It’s been a minute since we checked in with Spencer Albee, founder of Spencer and the Walrus, a supergroup of Maine-based musicians who have gained national notoriety packing Portland’s State Theatre over three days each Thanksgiving weekend, paying homage to The Beatles. The gigs, which include a show ths evening in Boston, showcase a type of dedication and reverence atypical of most tribute bands, a categorization that doesn’t sit well with Albee.
“I feel like when you say tribute, it conjures that… I mean, I saw some footage of a Beatles tribute band. I don’t know what they’re called, but these dudes got plastic surgery,” he says. “And that’s just so far away from… I’m trying to sing the song, whatever song it is, as much like the recording as I can, but I’m not doing a McCartney impression. I don’t sound like him, and I don’t want to sound like him.”
Albee continues: “So, what sets us apart, and it just occurred to me only just this year, is we’re not a tribute band because we don’t engage in any of that part of it. We all come together because we love the material, and that’s what we do. We want to learn the arrangements. We want to get the harmonies right. There are certain parts of the songs that need to be there… [and] though we really try to be very reverential to the material, we also try not to be too precious with it. And we are just a band playing songs. These are great songs.”
And while The Walrus – Albee’s first name has been phased out from the moniker – are no strangers to playing outside of Portland, within the past year, they’ve made a concerted effort to focus on the greater New England market. Just last month, they made an appearance at Wilco’s Solid Sound afterparty in North Adams, and shortly after that, broke their own attendance record on the main stage at the Prescott Park Arts Festival in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Tonight (July 17), the group returns to City Winery, the same venue they kicked off 2026 with a New Year’s Day show.
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Along with the plethora of hits to choose from, The Walrus does a deeper dive than any other Fab Four-centric outfit out there into the primary catalog, as well as the solo careers of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The self-described Beatles nerds consider anything remotely related to the group in play. As Albee notes, “If a Beatle even looked at it, it’s fair game. We’ll play some Ramones songs.” (The punk rockers famously adopted their name from an alias McCartney used in his pre-stardom days, “Paul Ramon.”)
While the current run sees The Walrus scaled back to its core sextet, as opposed to the guest-heavy State Theatre evenings, it’s by no means any less potent. Part of that is due to the increased role taken on by Anna Lombard, a firecracker of a frontwoman who brings a powerhouse howl that gives the band’s sound another gear.
“[The] sky’s the limit,” Albee says of Lombard. “She’s a super talented person. She’s got a kick-ass attitude, obviously a tremendous singer. She holds her own. There’s a couple times she’s looked at me [during a show], and I’m like, ‘You drive.’”
Next up for The Walrus is a Hampton Beach date on Thursday (July 23) at Bernie’s Beach Bar, and a trio of concerts in Maine. Then it’ll be cramming for the State Theatre extravaganza, which is set to go deep on Magical Mystery Tour for the July 24 night show and Sgt. Pepper come July 25.
As for Albee, he’s also got a new band on tap, The Speed of Sound, which he says will be making waves of the sonic sort later this year. They’ve already got a teaser track up, “Everybody’s Gotta Live,” a short burst that sounds like a missing ‘70s rock-and-roll radio classic, wrapped in equal parts soul and swagger. Late August will begin a series of weekly single drops, culminating in a full-length release in October.
THE WALRUS :: Friday, July 17 at City Winery Boston, 80 Beverly St. in Boston, MA :: 7:30 p.m., all ages, $60 to $30 :: Event info :: Advance tickets