Cool pictures of cool people with Brian at 'George Fest', Sept. 29

[Lowbacca]

Just been posted on Brian's Facebook page:


Brian with the one and only Conan O'Brien :


Brian with Flaming Lips genius Wayne Coyne :



Brian looks f*cking great!






I heard Brian played/closed the Fest with "My Sweet Lord" - can anyone confirm?

[Matt H]

Confirmed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evVTvTrcXCo

[Lowbacca]

Confirmed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evVTvTrcXCo

My my my. So good...



EDIT: I had quite a miserable day, came home, and saw this. Made my day. Brian Wilson in 2014, rocking "My Sweet Lord".. All I can think of right now is: I know what I'm thankful for.

[guitarfool2002]

Brian sounding good on My Sweet Lord last night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evVTvTrcXCo

(apologies if this is posted elsewhere)

[guitarfool2002]

Brian sounding good on My Sweet Lord last night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evVTvTrcXCo

(apologies if this is posted elsewhere)

Other than losing it a little towards the end (which lets be honest, that song goes on about 2 minutes too long), I thought he sounded much stronger vocally than he has in awhile. Seemed like there was a bit more "oomph" to his delivery than there has been recently.

[guitarfool2002]

Brian sounding good on My Sweet Lord last night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evVTvTrcXCo

(apologies if this is posted elsewhere)

Other than losing it a little towards the end (which lets be honest, that song goes on about 2 minutes too long), I thought he sounded much stronger vocally than he has in awhile. Seemed like there was a bit more "oomph" to his delivery than there has been recently.

Thanks for posting that! I agree, there were many lines of that tune where Brian sounds like he's really belting out those phrases! Strong vocals, for sure. I enjoyed that! Sometimes the point in these shows where everyone gets on stage together can turn a bit chaotic, but given the nature of the original production, it actually works here.

It's also great to hear Brian sing a cover song which is outside the usual scope of his live setlists and appearances, that was a treat to hear a song so familiar sung by Brian.

Thanks for posting that link, very enjoyable.

[guitarfool2002]

Something humorous to add about that clip of My Sweet Lord: Listen for someone accidentally kicking or bumping either a guitar amp or even an old Fender spring reverb tank several times during the performance, and creating that thunder-crash sound effect that only kicking or bumping a spring reverb tank can create. Shades of "Diamond Head"! Definitely not a planned part of that performance, but it would have been perfect if they had decided to play Diamond Head. 

[guitarfool2002]

There is a method to my madness: The board's design won't allow merging individual posts into another thread or topic, so I copied and pasted the comments from a few of us who were already discussing the George Fest show from Sunday. That was in the Brian/Al/Saturday topic, but since this one started let's make this the place for the George Fest discussions. Definitely worth its own thread!

[SMiLE Brian]

Where was Mike singing Pisces brothers?

[guitarfool2002]

Not surprised to see Conan there, and notice he was also on stage in the video. I was also thinking it would have been cool to have Brian on Conan's show last week as he did a string of four shows with musicians covering and paying tribute to George Harrison's music. Those performers included Beck, Paul Simon, Dhani Harrison, and Norah Jones. All of these clips are available to watch on Conan's YouTube and website.

It would have been cool to have Brian involved in that week of tributes too!

[Lowbacca]

Not surprised to see Conan there, and notice he was also on stage in the video. I was also thinking it would have been cool to have Brian on Conan's show last week as he did a string of four shows with musicians covering and paying tribute to George Harrison's music. Those performers included Beck, Paul Simon, Dhani Harrison, and Norah Jones. All of these clips are available to watch on Conan's YouTube and website.

It would have been cool to have Brian involved in that week of tributes too!

Yeah, I was thinking the same when catching up on last week's Coco.

[Joel Goldenberg]

Ann Wilson looks really good there, BTW.

[Cyncie]

Where was Mike singing Pisces brothers?

My first thought, also.

[Cyncie]

Brian sounding good on My Sweet Lord last night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evVTvTrcXCo

(apologies if this is posted elsewhere)

Other than losing it a little towards the end (which lets be honest, that song goes on about 2 minutes too long), I thought he sounded much stronger vocally than he has in awhile. Seemed like there was a bit more "oomph" to his delivery than there has been recently.

You know, I hate to say this because I really appreciate all Jeff did to help Brian launch his solo career and get back in the game: but, losing his "crutch" might not have been the worst thing to happen to him. He seems confident and engaged, and he's sounding good!

[Emdeeh]

Two Wilsons front and center onstage! Was Nancy there as well?

[Rocker]

Brian sounds very cool!

And btw, I don*'t know if I ever mentioned that before but don't Al and Darian together sound like heaven? It's not necessarily as obvious on this video but in general... wow!

[Rocky Raccoon]

Overall a great performance even though it started to break down after the first couple of minutes, you can tell Brian was really into it.  The impassioned way he sings "Mmmmm my lord" just makes me smile so much.  I hope an official recording of this concert comes out.

[guitarfool2002]

Apart from Brian's performance, this was a really freakin' good show from the clips I've been watching on YouTube. If I said both Conan O'Brien and Weird Al kicked serious rock and roll ass on their versions of "Old Brown Shoe" and "What Is Life" respectively, would you believe me? Watch the videos! Some really cool stuff happening last night on that stage. It was great to see Brian, Al, and Darian involved as they were.

[Mikie]

Was that Dhani Harrison standing behind Brian playing acoustic?

[Lowbacca]

A little closer and in classy black&white: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6V6sdDTjZk

[feelsflow]

Was that Dhani Harrison standing behind Brian playing acoustic?

That's Jimmy Vivino right behind Brian.  If you mean the cat in the blue shirt behind Ann, that's Alex Levy.  He does look a lot like Dhani.  Dhani did do a number on Conan leading up to George Fest, "Let it Down" - it's on the Team Coco channel.  Haven't found a clip of his performance yet, but he must have played something.

[phirnis]

A little closer and in classy black&white: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6V6sdDTjZk

Brian looks great here! Nice haircut. Also you can tell he's just really into that type of song. Probably would be a good idea to add He Come Down/That Same Song/Path of Life to his setlist.

[Shady]

Really cool performance.

George was a great guy, he went far too soon.

[guitarfool2002]

Was that Dhani Harrison standing behind Brian playing acoustic?

That's Jimmy Vivino right behind Brian.  If you mean the cat in the blue shirt behind Ann, that's Alex Levy.  He does look a lot like Dhani.  Dhani did do a number on Conan leading up to George Fest, "Let it Down" - it's on the Team Coco channel.  Haven't found a clip of his performance yet, but he must have played something.

From what I've seen so far on YouTube, Dhani took the lead on "Savoy Truffle", which was always one of my favorite tunes of his Dad's Beatles output because it rocks like a mofo, and Dhani rocked like a mofo on it last night! The one issue I had was the horns were mixed *way* too low, as they're a major part of the original track.

I'll be going through more clips as they become available, but to hear Dhani in full effect check out Savoy Truffle. It can be something to hear how much his voice can sound like his Dad on certain phrases, besides the obvious physical resemblance.

And "Let It Down" from Conan's tribute week was a highlight, that was an awesome performance.

[guitarfool2002]

Note too that the backing band was amazing, as they backed Weird Al on "What Is Life", they were rocking out with full abandon, it was pretty cool. Jimmy Vivino for those who don't know was a session guy who was the guitarist in Conan's original band led by Max Weinberg, then when Conan left NYC for LA, and Max left too, Jimmy took over.

He's a perfect choice to play a gig like this, as I said on Facebook sharing a few of these clips the man probably has every guitar note ever played by the Beatles memorized and in his arsenal. Notice on Conan's cover of "Old Brown Shoe", Vivino nails George's original solo, which is a bit quirky to play. He was also a member of the "Fab Faux", alongside fellow Beatle freak, late night house band musician, and incredible motherf*cker of a session player, bassist Will Lee. The Fab Faux is perhaps THE BEST Beatle tribute band in the business, bar none, and they go for authenticity and respect for the music versus wearing costumes and wigs to get the look.

If you want to hear top-notch musicians playing the Beatles tunes to a "T", check out the "Fab Faux".