Well, last night I went, finally, to my first Beach Boys concert ever. I have many things to say about it, so if you lack tolerance, now is a good time to hit the delete button.
(Brian Love - Mike's 10 year old kid, also sang vocals, on mic and in tune for about half the set.)
The night started out with a great set by Aussie legend Richard Clapton. Won't say too much about that because you foreigners wouldn't understand.
America then came on and did a great 45 minutes set. I've seen these guys before a few times, and they are always good and always happy to be here. They played all their hits, and a few songs from their new album. Harmonies and playing were immaculate, and this group should be congratulated for keeping the lineup together for so long.. the 'newest' member has been in the band for 18 years!!
OK.. now understand.. this was a big thing for me. Being a fanatic, I had dreamed about hearing the BBs, in any form, for a long time. I have been put off by the talk on the PSML but with a few minutes before they came on I was as excited as I've been for a long time. The set list was..
encore 1
Surfin Safari (Dave Marks guitar solo)
Surf City (Bruce passes a surfboard out into the crowd. It gets passed over the
heads of the whole floor section and arrived back to Bruce just as the song
ends.)
Surfin USA
encore 2
Little Saint Nick
Back In The USSR
encore 3
Fun Fun Fun
*Dave Marks... he looks like a corpse on stage. He has no stage presence, and even though he was dead center on stage, you didn't notice he was there for most of the night. Having said that, he played the Carl surf guitar parts REALLY well.. authentic, totally. Didn't notice his guitar though when he wasn't soloing. He shouldn't be singing, at all.. his lead vocals were VERY weak. Nobody really cared or noticed that he was an original, and one of the 'newer' boys could have done a better job with the things he sang.
*Mike Love was really, I have to say, VERY good. He didn't do the dances, and he was in tune ALL night. His voice sounded really great, and I was amazed when he sung the early songs how much his voice hasn't changed. He was a really entertaining front man, and the crowd was eating right out of his hand. He was really professional, and didn't let the momentum of the show sag at all.. not an easy thing to do. To be honest, I can't say enough good things about him.. I was very impressed. Sometimes he tried a little too hard to give the band credibility.. (introducing Dave Marks as an original, talking about the #1 hits etc..) but generally a self deprecating comment soon followed, which everyone enjoyed.
*Bruce Johnston was having a great time. He was working up the crowd really well and was all over the stage. His keyboards were very audible, and sounded great. His lead vocal in God Only Knows was more than admirable, and his voice sounded surprisingly good. But somebody get him some long pants!!
*Adrian Baker is awesome. He sound more like Brian Wilson than Brian Wilson does. He was right on the money all night, and it was truly awesome. Don't Worry Baby was one of his many highlights.
*John Stamos is really good looking and really loves being there, but we all got really tired of his posing and preening. It wore itself out really quickly.
*They had 7 people singing almost all night, and the vocal harmony blend was really great.
*The band, Mike Kowalski, Mike Meros, Phil Bardowell, Tim Bono and Chris Farmer are wonderful. They were having a great time and are very passionate about what they are playing. It was great to see. Chris Farmer looked so much like BW at times that it wasn't funny!
*The crowd of about 14,000 absolutely were going crazy. I was really happy.It was great to see so much excitement about one of MY favourite bands. It was also great to go to a concert and be able to sing all the words!!
OK.. I think that's about it. I'm sorry to have gone on for so long. I took
notes so I could give a full report to you clowns, and I'm still on a real
high from this concert. To be honest, I doubt whether the concert would have
been improved by Brian's presence. It would have been nice to have had Al & Matt
there, but I was more than happy with how it all sounded. The vocal blend
was really fantastic. If the show comes to your town, forget about the
purity of who's in the band or whatever. This was a night to celebrate the
music. Sometimes we get so caught up in whether it's actually the Beach
Boys, but it was a wonderful night.. a true highlight for me. Of course, I
never saw the band in its 'glory days' but this was about as good as I
could have imagined it EVER being.
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