Noon Fifteen (Photo by Michael Smith, Manifesto Designs)
Saturday at Liquid State Brewing, Ithaca soul-pop-rock band Noon Fifteen will pay homage to the Beatles by performing their 1965 album “Rubber Soul” in its entirety.
It’s a big challenge for one of Ithaca’s most versatile bands, but one for which its members — singer-guitarist Mandy Goldman, singer-keyboardist Samuel B. Lupowitz, singer-bassist Harry Nichols, guitarist Joe Massa, with guest Dan Collins on drums and vocals — are well prepared.
In advance of Saturday’s show, Lupowitz and Nichols answered a few questions via email:
Q: What spurred you to cover “Rubber Soul” in its entirety? Why this Beatles album versus many others?
Harry: We have always kicked around the idea of doing album cover shows, in part to showcase our diverse influences, but also in part as a love letter to the music. I know “Rubber Soul” has been one that Sam and Mandy cherish in particular.
Sam: “Rubber Soul” has always been a standout in the Beatles’ catalog for me – a bridge between their earlier work and more experimental later years, and some of the best three-part harmony singing they recorded. We’ve been talking about this show since well before the pandemic, very early in the life of Noon Fifteen, and with our next album coming out this year and generally picking up momentum after some quieter years post-pandemic, it felt like the right time to take on a challenge.
Q: What have been the challenges of doing these songs?
Harry: For myself, I have had to grow a second brain with some of these tunes. It’s tricky because we don’t quite have a 1-to-1 correlation with them. None of us is just playing Paul or John for the night. I’ll play Paul’s bass lines, but sing a lot of John’s vocals. It’s been a fun challenge.
Sam: Everybody knows the Beatles, and even the simple songs are full of surprising little twists and turns. It’s not material you can half-ass, so we have had to full-ass it!
Q: How are you approaching them – note for note, or Noon Fifteen style?
Harry: A little of both. For instance, it didn’t feel right to sing the lyrics to “Run for Your Life” in the current climate, so Sam turned it into a dank instrumental piece. Some songs are being taken up and down tempo from the original. Others are being given solos, etc.
Q: Are you each playing a specific Beatle? Or just seeing which singer fits each song the best?
Harry: We are not each playing a Beatle. We’re kind of a mutant Beatles. I’ve got John’s head, but Paul’s hands.
Sam: Being a five-piece band with keyboards emphasized as much as guitars, it’s allowed us to make creative decisions about when we stick to the recorded arrangements and when we reinterpret a guitar part as an organ part, or when the tambourine overdub is more important onstage than one of us playing guitar or keys.
Vocally, I think we started from the template of Mandy as Paul, Harry as John, me as George, and Dan Collins on drums as Ringo for the all-important drummer vocal. As we worked out our arrangements, though, it became more fun to mix and match depending on the song, and really interpret the music as Noon Fifteen, rather than transform into a Beatles tribute band.
Noon Fifteen performs at Stone Bend Farm (Photo by Michael Smith/Manifesto Designs)
Q: The whole album is only 35 minutes -- what else are you doing for this show?
Harry: We’ll play a short original set before the record to get people in the mood, including some of our Beatle-liest tunes.
Sam: While the recorded versions of the Beatles songs are almost all under three minutes, we’ve taken a few of the fadeouts as opportunities to stretch out the songs instrumentally. “Rubber Soul” is marked by the influences of American R&B and soul via Motown and Stax, as well as Bob Dylan, the Byrds, and the folk and folk-rock movements of the 1960s.
Since Noon Fifteen aims for a mix of soul and progressive rock, it’s been fun to emphasize all of those influences in ways that expand on what the Beatles put on record in 1965 – both in our expanded arrangements of “Rubber Soul” and in our own songs that we’ve paired with the Beatles set.
Q: You’ve been part of other Beatles tribute shows put on the Cosmic Joke Collective. What’s the best part about doing these types of shows?
Harry: Those shows are fantastic because of the community. Coming together to play alongside people you admire and love is a rare treat, and to do it to honor a great record is the best.
Sam: The Abbey Road tribute at The Haunt in November of 2019 was one of the last big shows I got to play before the pandemic. I remember that all-star finale of “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End” very fondly.
Q: How did you get into the Beatles to begin with? What are your earliest memories of them?
Harry: Their music was ubiquitous in my house, and my dad actively tried to get me to listen to it. I resisted it at that point because a lot of what was on the oldies radio was the early, early stuff (no disrespect intended), and just 2 or 3 different tracks repeated over and over. When the “One” compilation came out, I gave it a shot and had my first exposure to their larger output. At that point, it was all over for me.
Sam: My dad got a car with a CD player when I was 11, and he had CDs of “With the Beatles” and the red “1962-1966” compilation in the car. The music just got its hooks in me, and I became obsessed – watching the “Anthology” documentary, absorbing all of their albums, reading every book I could get my hands on. I can trace my whole life as a musician back to that.
Q: Why are the Beatles still so relevant after all these years?
Sam: Their music is unique but universal, complex but accessible, familiar but full of strange, surprising deep cuts. It’s easy to get drawn in by the catchy melodies, but it’s a catalog with depth that rewards repeated listens. As a musician, no matter how many times I’ve heard one of their songs, learning their music always leads to at least one moment of “Oh, I had no idea THAT was going on.” And there’s a romance to their story, the rise and fall of a group of friends with compelling personalities that lines up with the beginning and end of a decade loaded with cultural and historical weight. Mostly, though, the songwriting and recordings just hold up.
Q: What else is Noon Fifteen working on for 2026?
Harry: We’ll drop an album that has been in the works for 8 years this fall. It’s aptly titled “Finish What You Started.”
Sam: We’re always writing new material and trying to spread our wings a little more. We’re excited to be picking up steam as we enter our second decade as a band. If you haven’t seen us before, come check us out, and tell your friends!
If You Go
Who: Noon Fifteen
What: Ithaca quintet covers the classic 1965 Beatles album ‘Rubber Soul’ in its entirety, and more!
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, March 28; doors at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Liquid State Brewing, 527 W. State St., Ithaca
Cost: $10 in advance, available online here; $15 at the door
Jim Catalano has covered the Ithaca and Central New York music scene since 1992