Brian Wilson - 2022 Tour Thread (Plus Archived 2021)

[RubberSoul13]

As a fan who has attended their shows, this is how I see it: Brian Wilson & Al Jardine, with special guest Blondie Chaplin, backed by one of the best bands in the business.

Brian and Al reconnecting at El Camino College in 1961 was ultimately the genesis of the entire Beach Boy thing.  As such, I think it's really great to see the two of them together on stage after all these years.

Agreed, but I still think Al should receive co-billing.

Since I haven't seen B&A since 2017, can someone remind me which songs are Al leads in this tour (besides Help Me Rhonda, of course)?

Really don't agree with sending Brian out on tour given current circumstances

I agree. Having Brian, Al, and Blondie out there is pretty scary to me, for their health and for the audiences. Even if Brian’s singing better, I don’t feel safe enough to go to the closest show near me.

It's hard to specifically say what Al will sing, since he will often end up singing whatever Brian doesn't. The last time I saw them, Al basically sang the entire encore besides Help Me Rhonda, including Barbara Ann, Surfin' USA, Fun Fun Fun etc. ... same goes throughout the show.

[Curt Lambert]

I have been to Brian's first two shows of the new tour.(8/29 and 8/31/21. Brian sang the majority of leads and was in very good voice. He sang all 3 verses of Sloop John B, a strong lead on surfin USA in the encore and the strongest lead on FunFunFun by him that I have heard in years. He did not sing much on Barbara Ann, but who can blame him? Personally I am so tired of this song - perhaps Brian is as well.

Brian sang a very strong lead on I Get Around,  DanceDanceDance, Salt Lake City, Good Vibrations, Do It Again, God Only Knows, California Girls, and strong bridges on Wouldn't It Be Nice and Long Promised Road. And a very good Love And Mercy.

Al sang leads on Help Me Rhonda and Wake The World, Barbara Ann, and one or 2 of the car songs.

Very good shows and Brian is in very good voice.

[MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm]

I have been to Brian's first two shows of the new tour.(8/29 and 8/31/21. Brian sang the majority of leads and was in very good voice. He sang all 3 verses of Sloop John B, a strong lead on surfin USA in the encore and the strongest lead on FunFunFun by him that I have heard in years. He did not sing much on Barbara Ann, but who can blame him? Personally I am so tired of this song - perhaps Brian is as well.

Brian sang a very strong lead on I Get Around,  DanceDanceDance, Salt Lake City, Good Vibrations, Do It Again, God Only Knows, California Girls, and strong bridges on Wouldn't It Be Nice and Long Promised Road. And a very good Love And Mercy.

Al sang leads on Help Me Rhonda and Wake The World, Barbara Ann, and one or 2 of the car songs.

Very good shows and Brian is in very good voice.

That's great! Thanks for the review.

[juggler]

Saw on instagram that Brian's show at Morongo (Cabazon Indian casino) that had been set for next week has been cancelled.
 Anyone happen to know why?

[HeyJude]

Here's the venue's statement on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/MorongoCasino/status/1435413110555250693

[Pretty Funky]

A poster over at the EH Board has a source who says Brian’s people weren’t happy with the Covid protocols at the venue. Good.

[juggler]

A poster over at the EH Board has a source who says Brian’s people weren’t happy with the Covid protocols at the venue. Good.

Ah, interesting.   Thanks for that info.  I had a hunch a few weeks ago that this might be a possibility.  I'm a part-time resident of the area and the perception that I have is that relative nonchalance about covid is the order of the day at those casinos.   I'm not knocking (or defending) them.  It is what it is.

In any case, this cancellation is no huge loss.  I was at what I think might have been Brian's most recent show in that area (summer 2019 at the Fantasy Springs casino in Indio), and the crowd there among the worst I've ever seen in terms of lack of appreciation for the material (e.g., so many people there on comp-ed tickets who seemed to have little to no idea who or what they were listening to; were walking out early; couldn't wait to get back to the casino buffet etc.)

[HeyJude]

The plan at least is apparently for the Cabazon date to be rescheduled in 2022, so I've updated the top post schedule to reflect that.

[mtaber]

Got my ticket to see Brian this coming Sunday in Rochester!  May very well be my last chance to see him, i can’t wait!!!

[HeyJude]

Last night's setlist is up on setlist.fm. Nothing major as far as new additions; looks like they did a bit of "Surfin'."

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/brian-wilson/2021/the-paramount-huntington-ny-5b8ddf24.html

[MyDrKnowsItKeepsMeCalm]

But to be fair, for a show billed as a 'Greatest Hits' show, Salt Lake City, Wake the World, Add Some Music, Long Promised Road and Feel Flows are still pretty cool.

[Tony S]

Just curious, any reason as to why Brian sang the 1st verse of Rhonda? Don't think I've ever seen that in all the years Al has been touring with him....it's Al's signature BB song.

[All Summer Long]

Just curious, any reason as to why Brian sang the 1st verse of Rhonda? Don't think I've ever seen that in all the years Al has been touring with him....it's Al's signature BB song.

What?? Seems like poor Al is getting shoved out this year vocally.

[twentytwenty]

Just curious, any reason as to why Brian sang the 1st verse of Rhonda? Don't think I've ever seen that in all the years Al has been touring with him....it's Al's signature BB song.

He completely destroyed it too unfortunately.

Besides that, he had feeling, when it happens it happens

[Tony S]

I watched the video of Rhonda on YouTube and I'm not sure what was going on there. Al looked like he didn't want to step on Brian's toes and Brian looked a bit out of it and his vocals were week anyway. Awkward moment for sure hope it does not occur

[myonlysunshine]

I attended the concert at the Capitol Theatre last night. Great show, and it had probably the most impressive live performance of Good Vibrations that I've personally gotten to experience in-person. Brian's singing was on-point and it had incredible energy throughout. Two friends of mine actually attended both the Huntington show and last night's show in Port Chester, and after the concert they talked to me about how Good Vibrations didn't have that same level of energy at the Huntington concert. Normally most live performances of Good Vibrations that I’ve seen suffer from not having cellos playing triplets during the choruses, like how they do on the studio recording, but last night even without any cellos it sounded awesome. The entire audience was on their feet the whole time during it.

I was also very impressed with Feel Flows – compared to past performances of Blondie singing Feel Flows live, this time around he switched up a few things in terms of how he sang it, and those changes made his performance sound much more soulful and spellbinding than in the past, although past performances have also sounded soulful. But it's difficult to describe, and unfortunately even though I managed to get a video of the performance (https://youtu.be/KUN2LsZ8Nqc), the recording doesn't really fully capture just how amazing it sounded live. It's just different when you hear this stuff live and in-person, and this is one of the reasons why performances captured on cell phones are not authentic recreations of the actual concert experience by any means – you can't truly capture the energy and some of the sonic nuances of how this stuff actually sounds when there in-person.

Brian also performed lead – and sounded great doing so – on It's OK. My friends who attended the Huntington concert said that Brian also sounded really good doing It's OK on Tuesday night as well. He seemed into it – there was no hesitation or anything like that in his performance last night, so when Brian fell silent and didn't sing it at all at that one show around a month ago, maybe he didn't know/remember the words and fell silent because of that? Not sure, but he definitely appeared to enjoy singing the song last night.

The VIP experience was kind of a sh*t show if I'm being honest. I bought VIP tickets for me and a friend of mine back in July when the tour was announced, and it was never 100% clear what the VIP package was or was not supposed to contain. Originally a soundcheck performance was advertised, but then about a month after I purchased the package the mention of getting to see the soundcheck performance was removed. There was never any meet and greet advertised, which is fine because I figured there would be no meet and greets anymore due to Covid. But the soundcheck stuff being removed doesn't make much sense to me – it's no less safe than playing the concert itself, so I'm not sure why they are not offering it. And the thing is, I was charged for a soundcheck. That was one of the aspects that was much later confirmed by Future Beat (the company that I guess handles the VIP packages) to have been built into the price I paid for the package. Communication about the VIP package was awful – I didn't receive any notice of whether the VIP package would include a soundcheck, or how to receive the VIP items/merchandise until midday Tuesday. My friend and I even called the Capitol Theatre's box office separately the day prior to that (Monday), and they were just as in the dark as we were about whether or not there would be a soundcheck performance or what one needs to do to receive/redeem their VIP items/merchandise. They basically found out at the same time that my friend and I did, and it turns out that not only would there be no soundcheck performance, but also the items/merchandise would be mailed to us directly after the concert, but only after Ticketmaster emails us a voucher code that we need to input into Ticketmaster's website, and that voucher code would only be sent to us the day after the concert. It's as if they didn't have this stuff ready in time for the tour, and/or are counting on us to maybe neglect or forget about doing the whole voucher code stuff afterwards or something. I don't know, but it was handled very poorly by them overall, although at least they have since promised to issue a partial refund for the part of the VIP package that we paid for which was supposed to cover the soundcheck performance portion of it.

[BJL]

I was at the show last night too! The crowd was pretty sparse in the balcony, unfortunately, but the energy level was very high, which made up for it.

I thought Brian was in pretty good form. His vocals were hit or miss as always, but there were a few verses where he really sounded very good, and he seemed pretty engaged, introducing songs and looking around, especially in the first half. It seems like he’s starting to struggle with even some of the higher parts of Mike’s range on some songs, but when he dropped down into the bass, he sounded really good. I feel like Al is being a bit underutilized in the setlist as it stands - but I have a feeling that might be his choice, and he sounded great on the songs he did sing, as always. As myonlysunshine said above, Good Vibrations sounded about as good as I’ve ever heard it, as did California Girls, which for some reason just really bowled me over last night. The rest of the “hits” are what they are. I’m always very happy to hear them, and the band was in great form - but at this point I’ve seen Brian 15 or 20 times, and if I never had to hear him do I Get Around again, I probably wouldn’t mind so much… (Honestly, I think the rest of the audience seems to be leaning in that direction, as well. It feels like the audience has lost a good chunk of the older “Barbara Ann” crowd that used to be a strong contingent at a lot of shows, and picked up a younger audience for whom Wouldn’t it be Nice, Sloop John B, and God Only Knows are the absolute favorites, and the cheering and applause that greeted the Pet Sounds cuts at this show was no exception - definitely the highlight in terms of energy on stage and off. All of which is to say, Brian wasn’t the only one who looked a little bored during Barbara Ann…)

The highlight for me was Blondie, though. It’s just great to see a musician on stage who doesn’t feel bound by a “backing” role, who really lets loose on his instrument and vocals. I’m sure its not to everyone’s taste, but those are the cuts where they really feel like a real band, for me, with some charisma and freedom to cut loose a little. So I’m so grateful to Brian and everyone involved for keeping Blondie on the tour and paying such beautiful tribute to the spirit of Carl Wilson. And man, Feel Flows and Long Promised Road were *good* last night. Like best-I’ve-ever-seen good.

So, yea - it wasn’t Something Great in ’68, with half of Friends on the set list, but it wasn’t billed as such, and I definitely had a big smile on my face on the way out!

[Emdeeh]

Is that Rob Bonfligio or someone else, standing in Nicky Wonder's place?

[southbay]

Is that Rob Bonfligio or someone else, standing in Nicky Wonder's place?

Sure looks like Rob

[twentytwenty]

Yeah it definitely looks like Rob. Too bad he doesn’t get any solos. I loved his take on don’t worry baby when he was filling in for Matt

[Rocker]

I'm just watching a video of last night's show that Brian's Facebook account posted. It's "Sail on Sailor", great vocals by Blondie as usual. PLUS he also gets a long guitar solo on the fade out. Didn't hear that before. Pretty mindblowing


I wonder if they will add some more Sunflower/Surf's Up cuts. I could imagine Blondie doing a killer version of "It's about Time".

[Competition Clutch]

Saw Brian in Lowell, MA, last night.    Just to document for this era of Brian, he needs assistance and a walker to get on and off stage.   This arrangement eliminates the traditional encore curtain call.   The venue was very far from full, but there was a strong contingent of hardcore types who showed their love.    Band is top-notch as usual.   Brian vocal highlights for me were In My Room and Surfer Girl, and his best of the night:  Love and Mercy.   Also great were Matt Jardine on Don't Worry Baby, and Darian on Darlin' and I Can Hear Music.

[mtaber]

I saw Brian at the Kodak Center in Rochester last night! Very nice venue, with approximately 60% of the seats taken. But a very enthusiastic crowd, including me screaming like a banshee! Brian was in great form, took a lot of leads and seemed very engaged generally.  It didn’t look like Brian played at all while at the piano but that’s expected. Al didn’t have to jump in mid-song to bail him out, lol.  Blonde didn’t appear on stage till past the mid-point and sang Feel Flows, Long Promised Road and Sail on Sailor before again leaving the stage for a bit.  Al did Rhonda and had a couple of other leads.  Matt nailed Don’t Worry Baby and was in great form, as was Darian for his leads on Darlin and one other.  Great band, that goes without saying.  Brian only looked disinterested during Barbara Ann, can’t say I blame him.  Blondie roamed the stage when he didn’t have a lead and Brian kind of looked at him like “ok, this guy is weird!”  Add Some Music was beautiful and Al mentioned the box set when introducing Blondie for Feel Flows. Absolutely a great night!  Oh, I also saw a guy wearing a Bruce Johnston “Going Public” shirt - I told him there were probably more T-shirts sold for that album than actual album sales, he laughed and said “that’s cruel but probably true!”

[patsy6]

Yeah it definitely looks like Rob. Too bad he doesn’t get any solos. I loved his take on don’t worry baby when he was filling in for Matt

I saw them in Rochester on Sunday night. It's Rob.

[rab2591]

I saw Brian at the Kodak Center in Rochester last night! Very nice venue, with approximately 60% of the seats taken. But a very enthusiastic crowd, including me screaming like a banshee! Brian was in great form, took a lot of leads and seemed very engaged generally.  It didn’t look like Brian played at all while at the piano but that’s expected. Al didn’t have to jump in mid-song to bail him out, lol.  Blonde didn’t appear on stage till past the mid-point and sang Feel Flows, Long Promised Road and Sail on Sailor before again leaving the stage for a bit.  Al did Rhonda and had a couple of other leads.  Matt nailed Don’t Worry Baby and was in great form, as was Darian for his leads on Darlin and one other.  Great band, that goes without saying.  Brian only looked disinterested during Barbara Ann, can’t say I blame him.  Blondie roamed the stage when he didn’t have a lead and Brian kind of looked at him like “ok, this guy is weird!”  Add Some Music was beautiful and Al mentioned the box set when introducing Blondie for Feel Flows. Absolutely a great night!  Oh, I also saw a guy wearing a Bruce Johnston “Going Public” shirt - I told him there were probably more T-shirts sold for that album than actual album sales, he laughed and said “that’s cruel but probably true!”

This is amazing glad you had a great time! My life is just too busy at the moment to get to one of these concerts. Hopefully there will be another opportunity when I'm less busy.