Brian Wilson - 2022 Tour Thread (Plus Archived 2021)

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

It’s worse on Facebook…Awesomeman stated his point, I stated mine, I hope it’s cool. It is on my end for sure. On FB though, these people are saying it directly , no hinting or insinuating or anything. Facebook is a cesspool to begin with but throw in the usual BB related drama and it’s a powder keg of disaster.  That very day I’d read some of the same accusations but those folks unlike Awsomeman didn’t have good intentions.

It’s one thing to have concern; abject cruelty is another

Yeah I'm not holding any grudges.  It's okay to disagree.  :-)

Now misspelling my screen name is a whole other story.  🤣

Lol my phone’s autocarrot really didn’t like me trying to type your name !

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

It’s worse on Facebook…Awesomeman stated his point, I stated mine, I hope it’s cool. It is on my end for sure. On FB though, these people are saying it directly , no hinting or insinuating or anything. Facebook is a cesspool to begin with but throw in the usual BB related drama and it’s a powder keg of disaster.  That very day I’d read some of the same accusations but those folks unlike Awsomeman didn’t have good intentions.

It’s one thing to have concern; abject cruelty is another

Yeah I'm not holding any grudges.  It's okay to disagree.  :-)

Now misspelling my screen name is a whole other story.  🤣

Yeah my phone’s autocorrect really didn’t like it lmfao

[All Summer Long]

Brian's performances have become increasingly challenged in the last several years, including everything from the actual quality of his vocal delivery, to his overall demeanor. It *is* more low energy than even in like the 2012-2015 era, and his demeanor on stage when he's not singing is even more still and blank than in the past. I don't think it's out of line for someone to find that off-putting or concerning, even compared to 7 to 10 years ago.

I personally ended up stopping seeing the live show after 2016 after having seem him tons of times since 1999. It wasn't a big dramatic decision; I'm not even saying I'd never go again. But the performance of PS in 2016 wasn't great enough to justify keeping doing it for me, and while they do delegate leads to others, I've had a continual slight confusion/frustration with not giving Al more leads when his voice is so strong. So *that* level of Brian performance, coupled with having Al standing there the whole time but not singing a ton of leads, left me feeling I didn't need to go out of my way to see the next several tours.

This is kind of how I feel too, HeyJude. I want to see Brian and Al (and Blondie) again and I also don’t understand why they don’t give Al more leads, especially now. I felt he sang a good amount when I saw them in 2017 doing PS (and almost half of Wild Honey too) but I definitely agree Al has been underutilized at least since the return to live music.

[HeyJude]

Updated the top post with more setlists, and also a specific date for the August Canada date.

[Lonely Summer]

Brian's performances have become increasingly challenged in the last several years, including everything from the actual quality of his vocal delivery, to his overall demeanor. It *is* more low energy than even in like the 2012-2015 era, and his demeanor on stage when he's not singing is even more still and blank than in the past. I don't think it's out of line for someone to find that off-putting or concerning, even compared to 7 to 10 years ago.

I personally ended up stopping seeing the live show after 2016 after having seem him tons of times since 1999. It wasn't a big dramatic decision; I'm not even saying I'd never go again. But the performance of PS in 2016 wasn't great enough to justify keeping doing it for me, and while they do delegate leads to others, I've had a continual slight confusion/frustration with not giving Al more leads when his voice is so strong. So *that* level of Brian performance, coupled with having Al standing there the whole time but not singing a ton of leads, left me feeling I didn't need to go out of my way to see the next several tours.

This is kind of how I feel too, HeyJude. I want to see Brian and Al (and Blondie) again and I also don’t understand why they don’t give Al more leads, especially now. I felt he sang a good amount when I saw them in 2017 doing PS (and almost half of Wild Honey too) but I definitely agree Al has been underutilized at least since the return to live music.

Nobody makes Al do anything. He is doing all the singing he wants to do on the current tour.

[HeyJude]

Nobody makes Al do anything. He is doing all the singing he wants to do on the current tour.

I don't believe Al is a musical director on the tour, and there has never been any indication he has any strong input into the setlist or lead vocal assignments.

But my position is that the issue of "not giving Al more leads" falls on whomever makes that decision. My issue mentioned previously was simply that Al isn't singing more leads, whether that's someone else not assigning him more leads, someone not "letting" him sing more leads, Al not "asserting" himself more to take more leads, or Al actively turning down leads. Whatever the reason, Al's lead vocals are pretty much the biggest asset Brian's touring band has. It's an "original" voice, and it's stunningly still in tact.

And, even trying to parse such things as far as leads and setlist selections only can really be done when they're doing full-length gigs. This Chicago tour has them doing the same thing they did back on that Paul Simon tour in 2001, which is around 20-ish songs and probably around 75 minutes. There's little room to maneuver with that amount of time. A few deep cuts get sprinkled in, and they spread the leads around as much as they can.

And, I will say in the past that they've gone farther to take the load off Brian and have Al sing more, having Al take over stuff like "Here Today" on the PS tours, etc.

But I think, especially considering how forgiving and understanding Brian's audiences still are, I think it would be fine if they had Al singing like 50% of the leads at Brian shows. If they're going to keep doing them.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I’ll be honest…Al’s voice hasn’t been sounding as good as even just a few years ago. It’s to be expected at these guys’s age . Matt’s been a real star to the point where I’d go see a tour with him as the main dude. It wouldn’t be that much different than what we’re getting now if I’m being 100% honest.

[HeyJude]

I’ll be honest…Al’s voice hasn’t been sounding as good as even just a few years ago. It’s to be expected at these guys’s age . Matt’s been a real star to the point where I’d go see a tour with him as the main dude. It wouldn’t be that much different than what we’re getting now if I’m being 100% honest.

The most recent Brian shows I've heard on YouTube do feature Al in slightly compromised voice. I think all of these guys, Mike and Al included, have the McCartney issue of having trouble sort of getting enough air going out to get longer lines out when singing. Surely some of that is age.

That being said, Al as recently as this year at his solo gigs, and certainly in the last few years, still has a far, far more intact voice than any of the other BBs, and pretty much any other contemporary that was singing in the 60s and is now hitting 80+ years old.

Whatever state their voice was in even 3-5 years ago, I think Al a bit and even more so Mike is hitting an additional wall in the last year or two, roughly in the "post-shutdown/reopening" era of 2021-ish.

For that matter, on top of whatever else is going on, I think this is happening for Brian as well, which is not helping his already challenged singing on stage.

They're all 80 or older now. It's to be expected of course to some degree.

[Awesoman]

I’ll be honest…Al’s voice hasn’t been sounding as good as even just a few years ago. It’s to be expected at these guys’s age . Matt’s been a real star to the point where I’d go see a tour with him as the main dude. It wouldn’t be that much different than what we’re getting now if I’m being 100% honest.

I could be mistaken but I think they've even taken "Help Me, Rhonda" to a lower key for this tour.  Age catches up with everyone, including Al.