Kokomo Community Concerts closes season with Here Comes the Sun
May 10—As the Kokomo Community Concerts’ 2023-24 season draws to a close, there’s one show left for live music fans.
Here Comes the Sun, a Beatles tribute band, will perform in Kokomo High School’s auditorium Sunday. The show is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.
Each of the band’s members have a background in either Broadway or the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. They’re all multi-instrumentalists as well.
“Obviously, acting is a different set of skills than playing an instrument, performing a live concert,” said Ryan Dunn, a founding member of the five-person group that has since expanded to eight. “But in the end, both are about being authentic to what you’re doing.”
He views live music performances as more audience-focused than theatrical work.
He doesn’t try to connect to any Beatles member’s life when he’s on stage. Instead, he tries to connect with the crowd.
“You’re trying to authentically recreate a sound, a performance, that feels unique and your’s for people who know the music so well,” Dunn said. “We don’t impersonate, we celebrate.”
To Dunn, dressing up as a member of The Beatles is a needless addition. Before people were able to pull up filmed concerts from The Beatles at any given moment, he said, there was more appeal to seeing a group dressed like the band they were impersonating.
He said audience members frequently tell the band they’re glad they don’t wear costumes.
“I think what they want is an authentic experience that they can relate to and something that they know and love,” Dunn said.
Dunn explained most of the original members met through New York’s musical theater scene. Hoping to make some more cash while running summer musicals near Asheville, North Carolina, they began playing concerts at Flat Rock Playhouse. They still play a show at the same venue every February.
They started touring as Here Comes the Sun in 2019. The band’s members have since developed Eagles and Queen tribute groups that tour as well.
Dunn suspected each member of Here Comes the Sun got into The Beatles at a young age. Personally, he was put on to the band by his parents.
“If there is one thing that we impersonate, it’s their kind of reckless fun,” Dunn said. “We try to just really enjoy ourselves on stage. Every show’s a little different.”
James Bennett III can be reached at 765-454-8580 or [email protected].
