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Don’t let the quiet streets of Mineola lull you into a false sense of serenity: When cover band The DayTrippers play, Eleanor Rigby’s is home to unbridled Beatlemania. Sporting bowl cuts, black suits and fake British accents (inevitably betrayed by thick Long Island inflections), these gents closely resemble the Fab Four in their debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” It was all the same to the spirited patrons, who drank wine and beer and schmoozed as the Trippers careened through three sets of Beatles classics.
The Daytrippers play a wide variety of Beatles classics, but are most faithfully able to mimic the band’s hard rock tracks. Fred Giovinalli is the right frontman for this crowd. He encourages audience participation and entertains with Beatles trivia and an extraday sense of humor. Between sets, he explains that this was the band’s first foray into the long Island nightlife scene.
The debut performance proved to be a roaring success by any standard. The Daytrippers opened with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and had people up and dancing by “All My Lovin’.” By the second set, they owned the packed barroom. The Daytrippers got creative in their third set. Perry Cavaliere ripped an electric sitar to give an authentic feel to “Norwegian Wood.” The solos by Perry, guitarist Joe Greco and drummer Rusty Yardum were more improvisational in the final set as well. Though aurally sumptuous for the duration of the evening, each member’s reeling instrumentations truly shined during “Back in the USSR” and “Don’t Let Me Down.”
Eleanor Rigby’s patrons celebrated the present with a nostalgic nod towards the past. The Daytrippers’ greatest talent is their ability to provide the temporal escape that they desire. In the end, the best reward for a hard day’s night is the gratitude and affection garnered from a crowd of their peers.