‘Top of The Pile’

For Lane County musician and educator Tony Rust, Rolling Stones’ record Sticky Fingers is a “top of the pile” album. “It’s an album I grew up with,” he says. “Solid songs all the way through.”

Rust leads a project called FAB Performances, also known as the Favorite Album Band. On March 25 at Springfield’s Wildish Theater, FAB will recreate Sticky Fingers in what Rust calls a “focused setting, instead of a noisy club, where you’re there to party rather than focus on the music.”

The classic record features well known Stones tunes like “Gimme Shelter,” “Wild Horses” and many more.

The Rolling Stones concert will be FAB Performances’ second event. The first paid homage to The Doors. Rust, who sings, says that while the shows are tributes of sorts, don’t expect him to be “strutting around pretending to be Mick Jagger with a Mick Jagger wig on.”

Other musicians performing include Gabe Dickenson on saxophone, Melissa Miller on backing vocals and Jim Reinking on drums.

Covering his favorite album in settings like the Wildish is a dream come true for Rust, and he has many more records in mind for future performances. “Some albums you go — ‘oh yeah, that album’ — it’s got like two songs on it and the rest of them are kinda OK,” Rust says. For FAB Performances to select an album, the music must “really reverberate for the band but carry through for listening to both sides,” he says.

Sticky Fingers, Rust says, is “really chock-full of amazing songs.”

FAB Performances presents The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers (and Other Sticky Hits) 8 pm Saturday, March 25, at Wildish Theater in downtown Springfield; $20, All-ages.

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