I'm would imagine they're doing the festival gigs for the cool factor and good press they'll get for doing the shows for the younger-skewing audience. It's a good thing I think, but I'm sure an intimate indoor show would sound better and be a better experience. But the festival gigs serve an interesting purpose. Still blows my mind to hear the Bonnaroo Festival gig from C50 where the audience goes nuts for "Heroes and Villains" more than most of the car/surf songs.

I know what you mean and I think for a typical greatest hits/few deep cuts performance it would be fine. But I just can't envision trying to perform songs like Caroline No or Don't Talk in the middle of that maelstrom of noise. I keep thinking back to the first time I heard PS live in the Chicago Theater in 2000. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop; I remember looking at the other people sitting in my row and I saw grown men with tears rolling down their faces; I heard a Dad say to his young son to "listen carefully, we might never hear anything like this again". That was an experience I'll NEVER forget!

Brian will be playing Pitchfork Festival in Chicago on July 16th.

Ugh. It would be very difficult to pick a worse place to perform Pet Sounds. It's noisy, likely to be very hot and/or raining (in 2015 they had to evacuate the site due to storms coming in), crowded... what a terrible choice.

Their self-titled 1969 Album "The Association" reached #32 on the charts, it was IMHO their best album. Songs like "The Nest", "Under Branches", "Love Affair" (featuring the amazing tenor voice of Jim Yester) are stunning. Listen to the harmony in "The Nest" or Jules Alexander's "Dubuque Blues" - I find them to be as good as any I've ever heard. I was lucky enough to hear the band live in 1971 and heard Ted Bluechel, Larry Ramos, and Jim Yester perform "What Were The Words" live on acoustic guitar. It was breathtaking.

Their later singles "Names,Tags, Numbers, and Labels" reached #27 on the adult contemporary chart; "Dreamer" hit #17 on the same chart.

So did they fill a void? I don't think so, but The Association made some incredible music, the best of which I think was up there with the best of the BBs in the 1968-1970 or 71 period.

In reference to Darian only singing part of "This Whole World", from what I could tell at the Boston show, they had rehearsed it with Brian alternating certain lines with Darian, and then Brian was missing cues as he tends to do when he's focused on the piano. For instance, I seem to remember no one sang "when girls get mad at boys" because Darian expected Brian to do it and Brian missed it, so Darian did "many times they're just putting on" at which point Brian decided he was going to take that section after all. Because Darian is positioned on the stage in front of Brian, he kept sort of looking over his shoulder to try and tell if Brian was going to take the line or not.

That could well be - Darian is such a perfectionist and so careful to do the songs justice.

(hand to God, if I'm lying, then my handle is not 37!ws...I actually sat there last night wondering if Jim McShane was there and was going to be complaining about it.)

I only complain when there is something to complain about. I was there at Ravinia 2 years ago and it was terrific. I was at the House of Blues, it was staggeringly good. I was at the Smile and TLOS shows, they were superb. I saw Pet Sounds - amazing!  This time, not so much.

It's humbling to know how much influence I have on your thinking! 

I would say, as it pertains to “Love and Mercy”, other than the unique TNT tribute show performance, Brian is currently performing the song exactly the same way he has since he started touring in 1999. Not sure why anyone would expect anything different on that one.

It was done with the break on the original recording, on the TNT show, and on the benefit performance for the Tsunami victims that included Markus form the Stockholm Strings. And I can't recall for sure, but it might have been done with the break at the House of Blues show. Why not play it complete now - in fact I kind of thought that's what they'd play after seeing all the posts raving about it.

[some]

I don't completely disagree, although I've heard the "live" Love and Mercy an awful lot - and Honeycomb? I It didn't even remotely qualify as a song - I thought it was some scripted comedy skit or ?? So 50% o the songs were definitely "meat and potatoes".

I just think of all the great stuff that never gets played that could sub for some of the "meat and potatoes" - Melt Away, Little Girl I Once Knew, Friends, Breakaway, and a lot of the stuff from the later BW solo albums.

Other than the Smile shows the greatest BW show I ever heard was at the House of Blues in Chicago in about 2002 or 2003 where they played a bunch all the songs I listed above and more. There was plenty of very familiar stuff, but not 50% of the show. People who went there were just blown away by what they heard in addition to Pet Sounds. Look here to see the set list: http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?topic=3396.0

I was at the Ravinia show last night, and in my opinion, it was magical. Brian seemed to really be having a nice time. He MC'd most of the show, which was surprising. He played half of Honeycomb, and said, "Wait- can we start over? I messed up the first verse." The band started over, but BW said, "Wait never mind. The next song is..." It was hilarious!! Al sounded INCREDIBLE too! Although, he kept dropping his guitar pick and Probyn would run over an give him a new one. When the band played "Surf's Up", Brian said "This is the only number I don't like..." Which wasn't surprising to me, because it probably brings back bad memories. Then Al said, "WHAT? This is from the SMiLE album, the most brilliant piece of music ever recorded!" And Brian said, "Okay......."
It was a great show. And everyone was giving it their all.

I must have been at a different show. Yes, Brian was "engaged", but other than that I thought it was the worst show I've ever attended. The sound was not just bad, it was horrid - you could not hear most vocals most of the night. Only the acapella vocals were able to be heard clearly. You could barely hear Matt Jardine all night with just a few exceptions - which was probably good since he was pitchy and on a number of songs his voice had a reedy quality that was simply awful (after hearing Matt last night I MUCH prefer Brian Eichenberger). Al wasn't much better, his vocal parts were M.I.A. quite often - he sounded like he was half a step sharp for much of the night. Darian just simply didn't sing parts of This Whole World - I have no idea why since he sounded pretty good on Darlin'.

Brian may have been energized, but he shouted into the mic most of the night - his performance of Busy Doin' Nothing was cringeworthy. The truncated Love and Mercy was blah - I was hoping we'd hear the full version with the break like on the Tribute show, but no luck. To me Brian' vocals on it sounded NOTHING like has been described at previous shows.

Even much of the band was off - lots of wrong notes (instrumental, not vocal) especially. Although - in their defense the sound was so evil it may not have been as bad as it sounded. BTW, I was seated in the pavilion, row 21 in the middle of the left section, good seats.

The audience stayed in their seats almost all night and offered no more than polite applause after most songs other than after WIBN (why not let Al sing it? I just can't fathom why Matt gets the lead, his Dad does a hugely better job), GV, and the encores. And really, that's all that was deserved.

Finally, I just can't stand any more of that same encore set they've played for 15 years now.

I am near 100% sure I would not attend any more Brian shows. I'm tired of many of the hits in these shows. We got all the usual suspects, we got the pair of car songs, we got pretty much the same thing as I've heard at these shows for the last 5-6 years. It was nice to hear Blondie on Sail On Sailor, but otherwise he was not much of a factor (I think Wild Honey is awful). The usually spectacular band was
off, led by what I would have to call really poor performances by the Jardines. And Brian - well, he's a great composer/arranger/producer, but his performance last night convinced me (and others sitting near me) that this should be the last tour for him.

I'm sure this post will upset a number of people, but I call' em as I see 'em. And the group of four of us that went last night all agree, it wasn't very good.

If Darian can sing it why can't Brian's band do it on the tour?

They have - many times. Why not anymore? I have no idea.

Great Dave.  Tell us if you agree with the Professor that GOK is the only clunker. . . . .just a terrible tin pan alley arrangement.

I thought the first verse was wonderful, but from then on it was pretty much unbearable. I think Zooey does a wonderful job, in particular I love the way she sings "what good would living do me?" But I can't take that drum beat in the 2nd verse and beyond. I agree with you.

Whoa, Brian's voice sounds really weak. Al sound as great as ever though!

Yeah Brian gives it a solid C+ effort.  And is it just me or is that the most benign-sounding guitar on "Dance Dance Dance"?  I thought the guy was playing and electric harp or something!

The tempo was slowed down as compared to the original recording or to Brian and band's previous performances of it. "The guy" (I assume you mean Probyn Gregory) played it superbly -  it was the slower tempo that caught me off guard the 1st time too. After a couple listens so I could adjust to it I found it to be a terrific performance, but I do prefer the faster tempo.

As promised I did watch the show last night on WTTW Chicago - but on a different channel (WTTW has 4 broadcast channels). The broadcast seemed better, the video was definitely better and so was the sound. But while I'm not sure who is responsible for it, the audio in general (particularly the mix) was not close to the You Tube videos.  It was still the lousiest Soundstage in recent memory despite some terrific music. But I guess I'll just wait for the DVD and hope...

Now on a more technical matter. Has it been picked up that their are 2 versions of this song? The clip being discussed (2.14), which seems to be the album version, and this much slower version(2.42)....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgSOebU-UGc

If that was the version on the album, I'd speed it up myself! However, to me it sounds like this is a digitally slowed down version.

All the videos that guy posted are at the wrong speed. You're correct.

Dan,

I hope you got through the weather last night okay! It wasn't too bad out here in Orland Park, but I'm glad I don't live near Rockford.

I checked the schedule again, the show is on again tomorrow - I'll watch it and let you know. But that ugly banner was just awful - I'd rather have them take a break and beg than put that cheap crappy banner up on the screen. I guess we'll disagree on that.

Thanks for posting today's show opinion, I hope tomorrow will be okay, fingers crossed...

[be]

The the same stuff, though. Same director, same footage, same mix.

Maybe, but the previews seemed to be "cherry picked" - and (except for the trailer, which was made to be a trailer) they were shown as separate pieces, not as part of the total show. I'm not sure about the audio mix though, it could be different for broadcast. The video quality of the preview stuff was FAR better than I saw last night, which certainly could be WTTW's fault.

One of the reasons I was so pumped about seeing the broadcast was how great the teasers and previews had been. Sadly the broadcast version was not nearly what I expected. I mean. The near total lack of  continuity was really ridiculous though. People were appearing and disappearing from the stage almost like it was a Monty Python episode. Bad, just plain bad. I continue to hold out hope for the DVD though, it's already on order.

Jim, how does it compare to what was posted on Youtube?

The You Tube stuff is FAR better!!

The first showing of the Soundstage special in Chicago was last night. Honestly - the music was sabotaged by a terrible video and audio performance. The video was hardly even recognizable as HD, the sound mix was awful, the editing was poor - and to top it off WTTW's  (our PBS station)  broadcast sucked too.  Not only did WTTW do a lousy broadcast, they kept running a banner promoting the BW live date here in Chicago.  The banner was on the screen FAR too much, and was a real distraction and annoyance.

The video quality was mostly crappy - not sharp, poor contrast, just generally low quality. I thought something was wrong with the video gear at my house, but other channels looked fine.

The audio - where do I start? The mix was disgusting, you could hardly hear any of the background vocals, the audio was VERY heavily compressed,  the volume level varied up and down randomly it seemed. The few brief introductions that took place before some songs were inaudible - I could see Nate Ruess' lips moving, but the mix was so poor you couldn't hear what he was saying. At times the video and audio were out of sync. I would have to say that was the worst live concert audio I've heard in a very long time, maybe ever.

Just trying to write about it is so aggravating. I thought that Joe Thomas did a horrible job putting the show together - no continuity, choppy and too frequent cuts, no introductions of many of the people on stage (Special Guests?? It didn't seem so), and so on. No introduction of Ricky Fataar or Billy Hinsche, half-a**ed intro of Blondie, no mention of the band or Matt Jardine... It just seemed like a mad rush to get it over with. I think it was the worst Soundstage I've ever seen. Coupled with the ridiculous broadcast quality I almost turned it off after about 20 minutes.

Some of the musical performances were great - as best I could tell - some of it was not so hot. What's with the pounding drum in the God Only Knows performance by Zooey Deschanel? It sounded like a marching band drum  - far too prominent, inappropriate, and I thought ruined an otherwise nice performance.

I hope the DVD is a lot better - between Joe and WTTW I doubt many people found much to like. I was SO looking forward to seeing the show - but I now wish I hadn't. Brian and his band and guests deserve MUCH better than they got!! How could anybody have looked at that mess and said it was okay to put on the air? I'm SO disappointed.

I hope the other broadcasts are better, although Joe's handiwork is unfixable.

I really like the sound of Matt and Ike together, especially on The Right Time. I've missed having those two voices up top since Taylor Mills left. I hope there's enough room and budget for both of them to be on the tour!

Ah, and I get who it is now reserving the product for you - the Chicago local PBS station arm that is "for profit."  I was wondering if it was another creepy up-start collecting our email addresses, but they are legit enough, it appears.  And yes, the zip code field is screwed up, so...

Hi Debbie,

Our local PBS station (WTTW) produces Soundstage for distribution to other PBS stations that buy it from them. They often make DVDs of the shows and sell them or use them as a premium/gift during fundraising events. They are trying to recover some of the production costs, they're on the level. You are correct.

probably Al, Jeff, and Probyn. Al isn't very good at guitar but has to play it to look respectable. Jeff is there for his voice, and Probyn's there for his horn parts / theremin, and to play bass when D'amico is playing drums.

Probyn is a SUPERB guitarist - you might recall when BW & band played in the UK at the Queen's 50th celebration back in 2002 it was Probyn that Eric Clapton sought out to compliment on his (Probyn's)  guitar playing.

Also, IIRC Nick has had some kidney stone issues in the past - he missed an Australian swing with BW a few years ago from them. If that's acting up again I guarantee he needed to get home and get treatment. That's some incredible pain!!

"Do You Have Any Regrets" by Darian Sahanaja is a killer cover, as was Paul Simon's Surfer Girl cover he played on the Tribute show.

Wow, what an impossible task! But here goes:

Warmth Of The Sun
Can't Wait Too Long
Girls On The Beach
Friends - BTW I thought Cal Saga did a great job on it too
Our Prayer
Goin' On

BW Solo

What I Really Want For Christmas
The Like In I Love You - listen to the bass vocal line in particular!

Special category for cheesiest song with KILLER background vocals

Sumahama

Picking is an impossible task - there's just too many great moments to choose from!

Wow, that is really awkward to see Brian standing behind a microphone, looking younger and livelier. Who is in the band? I can see Matt Jardine, Todd Sucherman, Scott Bennet (guitar) and Ed Carter (!) (bass). Another guitarist, two keyboardists (Paul Schaffer and Joe Thomas?), and a percussionist: who are they?

In the back is Jim Peterik on guitar next to Scott Bennett, and up front is Christopher Cross. I have no idea who that is on percussion.

Jim Peterik was the frontman of Ides of March, most popular for this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiLaNEFyCiM [Larry Millas was the other guitar player]

Jim Peterik was also the keyboard player in Survivor, most popular for this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4&ob=av3e

I think both those songs are more iconic than That's Why God Made the Radio could ever become.

The Ides of March had a couple other hits - their first was "You Wouldn't Listen" from late 1966. Interestingly Jeffrey Foskett covered it on one of his CDs. And in 1971 they put out "L.A. Goodbye", which I think is a damn good record. It has some real nice vocals for sure. There are later You Tube videos of the Ides playing it in the last few years, but the original 1971 recording is much better.

Who filled in?

Mikey. I know, I never knew he played bass either.

He played bass on most of the 'Mints CD cuts, and quite well I might add. He played some guitar with the BW band during his first stint.