Classic Albums Live plays ‘Abbey Road’ at The Suffolk

On Thursday night at The Suffolk, the band “Classic Albums Live” will play the entirety of the Beatles’ album “Abbey Road,” exactly as it was recorded — note for note and sound for sound.

“They’re unbelievable,” said Gary Hygom, executive director at The Suffolk. “They are some of the best musicians touring today, and the recreation [of classic albums] is as perfect as they could possibly make it live.”

Mr. Hygom said he’s been an admirer of CAL for years.

“I was just never able to get them to Long Island.”

In 2022 he did, and the band played the Beatles’ 1967 masterpiece “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” at The Suffolk. Last year they performed the Eagles 1977 classic “Hotel California.”

Drummer Troy Feener, who has been playing with CAL for 20 years, said the band’s commitment to authentically recreating classic albums right down to the note — including song fadeouts and random noises that pop up on some of the greatest albums in recent history — has been what’s kept them going for two decades.  

“Craig Martin, who is the founder and CEO of Classic Albums Live, basically had an idea that he wanted to try and approach some of these classic albums with the same sort of reverence you would if you were playing in a symphony orchestra, playing Mozart or Beethoven, or any of the great composers. So in the beginning, we were still trying to figure out how to do certain things,” he said, referring to unusual sounds that turn up in some songs.

“Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ was the first album ever performed, and I think one of big epiphanies was when he had an idea that he wanted the cash register sounds [on the album’s song “Money”] and all of the other sounds to be done organically.”

Mr. Feener said they use a Fisher Price toy cash register to capture the ringing sound for the Pink Floyd song “Money.”

“We brought a dog to bark during [the 17-minute song] ‘Dogs’ from Pink Floyd’s [album] ‘Animals’ at one point,” he said. “We blow bubbles during [the Beatles’] ‘Octopus’s Garden’. There’s a guy who’s got gumball machines and Fisher Price telephones — whatever it takes to get the sound right … that was when I think [Mr. Martin] knew that he was on to something.”

For Mr. Hygom, the coolest parts of the show are the song fadeouts.

He said the band told him backstage once that “that is one of the most rehearsed pieces that they do, because they have to peel off almost one instrument at a time, and then stop playing, so the music fades just like it does on the album.”

In performing classic albums, CAL navigates live what studio engineers can pull off with technology.

“One of the things that I think sets us apart from tribute bands is that we don’t use samples. Led Zeppelin, for example. When we’re doing [Zeppelin’s 1975 double album] ‘Physical Graffiti,’ there are a lot of songs on that album that have four or five different guitar parts, so we have to have that many guitarists performing.”

Another thing that he said sets CAL apart is that all of the energy that goes into the music.

“There’s no costumes or sort of trickery,” he said. “We’re not trying to look like them. We just want people to have that same sensation of putting the needle on the album in your basement, closing your eyes and listening to what has become some of the greatest music of the last century.”

Started in Canada in 2003, CAL has grown into a small empire of bands, consisting of about 100 musicians in all, who play throughout North America.

“Over the years, as [CAL] has grown … we’ve brought in more people. We now have an almost complete band in California, a complete roster in Florida and we pretty much have a complete roster in Calgary, Alberta.”

In addition to “Abbey Road,” other versions of CAL that are crisscrossing the country this fall are playing classic albums like Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours,” AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” Supertramp’s “Crime of the Century,” “Elton John’s Greatest Hits” and Meatloaf’s “Bat Out of Hell.”

Over the years, Mr. Feener said, the CAL bands have played all 13 Beatles albums, nearly all of Led Zeppelin’s albums, most Pink Floyd albums and many others.

Originally, the organization was split into two groups: Classic Albums Live and Modern Classics, which played landmark albums from more recent times, including U2’s “Joshua Tree.”

Mr. Feener, who estimates he has performed about 60 albums over the years, said that different musicians have different ways of learning each new album.

“It’s never the same how much time and effort needs to be put in … A lot of the guitar players and the keyboard players can, if they want to, usually find some kind of sheet music or something to at least get them started. But with drums, I pretty much have to chart all those albums myself … But sometimes the albums are so close and personal to me that I just know them.”

Mr. Feener said the traveling can wear down the musicians, but once they are on stage performing, everything comes together.

“For me, being a huge fan of a majority of this music, there are times when I’m on stage where I’m [Police drummer] Stewart Copeland. I began playing drums because I heard The Police. This last year, we’ve been performing [their 1983 album] ‘Synchronicity.’ And there are just times that I’m on stage where it’s like your boyhood fantasy, and I get to be Stuart Copeland for a night, or [Yes’] Bill Bruford, or [Rush drummer] Neil Peart, or any of the greats.”

He said the band chooses albums for their excellence, not their record sales.

“Otherwise we would be doing Madonna and stuff. It seems to be mainly rock, [rhythm and blues], reggae — the country artists, we’ve really kind of left alone.”

Mr. Feener was asked how a classic albums band could survive in the age of streaming music.

“Now that a lot of the bands themselves are — either members have passed away, or they’ve literally just said that they are no longer going to be touring, we seem to fill a void for a lot of those people that still want to hear classic rock performed with the same sort of magic and mystery that there used to be.”