The Smiley Smile Message Board

If anyone from this board goes to the show tonight, please hunt me down and let me shake your hand. Atlanta needs all the BW fans we can get!  See everyone tonight, I cant wait! Walk thru the lobby yelling "Astroray! Astroray!"!

On my way back down from a business trip to South Carolina... Here's hoping I can beat the traffic; will have "Our Prayer" on heavy rotation in my brain.

Hope to see ya there! I am 60 years old, but told I look 59! I'll be with my beautiful wife, look for the prettiest girl in the lobby!

Setlists and videos (of any new songs especially) please, if possible of course. I would also suggest moving the discussion over to the 2015 tour thread so we can make sure to catalog all of the tour goings-on in one place. :)

I'm here!!

Row C seat 70

Lee

Ray, I looked all around for you, but missed you somehow.

A great show, wasn't it? It's not every day I get to hear my two favorite songs, "Wild Honey" and "This Whole World," played in the same concert.

How awesome was Brian? Any highlights?

New setlist additions?

I would have loved to have met some of you but I was on my way down there before this thread started. Fantastic show with a lot of smiles from Brian. Al sounded as good as ever and Blondie is as fun to watch on the tambourine as he is on guitar. The only changes in the set list were Cottonfields (instead of Californ-i-a) and Darlin' (instead of She Knows Me Two Well).

This was definitely one of the best Brian (as opposed to The Beach Boys with Brian) shows I've seen. There's a lot of variety (crowdpleasers, deep cuts, and new) in the setlist, the band is solid (as always), and Al, Blondie, and Matt are great additions to the ensemble.

That, and it took place in the very BEST, top-of-the-line venue in Atlanta. As Paul von Mertens said so joyfully in his band intro last night, the Fox was the place his band Poi Dog Pondering wished they could have played back in the day, and now he was there thanks to Brian.

Brian seemed very comfortable, although both pleased and a bit non-plussed when the standing O for GOK went on and on. Blondie brought a tremendous amount of energy to his numbers -- you could see he learned a lot in his tenure with the Stones. Al's voice is as strong as ever, and you could hear him playing guitar throughout the show, even taking some lead parts. He had his own Fender amp, as did Blondie. In the Fox's splendid acoustics, you could hear everything clearly. Darian, Matt, and Scott also had featured leads.

As for the setlist, I found it on setlist.fm. See listing below. They did "Surf's Up" and "Wake the World"/"Busy Doin' Nothing." "The Little Girl I Once Knew" was a surprise for me. The band is still working on "Funky Pretty," but it was not in the show.

   *  *  *

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/brian-wilson/2015/fox-theater-atlanta-ga-33c95c9d.html

Brian Wilson
No Pier Pressure Tour: With Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin
Fox Theater, Atlanta, GA
June 26, 2015

Our Prayer
Heroes and Villains
California Girls
Shut Down (Brian and Al Jardine on vocals)
Little Deuce Coupe (Al Jardine lead vocal)
I Get Around (Al Jardine lead vocal)
The Little Girl I Once Knew
This Whole World (Brian with Darian Sahanaja on vocals)
Then He Kissed Me (Al Jardine lead vocal)
Cotton Fields
In My Room
Surfer Girl
Don't Worry Baby (Matt Jardine on lead vocals)
One Kind of Love
Sail Away (Brian, Al and Blondie Chaplin on vocals)
Wild Honey (Blondie Chaplin on lead vocals)
Sail On, Sailor (Blondie Chaplin on lead vocals)
Darlin' (with Darian Sahanaja on lead vocals)
Wake the World (Al Jardine on lead vocals)
Busy Doin' Nothin'
Surf's Up
The Right Time (Brian and Al Jardine on vocals)
Runaway Dancer
Wouldn't It Be Nice (Matt Jardine on lead vocals)
Sloop John B (Brian and Al Jardine on vocals)
God Only Knows
Good Vibrations

Encore:
All Summer Long
Help Me, Rhonda (Al Jardine on lead vocals)
Barbara Ann
Surfin' U.S.A.
Fun, Fun, Fun
Love and Mercy

Very good show last night!  Honestly, the most amusing thing of the evening was Brian literally acting out the lyrics to "Runaway Dancer". 

I thought Runaway Dancer was great. I really dig the energy it has in a live setting and I hope it stays in future setlists (after this tour).

I was there in Atlanta! Drove all the way up from Florida cuz I figured I wouldn't wanna be missing Brian, Al and Blondie. And it was sure worth it.

I've already seen others already go over some of the specifics, but I do think I'd have to mention how Brian said something before "Surf's Up" like, "this is a long song, it's like ten minutes long!" and something like "these lyrics, you can't even explain 'em!" which both were so endearing. My wife also loved it when, before doing "One Kind Of Love" he said "have you seen my movie!?"

And has been said before me, what a great mood he seemed to be in. My wife really dug it when he was basically dancing in his seat during "This Whole World" and he just seemed to be in great spirits. I also thought he was spot on for many of his vocals. I thought he sounded wonderful during "Surf's Up" and "God Only Knows" among others. After "Surf's Up" ended, my wife said something like "that was amazing." "Love And Mercy" was a highlight as well. Al was absolutely astounding vocally. It is insane how great he sounded. And Blondie, wow. What energy. And the way they did "Sail On, Sailor" and "Wild Honey" surpassed what I hoped for.

I just gotta say that this concert was tops. To have Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin on stage together and performing at such a high level, it's blessing. Maybe one day Mike Love and/or Bruce Johnston will wanna join with this group of guys and make music. But if not, this was more than enough. And I hope they can keep doing this for much, much longer.

And maybe I'm wrong, but doesn't the live arrangement of "Runaway Dancer" sound like ska? Sure does to me.

I'm honestly not familiar with ska at all so I couldn't tell you. I thought it had a great amount of energy to it.

Brian had both Blondie and Al laughing at different points in the show. He seemed to be in a good mood.

Really memorable show.  Just plain cool.

How will Mike & Bruce ever get up the bar Brian set last night? Not to mention, nobody in Brian's band wears a baseball cap! Magic was on the stage at the Fox last night! "All Summer Long" almost knocked me over near the end, such a perfect song!

I'll let you know.

Yes, I thought the same thing -- there was a touch of Jamaica in that live arrangement.

Good to see somebody agrees with me. I have to say I wouldn't have minded if the studio version sounded a bit more like that, as I'm a pretty big ska fan (both original '60s ska and 2 Tone, along with a little bit of third wave).

I'm not really familiar with ska either.  Was it played the same way as at the Soundstage special?

I was there Row GG Seat 109.
This was my fourth BW solo concert and it ranks second only to the incredible 2004 Smile show. Brian definitely had a great night.

Highlights for me included Busy Doin' Nothing, Wake the World, Surf's Up, This Whole World and all three numbers featuring Blondie. He really brought a lot of energy to the show. Wild Honey in particular allowed him to shine. Matt was awesome. I really enjoyed the NPP tracks, with Sail Away probably my favorite because of both Blondie and Scott's work.

A great night to be a BW fan. Three Beach Boys on stage, a stellar band and a set list with plenty of deep cuts and new material.

And I had the added joy of getting backstage after the show where I was able to shake hands with Matt, Blondie and Paul; chatted a bit with Probyn and even got to meet Al, my first time meeting a Beach Boy.

I won't be able to attend any of the Brian solo shows unfortunately. I regret this enormously because these days (months) Brian seems more relaxed, more at ease with life and more together than he's been in many many years. His performances, if not perfect, are compelling; he is giving good interviews, sounding youthful. And even his shortcomings as a performer sound endearing in a way they never have. I don't know if this BW late renaissance has to do with the many years of good treatment for his problems or what (i.e. I'm not sure is treatment for schizoaffective dissorder is progressive) but probably has to do with it.


On a different subject, I quite never got the reviews that channel the thoughts or impressions of one's life partner ("my wife thinks...", "my girlfriend doesn't like...", etc.). So here's a token for some of you (sweetdudejim, I'm lookin' at ya):

(http://ladyclever.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/dependent-woman.jpg)


And a thread to be bumped every once in a while:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,13618.0.html

Brian is bipolar. By definition, he has "up" and "down" periods. The shows that coincide with an "up" period can truly be amazing.

The best tour he gave, after a couple of years of workmanlike shows, were the fall 2009 East Coast dates. Amazing. And not related to anything in particular (although the Gershwin sessions running concurrently may have had something to do with it).

He's on another upswing now, and it's definitely at an apropos time.

Honestly Autotune, the reason I threw my wife's opinion into some of my takeaway from the concert was that I thought it was a good representation of someone who is not necessarily a Brian Wilson or Beach Boys freak, like all of us on here are. But...you can take it however you want. I'm unsure what that picture means, but it's all good.

One intangible (or maybe tangible) factor is that family friend Jerry Weiss is back traveling with Brian.  Jerry has always done a great job of getting Brian mentally and physically "up" for his shows.

Lee

Personally I like for people to share reviews from the person sitting next to them, especially if they are casual fans or even non-fans.  We members here are generally biased to the positive, so it's nice to get a different perspective.

Lee

that's great to hear. now i wonder if he was the guy who introduced Brian last night in Nashville...?

It was the great Fred Vail.

ok that's what i initially thought. knew i recognized that voice.

too bad they didn't bust out a few tunes from Fred's country album, being in Nashville and all!  ;)

too bad they didn't give out copies of Fred's country album as attendance prizes!

My wife treated me to a seat in the pit area (DD32 IIRC) so I was around 15 feet (or less) from Brian and Al all night. Brian was definitely happier than I have ever seen him, and was leading the band not just accompanying it. There were lots of small moments that touched me - Brian referred to "the great Matt Jardine" and Matt responded with "the great Brian". Scotty got due credit for his writing, and the leads by Al and Blondie were excellent. It was great to see Bob Lizik in the line-up, as I badly missed him when I last saw Brian's band around three years ago.

The sound is different without Jeff and with Al and Mike. It's not better nor worse but I think it creates something new than I experienced in 2002-2004, when the line-up had Taylor and Jeff doing high parts. I wondered if maybe this is why there is no Please Let Me Wonder (and infact an under-representation of the Today album overall).

The highlights for me were Wild Honey and Surf's Up; Brian does the latter far better now than in 2004 IMHO. The new songs were far better than I had feared and seemed well suited to live arrangement. The inclusion of the songs from Friends is obviously long overdue, and might hopefully lead to some Love You tracks in future tours (we can hope).

The biggest takeaway from this night: I had been worrying in the last year or so how long Brian can keep going on the road. I was thinking that maybe, at 73, he would quit within two years. Now, having seen how big a buzz he gets from playing these songs, I think he'll keep going for as long as he is physically able to sit at a piano and sing his leads.

Not for nothing, but from being there live in austin, and YouTube videos, I can safely say I have NEVER seen Brian this confident on stage, and it seems like it is increasing with every show. So very happy for him, and for all those blessed enough to see him this go-round.

Perahps then I'll regret not buying Chicago seats, but for me I don't want to drive 300 miles... 
Would be nice if the canceled UK tour turns out to be more USA shows closer to me!

I drove 210 miles, and I feel you. Hope a show is added near you!

http://music.blog.ajc.com/2015/06/27/concert-review-brian-wilson-delivers-pristine-classics-in-atlanta/