Music Review: Alex tribute concert does justice to the ‘White Album’

The Beatles’ “White Album,” which befuddled fans and divided critics upon its arrival in 1968 in a plain sleeve embossed with the band’s name, is a work of broad scope and meticulous detail.

Both qualities shone on Saturday at the sold-out Alex Theatre, where a crowd mostly old enough to have scored an original “White Album” bearing a serial number witnessed a reverential re-creation of the album by the Los Angeles-based collective the Wild Honey Orchestra.

PHOTOS: Ensemble performance of Beatles’ “White Album” benefits autism nonprofit

The mammoth undertaking, which featured more than 75 musicians overall, including a parade of pop and rock luminaries with their own estimable catalogs, benefited the nonprofit research and treatment group the Autism Think Tank. Like a September show in which the Wild Honey Orchestra feted Memphis pop legends Big Star, it was organized by music enthusiast Paul Rock, whose son Jake is autistic.

Emceed by Chris Carter (host of KLOS-FM’s weekly “Breakfast With the Beatles”), the program featured the 30 album tracks played sequentially, with a five-song encore — and, stretching well beyond three hours, it proved such a test that the crowd had to be prodded to stand and sing along to the finale, “Hey Jude.”

They had no trouble remembering the chorus, nor many of the other lyrics and minutiae from the Fab Four’s double-LP of rock, pop and assorted subversiveness. Under the direction of musical mastermind Rob Laufer, the Wild Honey Orchestra (which included a string section, a horn section and a seven-member vocal group) and their guests deviated little from the original diagram. For better or worse, nobody attempted to own or update or reinterpret anything — it was obeisance 47 years after the fact, albeit on a grand scale.

Which is not to say there were not moments of epic grace, good humor and, owing to the monumental challenge of “Revolution 9,” sheer genius.

“Dream Weaver” Gary Wright, a collaborator on George Harrison’s 1970 album “All Things Must Pass,” led a spine-tingling rendition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” with guitarist Lyle Workman nailing the solo that was played on the album by Eric Clapton. It inspired one of the few standing ovations of the night.

Also deserving of their big cheers: Paisley Underground stalwarts the Three O’Clock sailed over the horn section on “Savoy Truffle;” young singer Skylar Gudasz was serenely beautiful on “Long, Long, Long;” Steven McDonald (Redd Kross and, currently, OFF!), with All Day Sucker’s David Goodstein, indulged his ever-present manic kid on “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey;” and surprise guest Jules Shear gave an aching rendition of “Sexy Sadie” while cradling his beagle Cosmo.

Cosmo was not the only canine to leave his mark at center stage. Syd Straw, who pointed out that she grew up in La Crescenta, performed “Rocky Raccoon” while accompanied by a leashed “Carol Burnett,” whom the singer introduced as “my manager.”

And then there were Anna Waronker and Rachel Haden of That Dog, who closed out the main portion of the show with lilting harmonies on “Good Night.”

Yet for the star-studded cast — the night’s other performers included Vicki and Debbi Peterson from the Bangles, Fountains of Wayne’s Chris Collingwood, XTC’s Dave Gregory, Mitch Easter, Iain Mathews (Fairport Convention), Alain Johannes, the Muffs, Translator, John Easdale (Dramarama), Thomas Walsh (Pugwash) and John and Susan Cowsill — it was the Wild Honey Orchestra’s attention to detail that warrants a gold star.

The sound of a jet plane landing to kick off “Back in the U.S.S.R.?” Check. The bird songs backing “Blackbird?” Check. The “ho-ho-ho” in “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da?” Check, thanks to percussionist and vocal group director Nelson Bragg, who was scarcely without a different instrument in his hand every three minutes. The choir in “Happy Birthday,” megaphoned vocals by Steve Stanley in “Honey Pie,” string section leader Kaitlin Wolfberg’s wending violin on “Don’t Pass Me By,” “Piggies” snorting, “Happy Birthday” hand-claps — all present and accounted for.

Still, the most ambitious performance of the night came in the re-creation of “Revolution 9,” the eight-minute sound collage of tape loops, spoken word and samples. It was left to Jim Mills and Heidi Servey of the indie band Extra, who teamed up with live pianist Debbie Shair and some high technology. Performed in front of a glowing white orb at center stage, it featured a live-looped vocal by Alan Friedenthal (who earned the right to do it with a generation charitable donation) and loops created by Mills’ collaborator Darian Sahanaja.

Mills explained after the show that he has had a long fascination with “Revolution 9,” often crate-digging to find “likely classical and sound effects records” that might have been used as source material. “Some years ago, I came up with a big chart with all the sounds indicated, and the left-right stereo movements and fade ins/outs shown,” Mills said. “Over the years, I also figured out which sound effects records and some of the classical records the sounds came from.”

The performance, then, involved using Sahanaja’s tape loops, inserting them into an Ableton audio sequencer and controlling them with faders. Those sounds were then married with effects such as the cheering crowd and roaring fire, which were triggered by Servey operating a sampler.

Notably, some of the crowd in the Alex used “Revolution 9” as a refreshment break — which was too bad, considering its complexities and Julia Ewan’s compelling visual projections.

If anything, it embodied the spirit of the night: Faithful, by the faithful, for the faithful.

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KEVIN BRONSON is a Los Angeles music journalist and founder of Buzzbands.la.