounded like the Beatles. Closing my eyes and just listening, they sounded just like the Beatles recordings I’ve been listening to for years. The guys even carried on their between-song banter in British accents. It was really great. Just before they sang “Twist and Shout”, faux John asked the crowd to stand up and do the Twist. As everyone around us started twisting and shouting, I felt as if I were spying on another generation’s cultural moment. It just made me smile, all these Baby Boomers clapping and singing at the top of their lungs. For just a moment, the song unleashed something primal in the crowd and everyone was young again. But you could tell it was an older crowd; that one “stand up” song really took it out of them – as soon as it was over, they all plopped down in their chairs, exhausted! Anyway, if you get the chance to catch the 1964 Tribute show sometime, I highly recommend it.

Thus kicks off what I’m dubbing “Music Week 2008” here at the ol’ blog. I’ll be trotting out a whole slew of music-themed posts this week. I’ll be unveiling my annual list of my favorite albums of the year; I’ll give you a post of the top songs from 2008; and I’ll be pouring over my library to give you what I consider to be the best Christmas albums of all time. If you’re a music lover like me, feel free to weigh in; if you’re not a music lover, you’ll probably want to avoid this blog for the next week or so. (Seriously, who doesn’t like music, though?)

In the meantime, I’m off to hunt for my copy of A Hard Day’s Night.