Mike & Bruce's setlists appeal to broad range of fans...casual to hardcore

[Cam Mott]

You're always tearing down Mike - why don't you give the guy a break?!

No break. No one else ever does it, it's so unbalanced, so I have to.

[MBE]

Look Mike and Bruce deserve praise for becoming a little more creative. Brian deserves praise too, and I really don't think he is the least talented in the band. He really comes across well to me. Not as someone in their prime per se, but someone who can still express himself creatively. My girlfriend said that at Brian's show she never saw a more loved artist. I think that says a lot. Taste is taste, but I think we aren't allowing each other to be individuals here. If Mike is to your liking ,see him. If it's Brian, see him. If you only like what they did when they were young stay home and play the reocrds or watch the videos. One day not so long from now not one of the Beach Boys will be performing.

[Sir Rob]

You're always tearing down Mike - why don't you give the guy a break?!

No break. No one else ever does it, it's so unbalanced, so I have to.

Playing 'Mike's advocate', huh?!   

[Sir Rob]

Look Mike and Bruce deserve praise for becoming a little more creative. Brian deserves praise too, and I really don't think he is the least talented in the band.

I nearly choked on my lunch there (until I got your meaning)!

[MBE]

I am glad you realised I didn't mean in the Beach Boys. As great as his band is I am not going  to see Jeff Fosket (Ok maybe Taylor).

[Swamp Pirate]

Cam, I wasn't trying to single you out.  I don't have a horse in this contest. 

Having seen both shows in the past couple years, yes, Brian's show is different than the one Mike and Bruce present.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  I get tired of both stereotypes ie... Brian's a drooling loon who can't even tie his shoes for himself and can't sing anymore, Mike is the devil incarnate and ruining the Beach Boys legacy etc...etc...   

I agree that Mike has presented a more ambitious set than the days of the much maligned 'traveling jukebox.'  I also believe that Brian as a performer has improved tremendously since the Farm Aid disaster.  I don't particularly care for the whole 'David Byrne in Once In a Lifetime' thing he does with his hands, but Brian did sing his ass off last summer when I saw him play in Detroit. 

I think in some measure we'll all pining for things the way they used to be and know will never be ever again.  Dennis and Carl are never coming back.  And the rest?  Well, even good marriages sometimes turn bad.  So tearing Brian and Al down to build Mike up or Mike down to build Al and Brian up is a self-defeating exercise.  The Beach Boy's legacy is secure in rock history.  Brian Wilson's legacy is secure.  Let it be.

[Cam Mott]

The Beach Boy's legacy is secure in rock history.  Brian Wilson's legacy is secure.  Let it be.

My point exactly. Great minds.....

[Alan Boyd]

Bottom line - we're talking here about one of the richest and most incredibly diverse catalogs in popular music.  Over the years, The Beach Boys' music has gone to so many different (and seemingly incompatible) places, there's literally something for everyone there. 

It's obviously been both a blessing and a curse.

 

[Dave in KC]

I am seeing "The Beach Boys" tonight and I'll decide for myself.

[Dave in KC]

Sad. No Getcha Back, No Disney Girls.

[Jason]

Brian Wilson as a solo act is where all the college kids are at!  As someone in the younger demographic, kids who are into indie music know damn well who brian wilson is and what he means to pop music, kids with little to know knowledge of their history know Brian is the genius, and they know that SMiLE was brilliant.  Not one of them hears an ad for the beach boys on the country music station and thinks, wow, i should go see that innovative band of quality musicianship, they think, surf, car, beach,  thye hear brian wilson and they think: brilliance

Hey, I did a Smile radio show on my college station a few months before BWPS premiered, and I had hardcore punk and metal fans telling me that Smile was fucking amazing music. Brian Wilson is the one with the indie cred. Great post.

But don't discount the Beach Boys, because the 1966-73 Beach Boys stuff has some indie cred as well.

[jlaird]

That's certainly true, but none of the "Beach Boys" on tour, Carl and Dennis are the 70 stars