The Beatles never came to Longview. But a band that sounds, looks and acts like John, Paul, George and Ringo will be twisting and shouting here this weekend.

The Fab Four, a Los Angeles band, will do a show at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Columbia Theatre.

Though not as numerous as Elvis impersonators, many bands try to be like the Beatles. One Web site, beatlefans.com, lists about 60 acts, including the Zeatles from New Zealand.

What makes the Fab Four special is the group’s attention to detail, said Ron McNeil, who plays John Lennon. “We’re guys who look like the Beatles, sound like the Beatles and can act like the Beatles,” he said in a phone interview from Las Vegas.

Fab Four members have learned to affect the original Beatles’ Liverpudlian accents, McNeil said. Ardy Sarraf, who’s right-handed, learned to play the bass left-handed just like Sir Paul McCartney.

McNeil added that his show is a classy production, honed during a decade of shows around the world.

“We’re the only four-piece (Beatles) group in the world that plays everything live on stage,” McNeil said. “There’s no fifth guy behind the curtain.”

The group actually sounds better than the real Beatles did early in their career, because sound systems are so much better today, McNeil said. “They’d play for 10,000 people and nobody could hear them.”

TV viewers got a chance to hear The Fab Four on Nov. 19 when they appeared on Ellen DeGeneres’s “Really Big Show,” a throwback to the Ed Sullivan-style variety show which was broadcast on TBS.

The group actually has two casts, with a third in the works. One group stays in Las Vegas and the other tours. Along with McNeil and Sarraf, Rolo Sandoval will portray Ringo and Gavin Pring will be George in Longview.

The Fab Four traces through the Beatles songbook chronologically, going through three costume changes. They appear first as the cleancut moptops of the Ed Sullivan Show, then as the psychedelic era of “Sgt. Pepper” and finally in the long-flowing-hair phase before the group broke up in 1970.

Audience favorites include “Twist and Shout” and “Yesterday,” McNeil said.

But they can’t please all the Beatlemaniacs in the audience, he said. There just isn’t time. “Someone always says, ‘You didn’t play my favorite, Norwegian Wood.’ ”

Yes, women do scream just like girls did in the early Beatles era, McNeil added.

None of the remaining real Beatles have seen the people who try to mirror their souls.

But they’re always invited, McNeil said. Who knows, maybe Ringo Starr will be seen standing there in the CTPA on Saturday.

“We go on stage every night as if Paul or Ringo were in the audience,” McNeil said. “It’s a living tribute to them. I think not only would they enjoy the show, they’d endorse the show.”

What: The Fab Four, a Beatles tribute band from Los Angeles.

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Columbia Theatre.

Tickets: $32 and $38. 575-8499 or (888) 575-8499.