Mike and Bruce Tour 2016

[Bhw]

rubbersoul,

I'm in Hagerstown right now and I'll let you know if they did 'em!!

[baseball95]

Another great show! No Till I Die or All I Wanna Do. Please Let Me Wonder replaced Wendy, Bruce was great on that as usual, Don't Back Down and All This Is That was also cut.

[RubberSoul13]

Glad to hear it was another great night! You can't go wrong with these theatre gigs. I'd love to have more insight as to why they add/drop certain songs from night to night. "Don't Back Down" for example, only takes up two minutes and was flawless in Baltimore...why bother dropping it? Since "Wendy" was swapped for "Please Let Me Wonder", it makes me think that maybe Bruce just wanted to sing that one instead since they're both his leads. I also can't help but think "All This is That" may have been dropped due to the response to it last night, or lack thereof.

[KDS]

Another great show! No Till I Die or All I Wanna Do. Please Let Me Wonder replaced Wendy, Bruce was great on that as usual, Don't Back Down and All This Is That was also cut.

Were those the only differences or did any other songs sneak in? 

I saw that Sail On Sailor has also been done at recent shows. 

[KDS]

Another great show! No Till I Die or All I Wanna Do. Please Let Me Wonder replaced Wendy, Bruce was great on that as usual, Don't Back Down and All This Is That was also cut.

Were those the only differences or did any other songs sneak in? 

I saw that Sail On Sailor has also been done at recent shows. 

Nevermind, I just saw on setlist.fm that they did two less songs.  (As you said, no Don't Back Down or All This is That & Please Let Me Wonder replacing Wendy). 

[MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm]

Please Let Me Wonder replaced Wendy...

That's a good trade in my book!   

[KDS]

Please Let Me Wonder replaced Wendy...

That's a good trade in my book!   

I do like Please Let Me Wonder, but I was happy to hear Wendy at the Baltimore show on Wednesday night since I saw them do Please Let Me Wonder in Virginia in August. 

I really do like Bruce's take a Please Let Me Wonder. 

[Bhw]

Here is the setlist from last night in Hagerstown.   The band was great, the venue was cool but the crowd was the lamest I've ever witnessed in 30 years of attending concerts!!!!

[RubberSoul13]

Thanks for posting! I suspected the crowd would be along the lines of those I've encountered in Lancaster..."city folk" seem to be the way to go for a lively crowd at a beach boys show!

[Bhw]

i need to survey everyone and find out where the best audience is..... And go to a show there!!!   Hampton Beach rocks and so does Indian Ranch outside of Boston!

[RubberSoul13]

Anyone on here go to Virginia Beach tonight? Curious to see if the setlist will continue to shrink, or turn back around!

[Aum Bop Diddit]

That's too bad about the lame crowd.  At the gig in Brooklyn last week the band was enthusiastically received, including "'til I Die'" "All This Is That" and so forth. And it didn't appear to me to be the large segment of young hipsters you get at a Brian Wilson show.  A lot of old Brooklyn types, including many Orthodox Jews!

One song performed I don't think has been mentioned was an astounding "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" which was doubly cool to hear in an old Brooklyn Theater.

[KDS]

Yes, they do a great version of Why Do Fools Fall in Love.

[Myra]

I was glad I met Mike and Bruce after the Beach Boys concert in Brooklyn. I waited for a while in the cold.

[Aum Bop Diddit]

I was glad I met Mike and Bruce after the Beach Boys concert in Brooklyn. I waited for a while in the cold.

Did they say anything interesting?

[Eric Aniversario]

Here is the setlist from last night in Hagerstown.   The band was great, the venue was cool but the crowd was the lamest I've ever witnessed in 30 years of attending concerts!!!!

Wow, there are 7 songs from Today! (8 if you count R[h]onda, which of course wouldn't really be accurate.)

[baseball95]

Here is the setlist from last night in Hagerstown.   The band was great, the venue was cool but the crowd was the lamest I've ever witnessed in 30 years of attending concerts!!!!

I also have to add after seeing it back to back nights, Ike sings one heck of an I Can Hear Music certainly the best by anyone I've ever heard, aside from Carl that is.

[baseball95]

Here is the setlist from last night in Hagerstown.   The band was great, the venue was cool but the crowd was the lamest I've ever witnessed in 30 years of attending concerts!!!!

Wow, there are 7 songs from Today! (8 if you count R[h]onda, which of course wouldn't really be accurate.)

They are still doing a lot from Today! but i wish they'd do She Knows Me Too Well, Ike did it with Brian and did a fantastic job sure they could pull it off.

[tpesky]

Still think they are under utilizing Cowsill.  His only lead is Cal Dreamin now? Really too bad to not have him on Rhonda. He did such a great job and Mike's already got 30 other leads.

[RubberSoul13]

Agreed on "I Can Hear Music"....however, also agree that Cowsill is greatly underused! Bring back Wild Honey!!!

[baseball95]

Agreed on "I Can Hear Music"....however, also agree that Cowsill is greatly underused! Bring back Wild Honey!!!

I talked to Scott about this and he said Cowsill has been under the weather recently and hasn't been able to sing "Wild Honey" perhaps that's why he's bein doing so few leads recently as well.

[AndrewHickey]

Agreed on "I Can Hear Music"....however, also agree that Cowsill is greatly underused! Bring back Wild Honey!!!

I talked to Scott about this and he said Cowsill has been under the weather recently and hasn't been able to sing "Wild Honey" perhaps that's why he's bein doing so few leads recently as well.

That's a shame. I hope he's feeling better soon.
I know he's not much of a fan of his own voice, but I think Cowsill is a wonderful singer, and I'm glad he had so many leads in the UK shows last year. I think he should actually take Darlin' back as well -- Foskett does OK on it, but Cowsill does it better.

[KDS]

Having been to two M&B shows in the last seven months, I think it's a great show, and welcome the deeper tracks.

But, I'd love to see Mike really shake things up on the setlist and get away from the surf - mid 60s hits - hot rod - pet sounds - moodier / deep - Carl tribute - George tribute - crowd pleasers formula on the setlist. 

Suggestions:

1.  Open with California Girls or I Get Around to shake things up. 

2.  Mix and match some of the mid 60s material with some of the moodier tracks in the second half.  Might create a better balance. 

Any thoughts? 

[AndrewHickey]

Having been to two M&B shows in the last seven months, I think it's a great show, and welcome the deeper tracks.

But, I'd love to see Mike really shake things up on the setlist and get away from the surf - mid 60s hits - hot rod - pet sounds - moodier / deep - Carl tribute - George tribute - crowd pleasers formula on the setlist. 

Suggestions:

1.  Open with California Girls or I Get Around to shake things up. 

2.  Mix and match some of the mid 60s material with some of the moodier tracks in the second half.  Might create a better balance. 

Any thoughts? 

For your first suggestion, I'm sure they will open with California Girls again in the future. Remember it's only relatively recently that they *stopped* opening with that in the US (they'd been opening with Do It Again in the UK for years).
I actually talked briefly with Scott about your second suggestion after the opening night of last year's UK tour, because I felt that there had been a run of songs which were similarly paced, and while *I* loved all those songs I could feel the audience getting a little restless. The problem is that given the structure of the shows, there's only a finite number of ways you can shuffle things around.

As for your more general point, though, I think that this structure actually works really well. I don't know for sure, but I think it's one of the things that Scott brought in when he became musical director -- if you compare the setlists for the 2004 and 2008 UK tours, the repertoire is largely the same, but the order for 2004 seems to have been chosen by picking titles out of a hat. And while moving Cowsill to drums and having Scott as MD both made massive positive differences to the performance, I think that the thought that's been put into the structure -- having the show almost tell a story -- has also improved the shows immensely.

And while those of us who go to a lot of shows can predict what those songs are going to be, I don't think most audiences are familiar enough with the setlists to have it pall on them. I think they have a good structure, one that can be expanded or contracted to fill the space, and that allows them now to do a surprising amount of rarities for us hardcore fans but still have the audience go home remembering it as being just one big hit they love after another all the way through.

[KDS]

Andrew,

Good points.  I guess it's easy to get greedy when you become a concert regular. 

I'm not sure if I'll be seeing Mike and Bruce again this summer as I just dropped some money on Brian Wilson tickets.  But it's a very enjoyable show. 

Thanks for provided some good tidbits about the show.  So much negativity gets thrown at the current touring lineup, so this thread is like a breath of fresh air.