The Smiley Smile Message Board

I'm terrible at this but I gotta share.

 I had my first Brian Wilson concert yesterday and honestly it was the greatest show I've ever been to.

The second Brian walked on stage in front of the 2,500+ sold out crowd I nearly passed out. I've been listening and watching everything the man put out for the last 3 years so I was literally star struck.

The show it's self was great, Brian messed up during Please Let Me Wonder and had to restart the verse. He seemed a little tired or out of it at the start, he kept going on about cigarettes and lighters, 'I know you want to smoke..BUT YOU CAN'T SMOKE' or something to that effect  ;D,  before GOK he said 'I know I'm going to get a standing ovation for this one' which was funny. And he mixed up some pre song babble for ASM with TLGIOK, he seemed shocked when the former started and not the latter.

The band were amazing, really Brian has the most loyal and greatest band on the road. The crowd were fun and were dancing and singing the whole night.

Anyway this was my first and hopefully not last Brian Wilson gig, he and the guys delivered the goods.

The set list was pretty much the same for all the shows this tour, but they opened with 'Rollin Round Heaven' and not 'Our Prayer'.

By The By, Taylor Mills looked unreal.

This is a cut and paste of what I posted on Teenage Fanclub's board:

That was the fourth time I've seen BW live (third time in Glasgow) and while I mostly had a good a time, this was the first night I really started to feel quite concerned for Brian's well-being on stage. I don't know if he varies from night to night, but last night he did seem very lost at points, restarting 'Please Let Me Wonder', fluffing lines and introductions, and continually looking over to Jeff for assistance. He seems to be singing a lot less than before - on previous tours he was quite capable of taking taking all the leads on certain songs - he's noticably handed a lot more over to Jeff (this won't be news to many of you, I suppose). Still, from where i was sat on the balcony, it did look like he was enjoying himself when he was at his most together. From my experience, the sound at the concert hall is only really any good in the stalls.

There was one genuinely hilarious moment during the band introductions when the percussionist gave an unplanned shout out to local musicians The Fast Camels and Daniel Wylie, which really seemed to piss Jeff off, telling him "never do that again".

If you were at the BW Smile show in Glasgow in early 2004, you may recall he was awfully out of sorts in the first set there, too. I don't know if he's getting worse, so much as still prone to really bad spells here and there (and is getting older, of course).

Jeff is a little bit, uh, prickly on stage sometimes. He has also made comments about people booting shows and such. Definitely sometimes gets out of the good-time vibe the others seem to consistently project.

I honestly don't know if Jeff was being serious, I doubt it though.

He does good though, the man has some set of pipes and he really get's the crowd relaxed. Scott too, he got everyone on their feet.

Check this out.

http://itsjustmyview.blogspot.com/2009/09/concert-review-brians-back.html (http://itsjustmyview.blogspot.com/2009/09/concert-review-brians-back.html)

From what I've heard of this mini-tour, the sound has been an ongoing problem.

In Gothenburg Jeff said that they had rented the equipment, maybe that's why they have problems with the sound.

Interesting to read that for that reviewer, Brian`s lack of interest and his being `out of it` didn`t spoil the concert too much.

When I saw Brian I have to say that the fact that he clearly didn`t want to be there was a big disappointment but I guess it`s all about opinions and the rest of the audience seemed too awestruck to notice.

I think Brian mind-reading can be a problem. Do we actually know if he doesn't want to be somewhere? It's so easy to read something into BW because of his impassive nature onstage.

This happens so often with his shows -- one person loves it, one person hates it, one person thinks BW is improving, one person thinks he's deteriorating. I think the answer is, as Luther put it, that Brian is by his nature erratic. He can give great and terrible performances, often in the same show.

IMHO Brian definitely did improve as performer from 1998-2004 or so. Since then, he's essentially plateaued. But I think it's fair to ask what more he could do from that point. Essentially he's become reasonably comfortable on stage most days, and his performances depend on his enthusiasm and health at the time.

I have only seen Brian Wilson in concert since 2004. I saw a couple Smile shows, Pet Sounds with Al Jardine and a greatest hits at the Hollywood Bowl. The best show by far was this year, January 2009 at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.

I think part of it is he relaxes in front of the 'hometown' crowd, and the lack of travel and the pressures and demand that come with it are gone, so all his energy is on the performance. Also the California crowds by far were the most energetic and rowdy which seemed to inspire him and raise the level of performance. He may have plateaued as stage act, but I think there are little variables affect each performance.

Maybe he will be like Chuck Berry, playing once a month in the 'hometown' of St Louis at a club he owns. I recall reading reviews of Chuck Berry and his lackluster collect a check shows for decades, with one 2000 review of a show in England standing out. The review said the show was held at a rollerskating rink, and a fight broke out during the concert, which seemed to energize Chuck and he tore the place apart.