Reunion awards

[EgoHanger1966]

The vocal discovery of the reunion-2012: Scott Totten & his unforgettable rendition of "Ballad of Ole' Betsy".

If you think that's good, you should hear him doing Let Him Run Wild, which he does with the Mike & Bruce band (and did for I think just one show on the reunion, the Albert Hall show). He's absolutely spectacular on that.

Performed in Australia as well.

[SurfRiderHawaii]

Best job at sounding like Carl Wilson - Darian on Darlin'

I'd actually say that should go to Jeff Foskett on the tag of All This Is That.

Jeff sounded pretty bad at the Eugene show.  I think Darian was doing that part, atleast doubling Jeff.

Darian doubles/d Brian on that one, although whether they swapped parts around a bit if Jeff was having an off night, I don't know. Jeff did a wonderful job on that on the three shows I saw, though, and I'm not usually the biggest fan of his falsetto.

If Brian was singing the Carl part on "All This is That", then it's tripled. Listening to the video and remembering the concert, it's Darian prominent in the mix, from my ears. But from "that makes....." part, it's just Jeff I think. And it doesn't sound like Carl.

In any event, one of my very fav BB songs and I loved hearing it at the show.

[Sound of Free]

Great idea for a thread. From my view, the whole year was great until the "Mike fires the Beach Boys" stories came out. Highlights:

Best singing: Al. If you keep it clean, your voice will hold up better, but Al's has held up freakishly well.

Best long overdue moment: David Marks, for getting his due. He helped create it all but was gone before they became "America's Band." Now he got to take their victory lap before packed houses, and looked like he was loving every minute of it.

Most surprising omission from the setlist. "Vegetables." With the success of the SMiLE box, I figured "Surf's Up" might make the cut but "Vegetables" certainly would.

Best celebrity fan: Jimmy Fallon. Opening his show with, "Ladies and gentleman, THE BEACH BOYS!" going into "In My Room" and then giving so much of the time to the Boys was a great advertisement early in the tour.

Moments I wish I'd seen: The Royal Albert Hall show and Calsaga joining the Boys on stage. That clip of "All This Is That" was tremendous (thanks to whoever shot and posted it) especially Jonah channeling his father and Brian enthusiastically singing on a song he had nothing to do with originally and thanking "The great Carnie and Wendy" at the end.

Best time to be following Beach Boys tweets on Twitter: The day they played at Bonaroo, when a ton of young fans who probably went into the day thinking of them as old farts, posted things like, "WOW! The Beach Boys are f-------- awesome!"

Unsung hero of the tour: Brian's doctor and/or chiropractor. I saw the Boys on May 12 and was sitting on Brian's side of the stage. Seeing how he had to be helped up the stairs and how poorly he moved in general, I didn't know if Brian would be able to finish the 50 shows. Instead he did 75 and was hungry for more.

Obviously, it couldn't be perfect, since Dennis and Carl weren't there. But if there is a Heaven, I'll bet they had a conversation like this:

"Wow, Dennis, this is amazing. The guys sound so great. It's great to see Dave back, Al sounding amazing and Brian really enjoying himself. And they made sure were were remembered. They really did it right."

"Absolutely, Carl. I'm so glad they got back to- -- Wow, check out the rack on the blonde in the third row."

 

[SamMcK]

I think the Wembley show was just as great as the Royal Albert Hall, and i'm not just saying that because it's the only one I attended!

[J.G. Dev]

Oddest Interview Moment: Bruce wiping his snots on the hotel room drapes

[halblaineisgood]

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