One thing about this Keith Richards: He used to be somebody else.
John Lennon.
To explain: Ciggy Cater, the guitarist who today portrays Keith in the Rolling Stones tribute band Midnight Rambler, had another life before this.
He was hired to portray Lennon in “Beatlemania,” on the show’s 1992 European tour. The Fab Four tribute was one good gig for a guy from Coventry, England. It was also a kind of counterpoint to his current band.
Midnight Rambler, the Seattle-based ensemble specializing in all things Stones, will roll onto the Peninsula for two shows: Tonight at the 7 Cedars Casino in Blyn and Saturday at the Elks Naval Lodge in downtown Port Angeles.
There’s no cover charge for the casino concert, slated to start at 9 p.m. in the Club Seven lounge.
On Saturday night, the band will hold court for a dance concert in the Elks’ upstairs ballroom. This event, presented by the nonprofit Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, has an admission ticket of $15. It’s for the 21-and-older crowd and will start at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Midnight Rambler was booked months ago as part of the Juan de Fuca Festival’s season of concerts — and as a nod to the real Rolling Stones’ 50th anniversary.
The tribute band, meantime, has been making music together for about five years — though these men are longtime lovers of the Stones.
Cater’s first record purchase — a 45 rpm piece of vinyl — was “Honky Tonk Women,” the Mick Jagger and company’s 1969 smash.
And as for so many boys of his generation, this led to a lifelong thirst for that rock ‘n’ roll sound.
“As a teenager, I ate, slept and drank music,” Cater said in an interview from his home near Seattle.
Nowadays, he slinks into Keith Richards’ animal-print getups. He applies the signature eyeliner. Most important, he cultivates an onstage look “like I’ve arrived through a hedge, backwards.”
And Cater still finds the music quite tasty, thank you.
“’Gimme Shelter’ always gives me goose bumps. ‘Brown Sugar’ is always fun. So is ‘Paint It, Black’ with all the finger-picking parts,” he said.
It’s not easy putting together Midnight Rambler’s nightly roster of songs. But somebody’s got to do it.
“We’ll do four or five crazy songs, and then we’ll take it down a notch,” said Cater, the set list maker. “We try and pepper the ballads,” such as “Angie” and “Wild Horses.”
Cater works at making the show roll along “at a cannonball pace,” with a hard punch of dance numbers and then a break.
If you’re not careful, Cater said, “you have a dance floor that looks like a hot yoga class.”
There’s on-stage heat too, the guitarist added. “I make malevolent gestures toward Jagger.”
“Jagger” is in fact David Christensen, a relatively new Midnight Rambler member. He’s from Spokane but has lived in Seattle most of his life.
Then there’s the Rambler’s “Ronnie Wood”: Albert Ceccacci, a guitarist who was born in Italy but grew up in Montreal, Canada.
In a previous band, Ceccacci toured the country, making a stop at the Muckleshoot Casino near Auburn; that led to meeting Susan Rosen, the woman who would become his wife and the manager of Midnight Rambler. The couple live in Renton, where they also run a house cleaning service.
As a boy, Ceccacci first fell for the Beatles. He bought one of their songbooks and learned the whole thing.
Then, his discovery of the Stones fired him up again.
“Everything they do,” he observed, “revolves around the blues and Chuck Berry.”
Asked for his favorite Stones song, Ceccacci doesn’t hesitate: “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” from 1971’s “Sticky Fingers” album.
This music “opened up a new world,” Ceccacci said. “It’s just a bigger sound.”
And Ceccacci, at 51, says it’s good to be in a band whose songs are irresistible.
“When the people really get into it, that’s when the band comes alive. That feels really good . . . Mick Jagger will keep you on your feet the whole time,” he added.
And with the real Stones showing no signs of calling it a day, “we’ve got to keep up that energy. We can’t slow down now.”
For details on tonight’s Midnight Rambler show at 7 Cedars, 270756 U.S. Highway 101, phone the casino at 360-683-7777. For tickets to the Juan de Fuca Festival concert at the Elks ballroom Saturday, visit Port Book & News, 104 E. First St., Port Angeles, or Pacific Mist Books at 121 W. Washington St. in Sequim. Information and tickets are also at the Juan de Fuca Festival site, www.JFFA.org.
