The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2013/09/25/were-going-all-the-way-back-the-beach-boys-al-jardine-on-touring-and-recording-with-brian-wilson/

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?topic=16449.0

Mentioned in this thread but of interest is 'Surfs Up' on the bill with Beck on guitar and the guys doing vocals, which I hope means Brian on lead. Becks version is fine but I would take a lead vocal every time.

It doesn't sound like it.  It sounds like "Our Prayer" and "Surf's Up" kick off Beck's portion of the show.  In other words, Beck's band comes out after intermission with Brian, Al, David, and Jeff F. in tow; along with a handful of Brian's guys covering the more esoteric instruments.  The guys sing "Our Prayer" and go into "Surf's Up" with, as the article says, "Jeff play[ing] the melody."  Then Brian and his guys split and Beck and his three guys (OK...two guys and one girl :) ) remain on stage and do their set.  Then apparently, Brian's guys come back and they all go through the Yardbirds, car songs, etc. for the encores.

Um... if you actually read the interview you'll see - as stated below - that Beck plays the melody and the rest add the bvs. Which sounds fascinating to me, but is obviously of no interest whatsoever to some.

It's a great idea and an obvious choice given the fact that Beck does a fine job on it.

But god, how amazing is it gonna be hearing those bvs with AL's voice in the mix for the last part of the song? When the child child stuff starts I'm going to totally lose it.

Well I did, and I read 'we're going to sing background against it'. Same as bvs sure.So I goofed.

Still want to hear Brian sing it at some stage though.

The recordings of him singing it on the Smile tour are just beautiful.  But his voice has lost some of its range since then, it has been almost ten years after all (hard to believe, I know).  With all the ups and downs in the melody plus his personal history with the song, I'm not surprised he's not big on singing it anymore.

It will probably sound something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai6wfqfs22Y though I assume Brian, Al, and Dave will all be on stage and maybe Al will sing his old "A children's song..." part which would be awesome.

Actually, it's two guys and two girls.

Nicolas Meier on guitar, Lizzie Ball on violin and vocals, Rhonda Smith on bass, and Jonathan Joseph on drums.

Tomorrow is the big opening night.  I won't be attending this particular show, but I get to see the last show of the tour in Milwaukee (after all of the bugs have been worked out ;))  It'll be an interesting show, and I'm curious to see what these two very different groups come up with when playing together.  I suspect that some folks may be disappointed by seeing Brian, Al, and Dave (and Blondie for some dates) finally doing Surf's Up together, but with Jeff Beck's band and Beck's guitar playing the melody.  How will they arrange Our Prayer...will Beck be playing the high vocal line on guitar?  If any of you folks are going to the show tomorrow, I'm sure that we'd all like to hear your impressions.     

Ah.  Thanks for the info.  I didn't know about Lizzie and just assumed he'd added a keyboardist or second guitarist. 

No Tal Wilkenfeld on this tour?