Print Page - Beach Boys - Glen Oak Park Amphitheatre, Peoria, IL 8/9/1976

My first Beach Boys show... opening act was supposed to be Billy Joel but he left the tour. Then, The Bellamy Brothers ("Let You Love Flow" was on the charts) but they were, apparently, in a car accident. So, opening was a local act, the Watermelon Rhythm Band.

It was, essentially, the greatest Beach Boys summer for me. We had the gas crisis (even though I could fill up the family 1970 Kingswood Estate Station Wagon for 20 bucks a tank), Saturday Night Live kicked into high gear with an NBC TV Special about The Beach Boys and Jimmy Carter had started to run for President. At the time the Beach Boys had been at it for 15 years and some of us said they looked it. But the girls still liked Dennis, Mike was funny and cool, Al was mellow and cool, Carl was just so cool and, gee, Brian was back. It was comeback time for the band; we’d worn out our 8 tracks of those eternal Endless Summer and Spirit of America albums just in time for 15 BIG ONES. So me and my buddies Doug Workman and Dave Garriott each bought copies of that album and I made a cassette tape and we cruised up the highway from Decatur to Peoria, llinois in Dave’s convertible 1968 Camaro, singing along to the Boys new radio hits…“It’s OK”… Chuck Berry’s “Rock & Roll Music”… and a couple of great sing-alongs called “Back Home” and “Palisades Park.” Eventually, we got there, still singing along to that new album… and when we turned it off, more Beach Boys hits blasted through the AM radio courtesy of the Big 89… WLS… from Chicago…”Surfin’ USA”… “Fun Fun Fun”… Help Me Rhonda”… and Dave’s favorite, “Do It Again.”

Sometime in the early evening, as the free-spirit warmth of that 1970s sun began to set, the Beach Boys took the stage. Backed by a band equal to any on the road those days, they exploded through a two hour set of their biggest and their newest hits. Carl, Dennis, Al and Mike were on stage. No Brian. They opened with California Girls, Darlin' and Susie Cincinnati. Classics like God Only Knows, Little Deuce Coupe and Catch A Wave mixed with new tracks like A Casual Look and Palisades Park. Al sang Back Home, instead of Brian.

Mike and Dennis seemed to be rivals for front man status. Dennis won the joke battle... Mike was doing Johnny Carson-like quips but Dennis was just a cool guy on stage, in with us on the joke. He was like one of us, the way he related to the audience; he just happened to be on stage. At one point he waved a champagne bottle.

For the climax, Dennis came out from the drums, in front, pushing the crowd into a rock and roll frenzy with Mike by his side, both of them stalking the stage, whipping us young punks into near hysteria. and suddenly the dam breaks. The Beach Boys’ home stretch… the BIGGEST hits, one after another… all of us standing, cheering, shouting, singing as the hits keep coming… Mike a whirling dervish out front like a manic Mick Jagger… Dennis beating the hell out of his drum kit like an angry Phil Spector record come to life, Carl and Al’s driving, churning surf guitars charging through the song and ripping through the speakers… Help Me Rhonda… Wouldn’t It Ne Nice…I Get Around… Good Vibrations… Surfin USA… a pause for the girls, for You Are So Beautiful... then Dennis says, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Beach Boys..." and goes back to the drum kit. Barbara Ann… Rock & Roll Music… Fun Fun Fun…

And then it was all over. Dave and Doug and I looked at each other in that sweltering 1976 summer night, sweat cooling thanks to a midnight Peoria wind and all we could talk about were the Beach Boys. And California. Definitely California. We were all gonna move to Los Angeles… the summer after graduation. We’d live out there and hang with the Beach Boys.

Great memories.

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Smiley Smile Stuff => Concert Reviews => Topic started by: Steve Latshaw on December 23, 2014, 09:54:48 AM