A bit crap

[MBE]

I don't expect a Sunflower but if it's better than the post L.A. albums I'll be cool with it. I think being together again is the point of the this whole thing. Closure perhaps. I do think the shows will have effort put into them. It won't be 1971 but as long as it isn't 1991 I'm again happy. The last time I saw Mike and Bruce they did the surf songs with some real grit to them. As long as they perform the oldies with respect it won't bother me. Yes I would like a heavy dose of the Pet Sounds through Holland stuff, but as I am seeing them in a theatre I think they may just do a decent number of them. I understand the concerns, but I find more and more that people I meet know about Pet Sounds and Smile as much as they do the oldies.  Based around what I saw Mike and Bruce do in 2007 with an orchestra, based on Brian's shows, based on the longer sets, I sincerely think they know that people want more than what once was accepted. I know at very least that seeing them all there together will mean something to me.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

I'm tempted to be as disparaging about this post as Wirestone was about people's genuine concerns about Foskett in the live mixes. But no, I'll rise above it

He's a naughty cheeky, contrary little Wirestone, but we love 'im.

[Pretty Funky]

Pretty big difference between Walmart and Best Buy in my experience.

[The Shift]

Wirestone, I hunk your original post nailed what a lot of us are thinking but not vocalising so throroughly. What others are saying is also true. Yes, the reunion's set to be a bad taste fest but we'll forgive the facts just to see these guys back on stage doing what they've always done.

Not sure, really that BW has ever had the confidence to get on stage and Play songs written from the heart with the BBs when it's the earlier stuff that's gone down best with audiences. Surf n cars sold by the shedload, but there's little on Pet Sounds that the kids can dance to.

If this band has really rehearsed 50 songs (probably not less that 2.5 hours of potential performance) then 2.4 hours of that is probably hits.

Which to my twisted mind is probably why they're not coming to the UK - they'd have to rehearse all over again for a set that would include SoS, SU, probably MAD and other stuff a mass US crowd wouldn't likely know. Without the deeper material, the UK audiences wouldn't be happy (tho' aye Jon, we'd scream the house down for Barbara Ann).

[Lowbacca]

There are moments when I'm at an utter loss of words regarding the negativity concerning the reunion on this board... people, they haven't even played a single reunion gig yet, and no one has heard the new LP (basically we know sh*t about the new LP, right?). So... what's the deal?


As for Wirestone's initial counts of indictment:

Car songs.

Surfin' songs.

Dude.. it's the Beach Boys.  You can't seriously expect the Beach Boys in the year of their reunion to play the entire Holland live and abandon the material that made them what they are, the material that is the reason for the high demand for the Beach Boys (still in 2012) in the first place. I don't get it.

Surfboards in promo pics.

What else is new? Again, it's the Beach Boys. And so far I've found nothing distasteful about the recent promotional images - on the contrary.

"Beaches in Mind."

I would hope that a rock&roll band called the Beach Boys has beaches in mind.

Not a single Pet Sounds song in the mini-set -- no WIBN, no GOK.

Mini-sets have only a limited opportunity of time frame and song choices to sway the audience. You play the hits. And I mean the hits hits. Not WIBN. Safest thing to do. Who can blame them? (Well, we can, obviously.)

"Kokomo."

Did you expect them to not play one of their biggest commercial hits?

That hideous single cover.

That's a question of taste. I dig it.

Wal-Mart.

Don't get that one. I live in Germany, we had Wal-Mart for a couple of years, then they vanished. I hear sad stuff about the working conditions there, but I don't get how Wal-Mart is a bad omen for the Beach Boys reunion.

Jim Peterik writing the lead-off single.

So what? Let's postpone judgement on that until we have heard the actual song.

Underwhelming, poorly mixed live appearances.

Underwhelming? I found those performances pretty solid. Poorly mixed? No. The TV mix for the Grammy performance was sh*t, I'll give you that, but the actual mix in the hall ROCKED. As for the Baseball stadium mix.. dude, it's as Baseball stadium... plus, I couldn't find anything real bad there, either.
Or is this about Foskett again?

Utterly disengaged Brian.

I don't see that. Brian's just being Brian. He's as much sitting around, making tired faces, or acting slightly disconnected as he is on his solo projects. That's just Brian at this age. But what I also see is a happy Brian, genuinely SMiLiNG, hanging around with the Boys. And from everything we hear from in-camp, he's enjoying himself. And that kind of was the crux of the reunion all along, wasn't it? Thus, from where I'm sitting, everything seems to be going peachy.


(Sorry, just had to get that off my chest...)

[Paulos]

Hmmmmm, strange post by Wirestone who is usually one of the better posters on this board but have noticed a few of his posts recently that seem a bit weird, I think a group hug is required.

 

[Andrew G. Doe]

no one has heard the new LP (basically we know sh*t about the new LP, right?).

Correct in every detail, oh yes indeed. Heard nothing, seen nothing, know nothing. How true is this statement. Oh yes.

[Lowbacca]

no one has heard the new LP (basically we know sh*t about the new LP, right?).

Correct in every detail, oh yes indeed. Heard nothing, seen nothing, know nothing. How true is this statement. Oh yes.

Thanks! 

[Aegir]

Whatever, man. It's Brian and Mike and Al singing together. I would love them to play songs other than "Shut Down" (which I'm pretty sure is only known by hardcore Beach Boys fans, anyway) but every time I saw any of these guys' bands I always thought, "This is cool, but it would be so much better if the others were here." And that's what we're getting. All their setlists have sucked for the past 25 years. whatever.

[Zander]

This is slightly disturbing - Wirestone normally talks sense, so I can only assume he's been hanging out with Cohen for too long in recent weeks.

Car songs. - well, yeah, it's what they're known for in the mind of Joe Q. Public.

Surfin' songs. - as above, in spades.

Surfboards in promo pics. - no brainer. Not saying I agree, but... no brainer.

"Beaches in Mind." - we know the title. We know Al whistles on it. We know it's "a very cheerful song". Yup, more than ample grounds to dismiss it out of hand.

Not a single Pet Sounds song in the mini-set -- no WIBN, no GOK. - like you say, mini-set. Hell. they only played one song at the Grammys: this is going to be a complete fiasco !

"Kokomo." - yup, can't see the point of doing their biggest selling 45 and the one song most folk born post-60s associate with them. What are these guys thinking of ?

That hideous single cover. - personal opinion.

Wal-Mart. - when Brian put out TLOS with Best Buy only bonus tracks, I don't recall the wrath of God being called down upon his head.

Jim Peterik writing the lead-off single. - again, we have a title and composers: that's all, you don't know what it sounds like. Just suppose... just suppose it's actually a nice, wistful, retro ballad that isn't too shabby with vocals a la "DFTS" ? Try hearing the thing first.

Underwhelming, poorly mixed live appearances. - two, if you count the Dodger Stadium thing. Three songs.

Utterly disengaged Brian. - sometimes. Sometimes not. That's Brian. He's a trip. 

Totally agreed there...

[Runaways]

i don't understand the dislike for the surfboards in the background of their photos either.  Stuff like that have come around full circle, and it looks quite cool.  Plus them in such a nice room, with a big white grand piano, i dunno.  It's a cool juxtaposition of the quality/sophistication of their music, and the surf music they started from. 

[Disney Boy (1985)]

I think i get where Wirestone is coming from, although he didn't argue his point very well. Now i adore - absolutely f**king ADORE - the Beach Boys more commercial and early material and i've no problem with them playing a big old chunk of that on their reunion tour. It goes without saying, they couldn't not! What i do have a problem with however is the fact that - from what's been said so far - there's little acknowledgement of their more artistic side at all - and to me this is disappointing, especially in light of the recent success of Smile, Brian's latest works, and Al's continuous praising of their more experimental work in recent years. Yes, i know we can't expect them to do a set entirely of obscure album tracks, that's blatantly not what i'm saying, however there'd be no harm in a hardcore fan-pleasing 20-30% chunk of artistic material being thrown into the mix. 

I think it's a fallacy to imply the audience would be running to the exits if the band were to play All This Is That, Time To Get Alone or Til I Die inbetween the hits. The group were artistically progressive for a comfortable 14-15 year run - some more acknowledgement of that wouldn't hurt.   

[b00ts]

I think i get where Wirestone is coming from, although he didn't argue his point very well. Now i adore - absolutely f**king ADORE - the Beach Boys more commercial and early material and i've no problem with them playing a big old chunk of that on their reunion tour. It goes without saying, they couldn't not! What i do have a problem with however is the fact that - from what's been said so far - there's little acknowledgement of their more artistic side at all - and to me this is disappointing, especially in light of the recent success of Smile, Brian's latest works, and Al's continuous praising of their more experimental work in recent years. Yes, i know we can't expect them to do a set entirely of obscure album tracks, that's blatantly not what i'm saying, however there'd be no harm in a hardcore fan-pleasing 20-30% chunk of artistic material being thrown into the mix. 

I think it's a fallacy to imply the audience would be running to the exits if the band were to play All This Is That, Time To Get Alone or Til I Die inbetween the hits. The group were artistically progressive for a comfortable 14-15 year run - some more acknowledgement of that wouldn't hurt.   

Agreed. Hopefully they are aware of this. For The Beatles to do a reunion tour (or even for McCartney's solo tours) to only feature pre-Rubber Soul material would be ignoring the most musically interesting parts of their career. Hopefully the Beach Boys will play tunes from the 70's. It may come down to the markets they are playing in - in smaller theatres, they may be more apt to play more obscure tunes.

[sidewinder572]

This thread is almost as ridiculous as the one that complained that The Smile Sessions in mono is a disaster for the Beach Boys legacy.

[Runaways]

Which to my twisted mind is probably why they're not coming to the UK - they'd have to rehearse all over again for a set that would include SoS, SU, probably MAD and other stuff a mass US crowd wouldn't likely know. Without the deeper material, the UK audiences wouldn't be happy (tho' aye Jon, we'd scream the house down for Barbara Ann).

Big massive 

Is MAD referring to midnights another day?

[runnersdialzero]

This thread is almost as ridiculous as the one that complained that The Smile Sessions in mono is a disaster for the Beach Boys legacy.

No. Nothing even approaches that ridiculous.

[runnersdialzero]

Which to my twisted mind is probably why they're not coming to the UK - they'd have to rehearse all over again for a set that would include SoS, SU, probably MAD and other stuff a mass US crowd wouldn't likely know. Without the deeper material, the UK audiences wouldn't be happy (tho' aye Jon, we'd scream the house down for Barbara Ann).

Big massive 

Is MAD referring to midnights another day?

No, Mothers Against Drunkdriving.

[Mikie]

Pretty big difference between Walmart and Best Buy in my experience.

Yeah, BIG difference. Walmart is making money hand over fist and building more stores and Breast Buy's CEO just resigned, they're closing stores left and right and it's going down the tubes!

[runnersdialzero]

Pretty big difference between Walmart and Best Buy in my experience.

Yeah, BIG difference. Walmart is making money hand over fist and building more stores and Breast Buy's CEO just resigned, they're closing stores left and right and it's going down the tubes!

Uh huh.

[Zach95]

This thread is almost as ridiculous as the one that complained that The Smile Sessions in mono is a disaster for the Beach Boys legacy.

*because it wasn't in stereo*

[b00ts]

This thread is almost as ridiculous as the one that complained that The Smile Sessions in mono is a disaster for the Beach Boys legacy.

This thread is raising legitimate concerns about the reunion. I don't think it quite reaches the level of the aforementioned thread. If it is too whiney for you in the midst of all the reunion positivity, don't look at it. Personally, I am excited for the reunion and I am also interested in reading about Wirestone's reservations... about the reunion, dinner reservations, whatever...

[sidewinder572]

Sorry just seems absurd to complain that the Beach Boys are playing their hits. Especially based on one show.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

It's not remotely absurd for fans to be disappointed that the group are reverting to their 'hits-only' 80's setlists, instead of trying to be a little more adventerous and acknowledging every stage of their career. This is the first full band reunion of remaining members in a long, long time - it should be a big, career-spanning trawl through their catalogue. To say 'Oh well they have to play hits-only shows' is self-defeating nonsense. 

[Andrew G. Doe]

This is the first full band reunion of remaining members in a long, long time...

And the last.

...it should be a big, career-spanning trawl through their catalogue.

Sez who ? Sez us here, the uberfans, the serious BB geeks. Who will the band be playing to for these 60 dates ? Joe Q. Public, his wife and kids, who know the band from maybe 15-20 songs, one of which is "Kokomo": there's going to be enough surprises for them in a 40-song setlist. I can see the boardroom meeting now:

BB rep: OK, the band are going to play a setlist covering their entire career, here (passes sheet of paper to Cap exec)

Exec: (brow steadily furrows as he reads down the setlist and realises he knows maybe 10 songs on it) On behalf of the company... how can I put this...you're out of your fucking minds.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Would they really be accused of being 'out of their f**king minds' if, every so often during the setlist, they threw in the occasional 'Wonderful' or 'Long Promised Road' in-between the smash hits? (Or is it being assumed that i'm implying they should devote half the setlist to obscure album tracks from commercially unsuccessful albums, even though i quite clearly stated that that blatantly isn't what i'm saying several posts ago?)