The Smiley Smile Message Board

Discuss, review and rate Live At The Roxy Theatre, released July 2000.

(http://www.smileysmile.net/images/albums/roxy.gif)

Good cross-section of Brian's career as interpreted by the current band. Some of the tracks are great, others not as much so. Brian's voice wasn't really as strong as it became during the Smile shows, but it is still a good listen.

An awesome concert. Very good performances from Brian, and the band is exceptional.

A terrific album, which sums up Brian's touring as well as anything up to the Smile DVD. It perhaps seemed more important at the time than it seems today, but still. 5 stars from me.

If you have the capability to play it - in 5.1 or in stereo - get the DVD-A. The sonics are so far superior it's amazing, and you get a couple bonus cuts as well. 5+ stars for the DVD-A!

The performance of Brian Wilson/Til I Die is one of the most remarkable pieces of live music I've heard in any genre.

Fun live set! Upon not having listened in a year, immediately I say- This Whole World is weak- trransposed to fit his recent vocal range. One track is a bit too 'rockin'. merhaps- Help Me Rhonda? I'd need to listen in again.
Overall, I dig it!

This is really great!  I'd purposely avoided listening to it prior to my first Brian concert as I didn't want to spoil the surprise.  Well, the show blew me away and this album was a pretty good reminder of it afterwards, particularly as the intro and the first two songs (Little Girl I Once Knew and This Whole World) were the same as when I saw him.  I give it 5.  Also, Brian seems full of humour on this album and sounds like he's enjoying himself.  I'm also reminded of the footage on the BW on Tour DVD from around the same time, particularly when he's jumping around to Barbara Ann.  I don't think I've ever seen him looking quite as lively in the concerts I've attended since.

Did anybody here on the board go to the Saturday show instead of the Friday?  (For this album, I mean...)

The only reason I mention it is that Brian didn't seem in very good form except for the first and last songs--and he sounds pretty good on the CD.

I'm curious if the CD is mostly from the Friday show, or whether vocals were rerecorded later...

Probably both.

The Roxy was booked for three nights - two for recording, the third for sweetening. Forget which song but there's one where Brian is very obviously tracking himself, and none too well.

The Beach Boys NEVER had a setlist this great. I don't really like Brian's vocals here though.

Unbelievable set-slist for this one!  The band plays everything exceptionally well and the harmonies are gorgeous.  Brian's voice is not in top form but not terrible either.  I am thankful that he got better with time.  If for nothing else, I love this album just  for the fact that it signaled Brian's return to making/performing music for us again!

I quite like this album. As has been mentioned before Brians vocals arent the best and the setlist is great.. but it sounds like Brian is enjoying himself on stage more than he had for the past who knows how many years.

I've actually only heard one song from this album, and that's Brian's cover of Barenaked Ladies' "Brian Wilson." He sounds great on it, but I'm bummed that he only did the bridge and one chorus and not the entire song. In recent years the Ladies have paid tribute to Brian's Roxy version by performing the first verse and first chorus entirely a Capella. Back in the early 90s, during their live shows, the ladies would always lead into Brian Wilson by getting the crowd to clap along while BNL frontman Steve Page would sing "eat a lot sleep a lot brush em like crazy, run a lot do a lot never be lazy".

That's because the BNL cover is a segue into Til I Die.

I still think he should have done the entire song.

I like this album, but it's crazy to me that he sings better NOW live, then he did then.  So when you hear him sing some of the tracks (particularly the ones early in the setlist) you go "hey, I've heard him do better than that!" so you've got to wonder if maybe they're going to squeeze another live disc out of him sometime in the near future.  Even the arrangements and things are more sophisticated now in the concerts, possibly because he toured with a larger band for SMiLE (I suppose he did, at least!).  I'd release a single disc with about 4 or 5 of his big hits and then fill the rest of it up with a dozen tracks that weren't covered on Roxy.  They could do California Girls/Surfer Girl/In My Room/etc. and then all the great live stuff he's been doing lately like Hawaii, Catch a Wave, etc.

Was the song you're talking about "Please Let Me Wonder"? I've always thought that the vocal on that sounded odd.

Quite a few songs, actually. On "Don't Worry Baby", for instance, you can hear him say "okay" after the first line of the song, and you can tell it wasn't recorded at the same time. Also "Lay Down Burden".

I listened to this CD last night, and I could spot quite a few instances where Brian overdubbed his voice. Surfer Girl is another obvious one. Brian's vocal on the bridge(Is that what it's called?) is louder than the rest of the song.

I happen to be blasting this CD right now.  :smokin

The band sounds so good here, instrumentally and vocally. I give this a 4 based almost entirely on how wonderful they sound. Brian himself sounds engaged for most of it and that's about the best I can say about his performance.

I get a weird vibe from this CD. The setlist combined with the fact that the audience is filled with super hardcore fans who shout things like "Brian we love you!" puts me off, I don't know why. Like it's just a big "F you Mike & Bruce, Brian is so much better than you" from Brian's management.

Perhaps Brian should have performed in front of a lot of people who didn't like him.

As a performance, it captures what's great about Brian's concerts. Some of the classics and some that deserved to be get equal time.

That's why I think -- honestly -- it's probably one of Brian's finest solo albums. It captures a lot that's true and lovable about the man, the band and the music.

Exactly. Anyone thinkingingit's a f*** you to Mike and Bruce (the M & B shows I've seen haven't even come close to Brian's shows) is reading a bit too much into the CD.

 

Seems like that's what happened at the charity concert. :/

I enjoy this CD. I listen to it more than any BW release I have. Granted, Bri is not in great form - But the performance is honest & seems (mostly) to be unedited. Much better than the production on some of his other solo work.

Unedited maybe.. but there's extensive post-dubbing: I'm told The Roxy was hired for three days - two to play & record and a third for the sweetening.

Most live records are patched up afterwards, though. Lets not get too paranoid  :-D

The main exceptions I can think of are many of Zappa's (dozens of?) live albums ... very nearly all of which, despite not including overdubbing, include REALLY EXTENSIVE editing to the point of using multiple performances for each song. A tune might begin with the 1988 band, edit to the 1968 band, a mid-70s band and back to the '80s again for the ending. So while it is nice to know that the passages we hear were pulled off live, it's still not exactly a pure artifact most of the time!

Yeah, but Zappa had it down to an art... whereas other lie-filled live albums (stand up, They Might Be Giants' "Severe Tire Damage") are just shameful.

I usually don't much like live albums but this one has such a great song selection & there are two great songs that I haven't got elsewhere This isn't love and the First Time. I like it but I don't listen to it a lot.

Of all the Brian Wilson solo albums I own, I find myself listening to this one the most. It's Brian Wilson doing Brian's favorites, which when combined with his upbeat and engaged attitude for the duration of the CD, make it a very enjoyable listen.

This album, back when it came out, really introduced me to the non-surfin' Beach Boys song. At the time, I was a newbie BB fan who was just getting into the early hits. I love this album, lost it in 2009 during a break-up. I had every Beach Boys CD, bootleg, solo albums, etc. So far, I have not been able to replace this one. If anyone could help, drop me a PM.

Thanks!

I sincerely hope that "The First Time" pops up on a future BW/BBs studio album. I'm in love with this gorgeous tune since I bought the CD ten years ago. Please make it happen!

Live records without additional overdubs always interest me worlds more than ones that have them, even if the former approach always contains the occasional mistake in one form or another. If I want to listen to performances that have been tidied up to perfection, I'll go with the studio versions. If we're talking a "live" album with similar arrangements to the album, well, I don't see much a point in hearing what are essentially studio re-recordings with some live elements going on.

Reviving a nine-year old thread…
Listened to this album on headphones, first listen since 2005.
I think the live recording with overdubs is in some ways… it does not have the 90’s studio sheen that distracted from imagination.
It has a more live band in studio feel than a lot of modern records.
So I’d consider it a Studio Album combining three live sessions.
Brian’s authenticity and enthusiasm is inspiring… Such Humility snd Appreciation.
This version of the band was unbeatable.
I think the opening of this tour is my favorite Rock n Roll moment of my 50 years:

The opening session snippet of Little Girl I once knew segueing-too the live opening—
Then moving almost right in to This whole world— then DONT worry Baby…
I remember this opening after driving four hours to see Brian at the Michigan Theater in 1999.
I surprised my Dad who had seen The Beach Boys 27 times since 1965 in hopes of seeing Brian.
The joy and happiness we shared that night is one of my favorite ever. (He died in January)


A genius opening.
I have a couple of recordings of his Ann Arbor and thought it might be interesting to combine them in Ableton. To get a fuller experience of that historic night… in some ways I like that recording better than live st the Rocy.