After years of selling out shows all over Gainesville, The Shitty Beatles will take the stage for its final shows this weekend.
The band will perform six different sets during the two-night event opening Friday and closing Saturday at High Dive, 210 SW Second Ave. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show begins at 10.
Advance single-night passes can be purchased for $10 and two-night passes are $15 on ticketweb.com.
What happens when it’s summer 2005 and there’s nothing going on in Gainesville? For a group of talented musicians, the result is a decade-long project that has energized local crowds during every performance.
“We just kind of had to find something to do, so we said, ‘Why don’t we start playing Beatles songs?’” vocalist and guitarist Travis Atria said.
The band met after Travis and his brother, Eric Atria, moved to Gainesville from Hollywood, Florida, in 2003. At the time, bassist Eric and guitarist Travis were in a band called Morningbell. Former drummer Jake McMullen and keyboardist Collin Whitlock were in another band, Maxwell Edison — a reference to the Beatles song, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.”
“We used to see fliers for them around town, and we always kind of wondered, ‘Who are these guys?’ because we love the Beatles, and we liked the fact that they had named themselves after a Beatles song,” Travis Atria said.
The bands met in 2004 after playing a show together. With half of their band members out of town the summer of 2005, the musicians decided to take on a side project that would turn into a decade-long venture.
“I think the thing that made it last this long is the fact that so many people liked it, and so many people have come see us,” Travis Atria said. “I mean, it’s hard to stop doing it at that point.”
The band’s lineup now includes drummer Chris Hillman, who joined the band after McMullen moved to Finland. Hillman had originally joined Morningbell as its drummer before playing with The Shitty Beatles.
The band had stopped playing for about a year and thought they weren’t going to play anymore until they were asked to do a John Lennon tribute show.
“So we did that. We only played John Lennon songs with Chris, who became the new drummer,” Travis Atria said. “We got such a good response, we decided to start doing it again.”
Travis Atria said the band’s popularity rose after its return from a yearlong break.
Since then, The Shitty Beatles continued to delight crowds of about 400 people with fan favorites such as “Hey Jude,” “Helter Skelter” and “Something.”
“Something’ is probably one of my favorites because that’s my favorite guitar solo in the history of guitar solos,” Travis Atria said.
But now, with families and careers, the band is stopping for good this time.
“You know, I think it’s just a more natural time to stop,” Travis Atria said.
For the opening night of its final shows, the band is putting together a special all-acoustic set. Fans can expect some of the softer songs that the band usually doesn’t get to play, such as “Yesterday,” “Blackbird” and “Across The Universe.”
Travis Atria said a lot of the band’s crowd consists of the younger generation.
“It’s kind of cool to see how the same obsession we have with the Beatles, they’ve got it, too,” he said. “The next generation is picking up on it as well.”
Among them is 20-year-old Travis Andrews, who has been to three of the band’s shows and will be attending the last one.
Andrews said he’s glad to have grown up on his parent’s music and added how impressed he was by the band’s similarity to The Beatles.
“It’s cool going to these shows because everyone can unite in enjoying the same thing,” he said.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 4/16/2015]
The Shitty Beatles will be performing six different sets Friday and Saturday at High Dive, 210 SW Second Ave., as part of their final performances.
