Beatles tribute bands can sometimes get really hokey. It’s not very respectful to The Beatles as artists to wear wigs and matching suits and act like the characters in Help! or A Hard Day’s Night.  There’s the drummer with the big nose, the left-handed bass player with the moon face and puppy-dog eyes, the cute and quiet guitarist and the guy wearing glasses. It’s vaudeville.

But the members of The Fab Faux, a Beatles band based out of New York City, don’t wear wigs or do shtick. The five of them are some of the best sidemen in New York City. Together, they perform songs live that The Beatles never did.

The group will make its Chicago debut on March 28 at Park West, 322 W. Armitage Ave. The Fab Faux consists of Will Lee (of “The Late Show with David Letterman”s’ CBS Orchestra) on bass, Jimmy Vivino (of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”s’ Max Weinberg 7) on guitar, Jack Petruzzelli on keyboard and guitar, Frank Agnello on guitar and Rich Pagano on drums. In order to pull off complex Beatles vocals, like on “Because” or “Nowhere Man,” each member also serves as a vocalist.

“We’re not trying to go on stage and mimic four guys by trying to look like them and pretend to be them or anything like that,” Lee said. “What we’re doing is we’re hopefully paying reverence by doing our version of what we think is bringing our records to the stage.”

Lee said “reverence” was the key word when it comes to their performances.

“We’re treating [the music] as if it’s Mozart,” he said.

Because of their demanding day jobs as session men, the band plays primarily on Saturdays. Once, Lee even played on a session with Paul McCartney at the post-9/11 “Concert for New York City.” There, he felt he had to spill the beans about his Beatles band to McCartney, who classically frowns about tribute bands.

“I approached him and said, ‘Look, I know you have a low tolerance for Beatle bands, but I have to admit to you that I do have a little band,'” he said. “‘We focus on the later stuff, the more impossible-to-perform-live kind of stuff,’ and he immediately said, ‘Do you do “Tomorrow Never Knows?”‘ and I said, ‘Well of course. Absolutely.'”

Lee and the band have spent countless hours analyzing and working on some of The Beatles’ most complex material. For example, Lee said he worked on the complete live arrangement of “Revolution 9” from The White Album for 22 days.

Each Fab Faux performance is unique. Sometimes, the band comes on to play an entire album live. Other times, they’ll do a show of The Beatles’ solo work. Lee said their Chicago premiere will be a “best of” show, where they’ll play their favorite songs to perform live.

Terri Hemmert, host of “Breakfast with The Beatles” on WXRT and instructor in Columbia’s Radio Department, will host a Q&A with the band after the show. She said playing The Beatles’ music note-for-note is impressive, but takes great musicianship, ability and interpretation to pull it off.

“This band, being good musicians, they can pull that off,” Hemmert said. “With some bands playing note-for-note, it’s like somebody telling a joke and they don’t really get it. They’re saying the right words but not with the right inflection, and you don’t get the joke because they put the emphasis on the wrong words. It’s the same with music.”

Bill Nollman helps with the group’s promotional materials and is also one of their biggest fans. After booking them at a charity concert in Connecticut, he said seeing them play was “mind boggling.”

“I just think there’s something that sort of shatters expectations when you sit there expecting to see a band that we sort of describe as a ‘boots and suits’ band,” Nollman said. “As I’m sitting down, they start the opening chords of ‘Magical Mystery Tour,’ and I turned to my wife and said, ‘Oh my God, this is going to be unbelievable.’ I became an instant fan.”

Regarding their performance in Chicago, Lee said he’s excited to introduce their live performance to the people of the city.

“I’ve always felt like it was New York’s less evil twin,” he said.

The Fab Faux will be playing at Park West, 322 W. Armitage Ave., on March 28. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com.