Mike and Bruce Tour 2015

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

It sounds passable minus the lyric flub.  Agreed, don't think it suits his voice still. Is Bruce just standing there?? No Keyboard?
It's too bad they've taken away 2 of Cowsill's very few vocals in Darlin and HMR to give to Jeff and Mike who already have enough leads.  Underutilizing him a bit.

I don't think they've taken the lead away from Cowsill. Looking at that footage, and at the other videos the same person has uploaded, it looks like the only band members there are Mike, Bruce, Scott, and Jeff -- which makes sense if this is a package thing with multiple acts doing short sets backed by an orchestra.
If "Ike", Tim, and John are there, they're *far* away from the frontline members, and it's possible they weren't mic'd for vocals.
Either way, I suspect Cowsill will be back on lead once they start doing their own shows again next year. But in the meantime, does that make Rhonda the only song where every member of the classic five-member line-up has sung it live?

Is that YOU between the luHvster and bruce???

[RubberSoul13]

Mike sings lead on Help Me Rhonda!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqu1E0c0XHE

Do not like Mike singing that one bit...don't like the orchestra either. Two wrongs did not make a right in this case.

It's a crummy video too, which doesn't help...but it looks like "ike" is behind the four of them playing? I'm really having a hard time seeing through the pixels. Bruce standing there without a keyboard really isn't THAT different from usual.....

I would guess that Tim & John are on the backline behind the orchestra.

Any setlists from these engagements yet?

[Emily]

I think Micha from this board mentioned having tickets to this. Perhaps he will have commentary, setlist, etc.

[Eric Aniversario]

Either way, I suspect Cowsill will be back on lead once they start doing their own shows again next year. But in the meantime, does that make Rhonda the only song where every member of the classic five-member line-up has sung it live?

Interesting!  Quite possibly!

Perhaps the closest thing would be Good Timin'.  Brian, Mike, Dennis, and Carl have all sung Carl's lead.  But Al does the "you need good timin" part on the C50 tour.

[Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll]

Interested to know how many songs they are playing at these "proms" German shows. Looks like they played Frankfurt last night.

This newspapaer mentions that Brian and Mike are still touring. Songs mentioned are GV and Barbara Ann. But it's not a real concert review. I guess this will be the kind of stuff you could expect.

http://www.giessener-zeitung.de/giessen/beitrag/108314/pop-und-klassik-passten-wieder-grandios-zusammen/

Thanks. I was considering going as there are cheap tickets available (nosebleed section) but I couldn't sit through a lot of those other acts (John Miles ) for the sake of a short Mike & Bruce set.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I think Micha from this board mentioned having tickets to this. Perhaps he will have commentary, setlist, etc.

Going today, I believe...

[AndrewHickey]

Mike sings lead on Help Me Rhonda!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqu1E0c0XHE

Do not like Mike singing that one bit...don't like the orchestra either. Two wrongs did not make a right in this case.

It's a crummy video too, which doesn't help...but it looks like "ike" is behind the four of them playing? I'm really having a hard time seeing through the pixels. Bruce standing there without a keyboard really isn't THAT different from usual.....

I would guess that Tim & John are on the backline behind the orchestra.

Any setlists from these engagements yet?

I looked at some of the other videos from the same poster, and didn't see "Ike" there.
That poster has, I think, put almost the entire set up (some bits of songs missing), albeit in such low quality it's not really listenable.
Setlist appears to be:
Do It Again
Rhonda
I Get Around
Sloop John B
Wouldn't It Be Nice
Barbara Ann
Surfin' USA
Good Vibrations (with crowd of other people who are presumably other acts on the tour)

Since there's no Kokomo or Fun Fun Fun on the video, and some songs start in the beginning or cut off, it's likely that they were in there somewhere as well.

[Micha]

I've been there, and thorougly enjoyed the evening. (Except one short moment where the orchestra played a dancefloor hits medley. That wasn't what I came for.) The audience was very ecstatic about the Beach Boys songs which were the big finale. It was an expectedly short set that was so short they didn't even do Kokomo - which I didn't miss. Single records only - it was a general audience who only knows the hits. Cowsill took the place of the orchestra's regular drummer for the BBs set and wasn't mic'd. The BB touring group bass player stood next to him and did have a microphone to sing. (What's his name? I didn't pay enough attention to the touring group members). The really big finale was Good Vibrations, in which the other singers of the show took the alternating lead of the verses: Maria Mena, Johannes Oerding (first verse), John Miles, and a tenor called Fernando Varel (second verse). I don't know who did the falsetto in the "gotta keep those..." section, but it sounded so bad it may have been the show's host who is a radio guy, not a singer.

Overall I found the orchestra too low in the mix and the voices too much up front. The highlight of the whole show for me was the orchestra accompaning a girl's choir singing U2's "With Or Without You", in which the orchestra could be very well heard for maximum emotional impact.

On a side note to the German readers here, John Miles played harmonica with the orchestra doing the Winnetou theme.

[Andrew G. Doe]

The BB touring group bass player stood next to him and did have a microphone to sing. (What's his name? I didn't pay enough attention to the touring group members).

Brian "Ike" Eichenberger, ex of The Four Freshmen and, more recently, The Brian Wilson Band.

[AndrewHickey]

I've been there, and thorougly enjoyed the evening. (Except one short moment where the orchestra played a dancefloor hits medley. That wasn't what I came for.) The audience was very ecstatic about the Beach Boys songs which were the big finale. It was an expectedly short set that was so short they didn't even do Kokomo - which I didn't miss.

Odd... would that make this tour the first time since 1988 that a band billed as The Beach Boys did a live set that *didn't* include Kokomo (and I presume Funx3 was also dropped, then)?

Single records only - it was a general audience who only knows the hits. Cowsill took the place of the orchestra's regular drummer for the BBs set and wasn't mic'd.

That explains Rhonda, as I thought, then.

The BB touring group bass player stood next to him and did have a microphone to sing. (What's his name? I didn't pay enough attention to the touring group members).

Brian Eichenberger. He was in the Four Freshmen, then joined Brian's band last year before switching to Mike's in May. Very talented performer.

[Shark]

Obviously Brian has sang lead on Rhonda in solo sets but did he ever sing lead on the song at a Beach Boys show?  If so, I guess Bruce is the only member who never took a turn on lead.

[Micha]

Alright - I missed the fact that "Ike" is also the bass player, I was only aware of him being a falsetto specialist, which also explains why he had a singing mic. Seems I didn't pay attention enough.

At the end of the show, when the emcee re-presented the artists, he said only the the first names of the touring BBs - "Jeff, Bruce, Mike, Scott, Brian, John und Jim", apparently in the order they stood next to each other on the stage at that moment. When he said, "Brian", I stopped short for a second, then remembered "Ike". What's Jim's last name?

Yup, no Fun, Fun, Fun, but even so, it seemed to me the audience had the most fun with "Jeff, Bruce, Mike, Scott, Brian, John und Jim".

Interestingly, one of the three frinds of mine who was with me could sing along with nearly all the other artists who performed, less so with the BBs. Another one said she liked "Wouldn't It Be Nice" the best of the BBs tunes.

[AndrewHickey]

At the end of the show, when the emcee re-presented the artists, he said only the the first names of the touring BBs - "Jeff, Bruce, Mike, Scott, Brian, John und Jim", apparently in the order they stood next to each other on the stage at that moment. When he said, "Brian", I stopped short for a second, then remembered "Ike". What's Jim's last name?

"Jim" will have been Tim Bonhomme, the keyboard player.

[SMiLE Brian]

Is Mike going to try to sing GOK or surf's up next?

[Micha]

At the end of the show, when the emcee re-presented the artists, he said only the the first names of the touring BBs - "Jeff, Bruce, Mike, Scott, Brian, John und Jim", apparently in the order they stood next to each other on the stage at that moment. When he said, "Brian", I stopped short for a second, then remembered "Ike". What's Jim's last name?

"Jim" will have been Tim Bonhomme, the keyboard player.

Re-listened, glad to find it was the emcee's mistake, not my ears'.

[Micha]

Is Mike going to try to sing GOK or surf's up next?

I'd like to hear that. Can't be worse than Brian's efforts. Brian is the genius behind those songs, Mike isn't, but their voices are pretty much the same quality now.

Actually I have more to say about what I saw and heard yesterday, but because of people like you, I decline. I don't want you to spoil my memories of the event with your bile and derail the thread into another Mike-hate fest. Too bad one can't share with the reasonable people on this board in its current shape without having to fear this.

At least you did contain yourself with that post; I've seen much worse, and if I didn't know your feelings about Mike and people who decline to despise him, that post wouldn't be of any concern to me.

Should anybody else want to know a little bit more about the event, just PM me. I'll write a bit over the weekend should anybody give a hoot.

[AndrewHickey]

I'd like to hear that. Can't be worse than Brian's efforts. Brian is the genius behind those songs, Mike isn't, but their voices are pretty much the same quality now.

Actually I have more to say about what I saw and heard yesterday, but because of people like you, I decline. I don't want you to spoil my memories of the event with your bile and derail the thread into another Mike-hate fest. Too bad one can't share with the reasonable people on this board in its current shape without having to fear this.

Please do share with the rest of us. My sig contains a link which may be of interest if you don't want to read particular posters' posts.

[AndrewHickey]

I'd like to hear that. Can't be worse than Brian's efforts. Brian is the genius behind those songs, Mike isn't, but their voices are pretty much the same quality now.

Oh, and on this point, I can't agree. I don't want to hear Mike singing Brian or Carl leads. Mike's best in the bass and baritone range, and Brian's still a relatively high tenor. Mike's voice simply wouldn't work for a lot of Brian leads (and the reverse is sometimes true -- I think Mike does a far better job on his part on, say, Kiss Me Baby, and I was quite surprised that on the reunion tour they gave that to Brian).
That said, I did think the one listenable thing on the NASCAR CD was Mike singing Ballad of Ole Betsy, so he *might* be able to take on a Brian lead if it was taken down an octave and radically rearranged. But I doubt it. Rhonda, on the other hand, is pretty much in Mike's normal range anyway.

[Rocker]

On radio they had a report on the show today. They played a short interview with Mike (he was saying how great the show is) and played a snippet of the audience singing the "gotta keep those lovin' good...." part with Mike cheering for them.

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

Is Mike going to try to sing GOK or surf's up next?

Maybe, and I'm sure Cabinessence will be attempted along with "Don't Talk" and an astounding "Caroline, No". Probably.  

[SMiLE Brian]

Oh Caroline wheeeen.....

[Rocker]

The link I posted before has some pictures which I only realized now. Bruce is called "Brian Wilson" and "Mike Love"... Maybe a split personality?  













EDIT:

And this is about the show in Hannover. Mentioned songs are:

"Wouldn’t It Be Nice"
"Barbra Ann"
"Surfin’ USA"
"Good Vibrations"



http://www.ndr.de/unterhaltung/events/Good-Vibrations-bei-der-Night-Of-The-Proms,notp172.html

[AndrewHickey]

So Cowsill *did* have a vocal mic, and my speculation about the reasons for the lead vocal change was wrong. Interesting...

[Emily]

So Cowsill *did* have a vocal mic, and my speculation about the reasons for the lead vocal change was wrong. Interesting...

Not necessarily wrong. It's not hard to sing on key when drumming but it is hard to hold an even note for more than one beat. So perhaps it made sense for him to contribute to ooh and aahs but not to do a lead.

[AndrewHickey]

So Cowsill *did* have a vocal mic, and my speculation about the reasons for the lead vocal change was wrong. Interesting...

Not necessarily wrong. It's not hard to sing on key when drumming but it is hard to hold an even note for more than one beat. So perhaps it made sense for him to contribute to ooh and aahs but not to do a lead.

Cowsill's been singing Rhonda (and Cottonfields, Sail On Sailor,  Darlin', Wild Honey, Heroes & Villains and others) from behind the drums for about eight years, since he switched from keyboards. He does a fantastic job on both the drums and the vocals, so I don't think that's the reason.
The three possible reasons I can think of are them giving it to Mike for this tour because Cowsill was hidden behind a load of other people and the audience couldn't see him sing, possibly Cowsill having throat issues, or (by far the most likely) just wanting to swap things around a bit and Mike wanting to have a go at the song.