Here Comes The Soleil - A Splendid Time...

While in Vegas for the Adobe MAX Conference, I pretty much had to take in LOVE, the Cirque du Soleil - Beatles collaboration at the Mirage.

The show absolutely nailed the spirit of The Beatles. Like Blue Man Group, Cirque has always been slightly beyond the range of my appreciation, so this was my first attempt to actually take it in live. The fact that it was a Beatles show is the only thing that could really have done it for me, and it did. I know it's heresy to enjoy the music first and the performance second, but as a diehard Beatles fan, I really had no choice.

Rolling Stone published a preview of the soundtrack, which is basically a modern mashup of bits of the entire Beatles catalog created by George Martin and his son Giles. A few of my favorites:

• The overture, with solo stacked harmony vocal tracks from "Because" leading to the backward final piano chord from "A Day in the Life," leading to the striking opening clang of "A Hard Day's Night," blending into the the drum solo from "The End," over which the opening blues chug of "Get Back" fits perfectly.
• Hearing the solo from "Hey Bulldog" (an all-time favorite of mine) interspersed with the barrel house piano of "Lady Madonna."
• "Tomorrow Never Knows" providing the drum track for "Within You, Without You."
• "Strawberry Fields Forever" blending with "Hello Goodbye," "Penny Lane," (two sides of the same coin, really) and "In My Life."

The soundtrack to the LOVE show will be released November 21. It marks the first time The Beatles' music will be available in 5.1 surround.

The performance itself was quite impressive and certainly worth the $70 price (for the cheapest ticket). The stage built for the show is round, and though my seats were high, I was able to see fine. A friend who went with me said that this show did the best of any Cirque in integrating the music with the performance, but fell somewhat short in having a discernible story (understandable given the increased role of the music).

The only misfire of the show was when this one guy yelled the lyrics to "Blackbird" with Shatnerian delivery while acrobats in blackbird suits squawked and crashed into the stage. Not exactly capturing the theme of the civil rights struggle as the song did.

The acrobatics were amazing. There were great props, costumes, and lights, all echoing symbols, metaphors, and characters from The Beatles' lyrical mythology. None of this really explains it, but I'm sure a DVD of it will come out eventually.

What really got me was the Hofner bass autographed by all four Beatles in the LOVE gift shop. Now that's impressive.