Nostalgia and dancing stretched beyond the midnight hour as Beatles tribute band The Fab Four played the first of a two-night residency at the Fairmont Hamilton on Friday.

Arriving on stage wearing velvet collared suits like those famously worn by The Beatles on their breakthrough 'Ed Sullivan Show' US appearance in early 1964, the imitators from Canada certainly looked the part.

And from the back of the sell-out Harbourview Ballroom the foursome could well have passed for the real thing as they launched into a faithful rendition of The Beatles' version of the Isley Brothers' 'Twist and Shout' before moving on to Lennon/McCartney favourites 'All My Loving', 'She Loves You' and featuring drummer Johnny T on 'This Boy'.

This opening section of the show was the most enjoyable, with the band at ease and comfortable recreating the admittedly straight-forward rock and roll of The Beatles' early years.

The dance floor was filled with jiving, twisting bodies and everyone knew the words.

It was with the authentic look, and the surprisingly accurate vocals and harmonies that The Fab Four scored their highest points throughout the two hours of music they provided.

When it came to musicianship however, something was missing, and I would describe it as a lack of dynamism in the sound.

For much of the evening it seemed that only the guitar of Tom Walsh (imitating George Harrison) was turned up to any discernable extent with little evidence of musical flourishes from either Paul McCartney's bass (bass player Mark Harrison) or John Lennon's rhythm guitar (played by John A).

On 'Ticket to Ride' John A struggled with the signature notes picked out by Lennon in the 1964 original.

I worried then, that if the sound appeared 'flat' at times on some of the basic early songs, how would the group cope when they moved onto the more complex compositions of The Beatles' later years? The hollow sound indeed did become more pronounced on the second of the three segments when the band switched into the colourful Sergeant Pepper-era outfits.

It was this middle section that was the weakest of the three sets. 'Day Tripper' sounded two-dimensional and the keyboards added to the 'Pepper' album tracks were embarrassingly tinny-sounding, robbing these musical masterpieces of much of their stunning impact.

However, I don't want to overly criticise the Fab Four, because they were entertaining and perhaps there were some first night glitches with the sound production.

Or maybe it was because I ended up attending the concert alone and was therefore upset that they didn't play 'I'm A Loser' so I could sing along – by myself.

Anyway the vocals on 'Rain' were spot-on and the final costume changing segway was accomplished by having John A leave and return as a 1969-era white-suited Lennon to perform Lennon's solo hit 'Imagine' while the other three members vanished to get into their Beatles-break-up clobber.

'Imagine' was another highlight that was lapped up by the crowd, and the final batch of songs nicely wrapped up the evening with the dance floor once more energised to the sound of 'Back in the USSR' 'Ballad of John and Yoko' and the perennial ballad favourite 'Hey Jude'.

On balance, The Fab Four provided an entertaining Friday evening. They are not the best Beatles' tribute band I've seen – that honour goes to England's Bootleg Beatles – but given a bit more audibility from the bass and rhythm guitar, and a better choice of synthesisers for the mid-career Beatles numbers, they could well garner a faithful following of their own. I hope they return to our shores.