The Beach Boys on Jay Leno tonight !

[Custom Machine]

Just finished watching TWGMTR on Leno.  Not a great mix, but overall it looked (as tv is a visual medium) and sounded quite good to me.

And as far as comments that "The album will be top five, no matter" - that's not good enough for me.  I want it to hit Number One!

[The Shift]

Video: http://theaudioperv.com/2012/06/07/the-beach-boys-thats-why-god-made-the-radio-66-leno/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-beach-boys-thats-why-god-made-the-radio-66-leno

Could've been stronger, but it doesn't strike me as a train wreck of a performance at all. Maybe it's because I have my A/C blasting right now. 

Many thanks for posting this. A tad creaky performance - perhaps - but not the train wreck being described. You could almost put Brian's vocal - which ain't all that bad by the way folks - down to entusiasm and eccentricity.

Any performance these guys give is shored up by the strong band behind them.

As for Mike's singing in vs 2, I'd put that down to him seeing a live camera pointed at his face at a moment he wasn't due to be singing and thinking "geez, need to look like I'm doing something here..."

Mike's entire attitude throughout the reunion thus far seems utterly professional and committed. Here he did what any professional singer would do, and sang.

[TonyW]

If the telecast of the Grammy performance had been the measure of the rest of the tour then no one would have turned up at the concerts and no one would have bought the single or album (yes - this is sarcasm). Seriously some people are just too 'precious'. Get over it - that performance was okay.

[Rocker]

It was not that bad. Brian's vocals inthe harmonies seemed out of tune mostly but after reading this thread I really expected much worse

[Beach Boy]

Rough performance but non fans wouldn't really tell so I don't think it scared people off. And Leno mentioning the album going number 1 on amazon made people curious.

[Jaco]

This:

I read all the comments, then I found the clip.  This was not nearly the hot mess everyone was making it out to be.  I think it actually sounded better than the Fallon performance.

& that:

I did however check out the vid again, and it was Brian's 'whoa oh ohhhh's that made me go,  . Hey, we're used to it! Reminds me of Ron's posting from somewheres back, how watching Brian on stage is like admiring a tight rope walker. Kinda like that...only sitting behind a Korg.

My opinion: all these modulations are freaking difficult. If they would've have done a song with just basic chords like Do It Again or In My Room they easily would've made a big impression.

[Micha]

Just finished watching TWGMTR on Leno.  Not a great mix, but overall it looked (as tv is a visual medium) and sounded quite good to me.

And as far as comments that "The album will be top five, no matter" - that's not good enough for me.  I want it to hit Number One!

Considering how low album sales have gone down in general, and that a lot of folks who want to hear a new Beach Boys album are pretty old so they are forced to buy the CD because they don't know how to illegally download an album for free... it should do very well in the charts!

[filledeplage]

I liked it too. Now, especially to my fellow students back from 1968-1971 who said they were washed up. For those of them still on the planet, suck it!

And, they can eat their words with a fork and spoon!!!   

Oh, happy day! 

We've waited a very worthwhile time!

Nuthin' like having the last laugh! 

[Autotune]

Wasn't too bad. It'll probably help sales.
Monitoring or mixing issues, maybe.
Was fun to watch after Ron's depiction of Brian's baby look and Love's "make my day" attitude.

It is remarkable that their new single is so painfully difficult to perform. It is much more difficult than even their most complex stuff, because of the number of passing chords and the many changes and subtle shifts. You have to be ace to perform this credibly.

[Roger Ryan]

I would say that all of Brian's previous appearances on the Late Show were worse than this. Not great, but almost no one sounds good on the Late Show.

At this point, either you understand the limitations of this band live or you don't. For anyone who's paid attention, the Beach Boys have given 50 years worth of live performances that were all over the board. There were plenty of less-than-spectacular performances during the 60s heyday. The Beach Boys are known for their studio output, not for a dynamic stage presentation.

[send me a picture and i'll tell you]

Al's hair looks younger with every passing week.

 

[Ron]

The stylists that are touring with them are probably hi-fiving each other about the long road they've walked with some of them.  They have Brian looking like a cross between a Gerber Baby and a Muppet... they have Mike looking almost as cool as Clint Eastwood, they have Al's hair under control.... Dave looks like Tony Hawk; and Bruce has the scrunchy face smile permanently affixed to his wrinkles.  All of them look like Rock Stars, bigger than life. 

[bossaroo]

I was scared to watch after reading the first few pages, but it wasn't horrible at all.

Brian flubbed the notes much worse on Fallon... that version is basically unlistenable.

This version was much better despite Brian coming in a little late.


Having said all that... wow Jay Leno is just awful.

[pixletwin]

After reading all of the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth I finally watched the Leno performance.

It wasn't bad and on par with just about every live appearance they've done playing TWGMTR. Certainly nothing to panic over. 

[Justin]

Brian looked happy to see Jay...that was nice.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Just watched the video and i've only got one thing to say :

Being a lead singer without playing any instruments must be the most boring job in the world, just look at Mike Love.

[guitarfool2002]

I watched it on TV, no internet or headphone listens this time...and it was a good performance overall. There were some problems - with the mixing, at one point, I think it was Al's vocal which literally jumped into the mix and it was almost comical. Maybe a lot of fans would not have caught it, but that was so obviously a bad mistake, and there were other less noticeable ones too.

The Beach Boys themselves actually shined a bit more than the band members this time, and in other shows this song was the opposite effect. I loved earlier performances where the drums just *pounded* those low fills, like thunder rumbling and exploding into lightning, but the drums seemed toned down a bit too much on the show.

Brian is Brian, I thought it was a Brian performance as we have seen for the past decade or so on these shows. I like watching him on stage, maybe I'm different that way!

The Leno show in general...too damned stock, too damned corporate, too structured. Remember how Fallon treated the band? How about how everyone is treating the band? At least an interview segment would have been nice, but no, it's Leno's canned "comedy skits" which eat up too much time after the monologue. When you have the Beach Boys in your studio, TALK TO THEM! Fallon did it right...Leno stuck to the formula, disappointingly.

Notice that - for some reason - David Marks was back to playing a Gibson (Les Paul with P90 pickups), and Al had no guitar at all, where they have both been playing Fender almost exclusively for the past weeks.

Maybe someone will explain the Fender-Gibson endorsement thing some day.  

[slickman9696]

Who was on the falsetto part for this performance. I was watching everyone very closely, and Foskett was on Brian duty tonight, except for the end where he does his part, but they had someone else on falsetto. I was watching, and it wasn't Foskett, Darian, or the Scotts. Wondering if anyone had a better eye or ear than me.

[Dave in KC]

Matt Jardine hiding behind the amps.

[Aegir]

I didn't hear any falsetto actually

[Jon Stebbins]

Notice that - for some reason - David Marks was back to playing a Gibson (Les Paul with P90 pickups), and Al had no guitar at all, where they have both been playing Fender almost exclusively for the past weeks.

Dave was having a minor issue with the Jag, so he used the Gibson last night. No biggie. He still prefers Fenders.

[oldsurferdude]

Just watched the video and i've only got one thing to say :

Being a lead singer without playing any instruments must be the most boring job in the world, just look at Mike Love.

What d'ya expect? Boring job, boring guy who likes to talk all about himself and backpeddles on his feelings about Brian. Notice how he just "stands there" and points at people during this tour? Did somebody crazyglue his sandals to the stage so he won't fall over? Not the biggest fan of Jagger but he does a great job of making Myke look like a fossil.

[Aum Bop Diddit]

I haven't gotten the album yet and hearing the song made me want to get it -- it's a pretty good number, far better than I would have expected at this stage and it may be a grower.  The performance was fair -- what struck me was Brian's arms stuck down to his sides like someone told him not to wave them around anymore.

Julia Louise Dreyfuss went straight to Al!

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Wa'nt bad at all really......

Brian missing his first vocal cue was kinda cute..

[tpesky]

For whatever reason Mike's and Brian's voices do not translate to TV very well at all. They are a roll of the dice from performance to performance and sometimes within the same performance.  They have to be mixed really carefully. The best way to assure a good vocal performance on TV is to pick an Al lead vocal.