So I went to see my first ever Mike & Bruce Beach Boys show on Sunday, April 19th, at the Wellmont theater in Montclair, NJ, and…. Holy crap, I was blown away!! I know, that was almost a month ago, but I just got around to typing this. It’s not really a review, but some random observations some of you may enjoy. I also have some decent cell-phone videos if anyone wants to see.
Anyhoo!
-The line was around the block! In fact, from the beginning of the line, you could see the end of the line, all the way around the block, because there was a sort of walkway thru the middle of the block, so you could see from one side to the other. Know what I mean? Yeah. But it was pretty neat! While I was walking around before the show, one random guy on the street asked another random guy on the street, “what’s this line for?” I was nearby so I answered, ”it’s for a Beach Boys show!” He seemed really impressed, like, what The Beach Boys still exist!? And people line up around the block for them!?
-Bruce did a split! A mid-air split! Not as impressive as a cheerleader woulda done, but in the middle of… crap, I don’t remember the song, he walks in front of his keyboards, does a little dance, jumps up into the air, does a little sideways split , lands well, motions to the crowd, everyone cheers, and he goes back to his keys. It was actually pretty cool.
-Speaking of Bruce, there was no Disney Girls, but he was noticeably audible on a few songs, and sounded shockingly good. The tag of God Only Knows and California Girls sounded really legit with his voice.
-speaking of Bruce some more, at some point some girl in her mid 20s climbs up the front of the stage, goes right for Bruce, and sorta grabs his arm… Bruce keeps playing, the girl keeps holding on to him. Then Mike’s “iPhone wrangler” or whatever he called him comes out and has to untangle her from Bruce and pull her off the stage. Everyone laughs, the crowd digs it, Bruce shrugs exaggeratedly. I don’t know if it was staged, but it was a cool rock star moment.
-Lots and lots of photos of Mike and Bruce with Dennis and Carl on the big video screen. Very few photos of anyone with Brian. Hardly any photos of Al, AT ALL. I mean sure, Brian and Al popped up in a number of group shots, but so SO many pics were cropped to cut out Al and Brian.
-Jeff Foskett, my God, he sounded terrific! I had seen Jeff with Brian last year, and as usual, there was something shrill and annoying about his falsetto. This time tho, he just sounded amazing. Sounded like Brian when he needed to, and sounded like Carl on the killer version of Darlin’ they did!!
-And speaking of Jeff and the photos and videos they kept playing on the big screen… there was a 2 second clip of a closeup of Jeff, singing with Carl in the mid-80s, which got me thinking, IS THAT IT!?! The only single footage The Beach Boys themselves have of Jeff performing with them in the 80s is 2 seconds!?! Cuz showing some more Jeff singing with them in the 80s would’ve really helped legitimize Jeff’s presence.
-I hate to say it, but it was a more enjoyable show than Brian’s show from last year. They simply just sounded more like The Beach Boys. Partly cuz it was really nice to not have Jeff Beck’s guitar masturbation intruding on what I really wanted to see. But still, “The Beach Boys” rocked. And opening act America was really good! They played a cover of California Dreaming, and the guy told a story about how they were once sharing a bill with The Beach Boys and The Mammas and the Pappas, so there were THREE BANDS on the same bill that could potentially sing California Dreaming, but whoever got to it first, that was it, nobody else could do it. Then he asked the audience… “Do you guys know why The Beach Boys do California Dreaming? They need the hits.” Everyone laughs. So then at some point Mike joked, “well, we were gonna sing California Dreaming, but now I guess we can’t…” He also joked “wow, I didn’t know until tonight America had so many hits!”
-As the band walked off at the stage at the end of the show, Summer Means New Love started playing in the background, and my first thought was, what the heck, why are they playing Somewhere Quiet!?
-had a fun time explaining to the middle aged ladies next to me (probably way overenthusiastically cuz I was kinda drunk) just why Brian Wilson wasn’t there, and that Al Jardine was touring with Brian currently, and one of the ladies asked if any of those guys were Matt Jardine, cuz she knows he used to tour with the BBs, and I said no, he’s also with Brian’s band right now (I think). And she was sad and couldn’t understand why they couldn’t all just get along. I KNOW, I said.
I’m still gonna talk trash about Mike whenever it comes up, but now I will add that he sure puts on a terrific show!! He was a great MC and just the right mix of charming and douchey.