No band makes people come together more than The Beatles. This was evident at the Washington Coliseum this week, where music lovers of all generations gathered despite sub-freezing temperatures to celebrate the iconic British rock band on the 50th anniversary of their first concert in North America.

The D.C. Preservation League and Douglas Development presented “The 50th Anniversary Celebration of The Beatles’ First North American Concert: Yesterday & Today” concert Tuesday. Proceeds benefitted the preservation of the Coliseum and other historic buildings in the nation’s capital. This event was the Coliseum’s last, before its conversion into retail and office space while maintaining its historic structure.

The concert replicated the special night in 1964, when The Beatles performed in this same venue for their first U.S. performance. Bubblegum singer-songwriter Tommy Roe opened the concert, just as he did in 1964. Beatles tribute band BeatleMania Now then performed the exact 35-minute, 12-song set list performed 50 years earlier, and went on at precisely 8:31 p.m., just as The Beatles did. The four performers donned gray suits and bowl cuts, and even delivered the same spoken lines in imitation British accents.

Their brief but brilliant performance opened with “Roll Over Beethoven,” a Chuck Berry cover. Audience members began standing up and joining in by their ninth song, “She Loves You,” and everyone was participating by their next one, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which was just off the record when The Beatles performed it in 1964. Other crowd favorites included “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Twist and Shout,” during which many people followed the song title’s instructions.

Having attended the original concert in 1964, audience members Herb Fitzgerald and Carole McCracken said their concert experiences were magical and memorable.

Fitzgerald was an eighth grader living in Takoma Park when he went to the concert 50 years ago. He and a group of friends purchased tickets for four dollars each and had a fantastic time, he said.

“As everybody knows, you couldn’t really hear them because of the young ladies that were all screaming and everything, but you could hear the beat. You could hear, but it wasn’t clear like you could hear on the radio,” Fitzgerald said. “But it was an exciting time. For a fourteen-year-old kid back in those days, that was pretty cool.”

McCracken was one of those young ladies squealing at John, Paul, George and Ringo. She was 13 years old when she traveled to DC from Baltimore and sat only five rows away from the boxing ring that served as a makeshift stage, atop which the Fab Four serenaded 8,000 screaming fans.

“I couldn’t believe ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’ they were singing it right in front of me, and I was screaming and screaming and screaming,” McCracken said. “I was so excited and I’ve never stopped liking them since.”

McCracken experienced déjà vu during the 35-minute revival Tuesday night.

“That brought back so many memories that I wasn’t expecting,” she said. “I didn’t think that I remembered Ringo singing and them introducing Ringo, but I remembered it clearly. I remember that Paul was saying, ‘this is off our latest LP, but you call it a record here,’ and I remember when they said ‘back in England,’ I was thinking ‘wow, they live in England.’”

Although only two of the original Beatles have been alive for most of her life, Pyle eighth grader Julia Warker is nonetheless an avid Beatles fan. She began listening to The Beatles at the end of last school year and quickly fell in love with their music. She saw Paul McCartney at Nationals Park in July with her dad, and when he read about Tuesday’s concert in the Washington Post, he decided they needed to go. Warker was beyond pleased with BeatleMania Now’s performance.

“They sound and look really similar to [The Beatles], so it’s amazing,” she said. “It’s like seeing them. I almost started crying, I was so excited.”

Warker said if she had been given the chance, she would have gone to the concert 50 years ago and cheered alongside McCracken and other teenage girls.

After a brief intermission following the conclusion of the 35-minute revival, BeatleMania Now reemerged several times in different costumes to perform more hits, from “All You Need is Love” to “I Am the Walrus.” They closed with “Hey Jude,” inviting all audience members to sing along for the “nah-nahs,” and came back for an encore performance of “Oh! Darling.”

The sold-out audience seemed to have a blast reliving the iconic night in 1964, whether they had been there or not. Older audience members sang and danced their hearts out to the tunes they grew up with, and younger audience members joined in with just as much energy.

Times may have changed over the past 50 years, yet The Beatles remain timeless in their ability to unite vastly different people into a homogeneous, music-loving crowd.

“I’ve seen a couple of tribute bands, and they’re nowhere near what it was when you were [watching The Beatles live],” Fitzgerald said. “But it’s still great to come here, relive this, and know that they’re still a viable music and people still love them after 50 years.”