Brian Wilson - 2017 Tour Thread (Pet Sounds - The Final Performances)

[SMiLE Brian]

Video please!

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I wish I had video! Was too busy enjoying the show!

[GhostyTMRS]

I also went to the NJPAC show this past Friday night. I'll echo what others have said:

The band was great. I haven't seen a Brian show since 2004 and I found this particular lineup to be a much looser configuration with less emphasis on replicating the records. That was a strength, actually. I was so glad to hear so much Al Jardine! For me, time stands still when Al sings.

I had no idea how Blondie would fit in with this band and he wound up stealing the show. 

Brian was great throughout the first half of the show. He was in good voice, belted songs out with a lot of gusto and SANG.  It was the complete opposite when it came to the Pet Sounds portion. I agree with what others have said. He seems bored with doing these songs in the same sequence. He spoke/sang kind of like William Shatner. It wasn't a travesty or anything because the band carried him through but hearing Brian speak/sing "Hey, don't talk..put that head on my shoulder" like a finger popping lounge lizard when I was expecting a more gentle treatment was a little confusing.

..and all the more confusing because he went right back to singing great when it came time for the encore. Clearly, something is going on here with the Pet Sounds set. Maybe he's doing the Bob Dylan approach by altering the phrasing to make an old song seem new to the singer. You have to wonder though, why doesn't he feel the same way about "California Girls"?. He's sung that many more times than the Pet Sounds stuff.   

[HeyJude]

I think they're still doing PS because there's a huge demand for it from promoters and venues. Most of this current North American leg consists of markets that didn't get Brian in 2016 or warranted a second night but didn't get it in 2016.

But he's doing to be swinging back around again for most PS in North America again in October. So he's probably doing all PS shows for the rest of this year.

And it does seem like he has tired of the PS material. Look at him go into "Here Comes the Night" in that soundcheck clip. He's beaming. Hopefully they'll add that one and other WH material into the set (and show up Mike in the process; because Brian's band should be running circles around them not only with performance quality but setlist as well).

I do think Brian's potential lack of intense interest in the PS material is mitigated by two instrumentals and Matt and Al doing a decent amount of the vocals, as well as Brian seemingly being very into the non-PS stuff.

[EgoHanger1966]

Went to the Wilkes Barre, PA show last night. Very good overall! Setlist.FM is incorrect. Do It Again was not played, but Salt Lake City was.

As others have reported, Brian was definitely more "on" during the first set, although he had some strong moments during Pet Sounds (I'd single out "That's Not Me", "I Know There's An Answer"). His alterations of the lyrics (I'm not even talking about how he sings them - that's another thing entirely) doesn't work though. He must be extremely bored.

Also, I think he should introduce Blondie's set and then leave the stage. Having him just sit there for most of it doesn't look so good. For 95% of Blondie's set, he just zoned out. And left the stage without at least waving goodbye to the audience before the band was done playing SOS. Although he did play a little bit of audible keyboard during Wild Honey and sing during the intro. His voice cut right through the stack, pretty cool. It's really good when he's into participating.

My takeaway from the night was - I'll go see Brian as long as he's touring. His voice is actually killer when he's trying. I'm just always hoping he can try for the duration of the entire show

[baseball95]

At D.C. Now in intermission, Heroes is back as the opener minus our prayer and She Knows Me Too Well is back with Matt on lead instead of Let Him Run Wild. Blondie absolutely amazing as always. Brian in great spirits introduced the great al jardine at least 5 times including right after Heroes much to Al's amusement.

[HeyJude]

Good to see "Heroes" back. Looks like "She Knows Me Too Well" took the place of "Let Him Run Wild." I wonder permanent that will be, or if they'll swap them in and out as the tour progresses:

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/brian-wilson/2017/lincoln-theatre-washington-dc-be65db2.html

[HeyJude]

I've also updated the setlists in the first/top post.

[RubberSoul13]

Sounds like I missed a good one! Oh well, hope all went well tonight!

[CosmicDancer]

I was at the show in Knoxville, TN last night.  I hadn't seen Brian since the 2004 SMiLE tour, so naturally, I was pretty pumped.  The first set was fantastic. Brian seemed engaged and was taking a big part in the backing vocals when not taking the lead vocal role. The band was great as always. Al never ceases to amaze me. He still sounds amazing. Matt Jardine did a fantastic job handling the falsetto parts. Blondie was fun to watch and did a great job vocally, but his lead guitar breaks, other than the one on Feel Flows which was good, weren't great. Maybe I'm being overly critical being a guitarist myself, but he was sloppy and way loud in the mix. Regardless, I'm glad he was there. No "Love You" songs, unfortunately.  We did get killer versions of Wake the World and Let Him Run Wild.

As many have noted, Brian took many liberties with the lead vocal melodies in the "Pet Sounds" set, which was frustrating. It's not that he can't do it as the first set plainly showed. I just think he must be over touring this album after so long and is slicing things up for himself. Either that or just going through the motions on it. The band was fantastic musically and vocally in this set. Totally made up for Brian's shortcomings in this section.

Last set was the big hits you'd expect performed extremely well. Brian was in very good form again.

Great show overall. Happy early birthday to me!

[Senator Blutarsky]

I was at the show in Knoxville, TN last night.  I hadn't seen Brian since the 2004 SMiLE tour, so naturally, I was pretty pumped.  The first set was fantastic. Brian seemed engaged and was taking a big part in the backing vocals when not taking the lead vocal role. The band was great as always. Al never ceases to amaze me. He still sounds amazing. Matt Jardine did a fantastic job handling the falsetto parts. Blondie was fun to watch and did a great job vocally, but his lead guitar breaks, other than the one on Feel Flows which was good, weren't great. Maybe I'm being overly critical being a guitarist myself, but he was sloppy and way loud in the mix. Regardless, I'm glad he was there. No "Love You" songs, unfortunately.  We did get killer versions of Wake the World and Let Him Run Wild.

As many have noted, Brian took many liberties with the lead vocal melodies in the "Pet Sounds" set, which was frustrating. It's not that he can't do it as the first set plainly showed. I just think he must be over touring this album after so long and is slicing things up for himself. Either that or just going through the motions on it. The band was fantastic musically and vocally in this set. Totally made up for Brian's shortcomings in this section.

Last set was the big hits you'd expect performed extremely well. Brian was in very good form again.

Great show overall. Happy early birthday to me!

I saw Brian last year and I also picked up on that it seemed Brian was a bit burnt out on some of the Pet Sounds performance judging from his vocals.  Which is kinda surprising since he says it is his greatest work.  But I guess if you do something so much for so long its bound to happen.

[KDS]

From the shows Ive been to the last few years, Brian seems to prefer the more up beat material.  Often yelling things like "we're gonna do some rocking for you!!!!"

[GuyO]

Does anyone have a link to the new october dates? They're not on brianwilson.com in spite of a link from the official twitter account.

[Marty Castillo]

Does anyone have a link to the new october dates? They're not on brianwilson.com in spite of a link from the official twitter account.

It appears you can see the new dates here:  http://www.brianwilson.com/news/

[RubberSoul13]

$150 for Lancaster? No thanks...I'll be sitting out this leg too. Very fond memories of my two pet sounds shows last year!

[HeyJude]

I've added the new dates to the top post. For some reason they have the dates on the news page but not the tour dates page.

[marcella27]

I've added the new dates to the top post. For some reason they have the dates on the news page but not the tour dates page.

Hallelujah...more dates. 
How do the live nation and "local" presales work?  Do they require codes?

[HeyJude]

I've added the new dates to the top post. For some reason they have the dates on the news page but not the tour dates page.

Hallelujah...more dates. 
How do the live nation and "local" presales work?  Do they require codes?

Usually. Sometimes they send the codes out via email.

But keep in mind that a lot of presales only set aside a certain block of seats. So you have less competition during presales but less tickets to choose from. So you're not always guaranteed the best seats.

[Margarita]

The Rosemont, IL show has three presales that started this morning - about 20 minutes after the BW FB page posted about the new shows:
1.  WXRT - okay, the password was probably something that went out to their newsletter subscribers
2.  Venue - ditto
3.  Brian Wilson Facebook Fans - huh?  There was no mention of a password on FB.  BW.com doesn't even list these shows yet!

Yeah, the general sale is on Friday and i'm sure I'll snag tix then.  But I wanted to get the ticket-buying over with now.  Does anyone have any of these presale codes, or even codes for other venues?  Often the same code will work with multiple venues - it's worth a try.  If you can help a sister out, please PM me. 

[marcella27]

The Rosemont, IL show has three presales that started this morning - about 20 minutes after the BW FB page posted about the new shows:
1.  WXRT - okay, the password was probably something that went out to their newsletter subscribers
2.  Venue - ditto
3.  Brian Wilson Facebook Fans - huh?  There was no mention of a password on FB.  BW.com doesn't even list these shows yet!

Yeah, the general sale is on Friday and i'm sure I'll snag tix then.  But I wanted to get the ticket-buying over with now.  Does anyone have any of these presale codes, or even codes for other venues?  Often the same code will work with multiple venues - it's worth a try.  If you can help a sister out, please PM me. 

I just took a guess for the New York show Live Nation - and it worked - the code is petsounds

[Mayoman]

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[Senator Blutarsky]

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I'm partial to the semicolon, but to each his own

[KDS]

$150 for Lancaster? No thanks...I'll be sitting out this leg too. Very fond memories of my two pet sounds shows last year!

Wow, hard to believe less than two years ago, I got 2nd row seats at Mont College for $60 ir so each.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Couldn't go last night as I had to work hopefully somebody else was there from the board...

[RubberSoul13]

$150 for Lancaster? No thanks...I'll be sitting out this leg too. Very fond memories of my two pet sounds shows last year!

Wow, hard to believe less than two years ago, I got 2nd row seats at Mont College for $60 ir so each.

I had the student price in the 2nd row there...fifteen bucks!