Hammersmith (London) Mike & Bruce show, 4/4

[Andrew G. Doe]

Here's the setlist - read 'em and weep. :-)

surfin' sequence -
1. Do It Again
2. Don't Back Down
3. Catch A Wave
4. Hawaii
5. Surf City
6. Surfin' Safari
7. Surfin' USA (all performed without a break, full versions of the songs !)
8. Surfer Girl
9. You're So Good To Me
10. Good To My Baby
11. Good Timin'
12. Forever (David Marks - great lead)
13. Darlin'
14. Warmth Of The Sun
15. Wendy
16. Kiss Me Baby (k!ller acapella outro)
17.Let Him Run Wild (segued into...)
18. The Little Girl I Once Knew
19. Then I Kissed Her
20. I Can Hear Music
car sequence -
21. Ballad Of Old Betsy (!!!)
22. Dont Worry Baby
23. Little Deuce Coupe
24. 409
25. Shut Down
26. I Get Around

INTERVAL

27. California Girls
28. When I Grow Up
29. Why Do Fools Fall In Love
30. California Dreamin'
31. Sloop John B (complete with acapella break)
32. Sail On Sailor (Cowsill nearly had a siezure singing this)
33. You Still Believe In Me
34. Here Today
35. 'Til I Die
36. Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring (k!ller - possibly best vocals of the evening)
37. In My Room (a close second)
(the Maharishi mini set):
38. Everyone's In Love With You
39. All This Is That
40. Cool Head, Warm Heart
41. Disney Girls (Bruce was in the best vocal form I've heard for years)
42. God Only Knows (audience in fine voice too)
43. Kokomo
44. Cottonfields
45. Help Me Rhonda
46. Do You Wanna Dance
47. Barbara Ann
48. Wouldn't It Be Nice

ENCORE:
49. Good Vibrations
50. Fun Fun Fun

The band were outstanding. Started at 7.40, last note about 10.35 (with a 20 minute interval). Not just a jukebox, then...

[Rocker]

There are some clips on youtube.
I have to say that this is really a great setlist, one that almost could be compared to the setlists of Brian's earlier solotours (Live at the Roxy, etc). I am glad that the band's quality did improve with the changes in the line up and Christian Love has really a very good voice that gives some of the songs new life imo. Hope to hear a recording of one of these shows....

[wiggbuggie]

wow great setlist Is Mike and Bruce going to have a concert in the states in New Jersey perhaps? I saw a brian wilson concert I was thinking of seeing them if they are going to be nearby

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Too bad they didn't do a setlist like this more often when Carl was still alive.

Andrew, how were Mike's leads? Also, how was the musicianship in comparison to other shows from the past several years?

[Andrew G. Doe]

The musicianship was exemplary. Mike's leads were, well, variable. Oddly, he seemed less at ease with the slower numbers. Bruce was in excellent voice - "Disney Girls" was the best I've ever heard it. Mike's son Christian proved he can also sound like Alan & Brian (as well as Carl) when required. Joh Cowsill showed what a difference a good drummer can make. He played like Dennis - locked in a steady groove, no frills. I'm told Mike K. is a great guy, and I'm sure he is, but as a drummer, over the last few years he's been an embarrassment.

[Susan]

And David?

[SurfRiderHawaii]

VERY cool David sang "Forever"!!!!  This, I have to hear!!!!

[Alex]

Not a bad setlist for Mike and Bruce. At least they did All This Is That and Disney Girls. But they still did the car medley, which I can't fodaing stand. Maybe I'm just super picky and deluded from reality  , but I wouldn't consider it a top-notch setlist unless it had stuff like Funky Pretty, Cool Cool Water, You Still Believe In Me, Vegetables, Marcella, You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone, Sail On Sailor, Steamboat, Only With You, The California Saga, The Trader, A Day In The Life of a Tree, Surf's Up, Heroes and Villains, Wonderful, Friends, Wake the World, Long Promised Road, Feel Flows, etc., etc. Basically, I want them to have a setlist identical to what they would've done in the Jack Reiley period.

But at least All This Is That and Forever peeked into their setlist. Doesn't mean I'll go to see Mike and Bruce, though. Give me some Brian and/or Al.

[MBE]

Here's the setlist - read 'em and weep. :-)

surfin' sequence -
1. Do It Again
2. Don't Back Down
3. Catch A Wave
4. Hawaii
5. Surf City
6. Surfin' Safari
7. Surfin' USA (all performed without a break, full versions of the songs !)
8. Surfer Girl
9. You're So Good To Me
10. Good To My Baby
11. Good Timin'
12. Forever (David Marks - great lead)
13. Darlin'
14. Warmth Of The Sun
15. Wendy
16. Kiss Me Baby (k!ller acapella outro)
17.Let Him Run Wild (segued into...)
18. The Little Girl I Once Knew
19. Then I Kissed Her
20. I Can Hear Music
car sequence -
21. Ballad Of Old Betsy (!!!)
22. Dont Worry Baby
23. Little Deuce Coupe
24. 409
25. Shut Down
26. I Get Around

INTERVAL

27. California Girls
28. When I Grow Up
29. Why Do Fools Fall In Love
30. California Dreamin'
31. Sloop John B (complete with acapella break)
32. Sail On Sailor (Cowsill nearly had a siezure singing this)
33. You Still Believe In Me
34. Here Today
35. 'Til I Die
36. Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring (k!ller - possibly best vocals of the evening)
37. In My Room (a close second)
(the Maharishi mini set):
38. Everyone's In Love With You
39. All This Is That
40. Cool Head, Warm Heart
41. Disney Girls (Bruce was in the best vocal form I've heard for years)
42. God Only Knows (audience in fine voice too)
43. Kokomo
44. Cottonfields
45. Help Me Rhonda
46. Do You Wanna Dance
47. Barbara Ann
48. Wouldn't It Be Nice

ENCORE:
49. Good Vibrations
50. Fun Fun Fun

The band were outstanding. Started at 7.40, last note about 10.35 (with a 20 minute interval). Not just a jukebox, then...

Sounds a lot like the Orchestral show I saw last year. They do have a lot to offer when they don't just do a meat and potato's set. Christian is a great asset, and to me he sounds like a young Dennis. I think when I saw them Here Today was the highlight. Mike did a very good job singing it and the strings by the Chicagoland pops made it unreal. Is Brian better? Well on a tour that has a theme like Smile or LOS then yes, but when he does the hits set he is about the same.

[Aegir]

wow great setlist Is Mike and Bruce going to have a concert in the states in New Jersey perhaps? I saw a brian wilson concert I was thinking of seeing them if they are going to be nearby

They played in New Jersey a few weeks ago. The setlist wasn't NEARLY as good. Why do the Brits get all the good songs?

[punkinhead]

that sounds like a fantastic set....HERE TODAY?!?! dang...

[NHC]

But they still did the car medley, which I can't fodaing stand.

Good grief, why on earth wouldn't they do the car songs?  I can't imagine a BB concert without those hits.  But then again maybe I'm just a 58 year old dinosaur with a Mike Love haircut who remembers exactly how great the music was from the very beginning, and who grew up in the California "hot rod" era. Those and the surfing songs established their legacy and helped define our lives at the time. If I went to a show and endured Funky Pretty, Feel Flows,  Tree, Water, or Mess,  and heard no car or surf songs I would be very very disappointed.   I love Sail on Sailor, California Saga, Surf's Up, We Got Love, and a bunch of others from that era; just wouldn't be the same show without 409 or Shut Down. But, to each his own. Lucky for us, Mike and Bruce cover all our tastes.

[mikeyj]

But they still did the car medley, which I can't fodaing stand.

Good grief, why on earth wouldn't they do the car songs?  I can't imagine a BB concert without those hits.  But then again maybe I'm just a 58 year old dinosaur with a Mike Love haircut who remembers exactly how great the music was from the very beginning, and who grew up in the California "hot rod" era. Those and the surfing songs established their legacy and helped define our lives at the time. If I went to a show and endured Funky Pretty, Feel Flows,  Tree, Water, or Mess,  and heard no car or surf songs I would be very very disappointed.   I love Sail on Sailor, California Saga, Surf's Up, We Got Love, and a bunch of others from that era; just wouldn't be the same show without 409 or Shut Down. But, to each his own. Lucky for us, Mike and Bruce cover all our tastes.

I really have to agree with you there. Firstly, most people are there to just see the hits and nothing more and whether people like it or not those songs are what made them famous. And I love I Get Around, Shut Down, Little Deuce Coupe, Ballad Of Ole Betsy (a personal favourite) etc..  but of course (depending on how many shows you've been too or heard) it is going to get boring hearing the same damn medley 480 times (gee, imagine how many times Mike has performed songs like I Get Around etc..!! I wonder what it's like for him) but obviously Mike+Bruce as well as Brian etc.. HAVE to cater to all types (whether that's new fans, old fans, hardcore fans or whatever). And lets be realistic, even most 'real' fans of the band became fans from hearing songs like I Get Around, Fun Fun Fun etc.. (ie: the "hits") Personally I became a fan from hearing a few tracks off Sunflower but I'm guessing for most people it was because of the early hits.

[Rocker]

I must admit that I didn't care about the car-medley as long as Scott Totten was playing the leads. There was always soemthing missing, you know some gut. But with David Marks doing the solos, I think it should rock pretty good, the video on youtube seemed to clarify this. And fortunately their doing their own stuff and no "Little GTO" or "Little old lady...." no matter how good those songs are.

[mikeyj]

And fortunately their doing their own stuff and no "Little GTO" or "Little old lady...." no matter how good those songs are.

I never understood them doing Little GTO, Little Old Lady etc.. I mean, why? There is so much classic Beach Boys material (hits and otherwise) so why do songs that the band never even recorded (originals or covers)!!

[Alex]

I don't mind them doing car songs, its just that they've been doing them as the same cheesy medley since sometime in the 80s or 90s. Scatter the songs throughout the setlist or something.

[MBE]

What are the youtube links?

[Rocker]

What are the youtube links?

Try this: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=beach+boys+brighton&search_type=

[NHC]

I don't mind them doing car songs, its just that they've been doing them as the same cheesy medley since sometime in the 80s or 90s. Scatter the songs throughout the setlist or something.

Sure, that's a fair assessment.  I agree, I'd rather have them spread out through the set, as valid songs on their own, with as much energy as 1965.  The medley cheapens them. My point was that I want to hear the hits as well as the later material.

One of the first BB albums I bought was the 1964 concert when it hit the stores and was surprised to hear Little Old Lady, which was on my Jan and Dean album of the same name. I did get the connection, and liked their live version of it, but would liked to have heard a couple more of their own car hits. 

As an aside, Ballad of Ole Betsy is also one of my favorites as well, along with No Go Showboat and Car Crazy Cutie.  They're just fun songs, well done, no deep life-changing meanings to seek out, thank goodness, but a real connection to the times in which they were written.

[Shady]

How was the attendance??

[Andrew G. Doe]

Pretty close to full - a very few empty seats.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I don't mind them doing car songs, its just that they've been doing them as the same cheesy medley since sometime in the 80s or 90s. Scatter the songs throughout the setlist or something.

This wasn't a medley as per the late 80s, i.e. a verse of each song, the Reader's Digest kinda thing - they played all the songs in full, and the cumulative effect was impressive. As were the transitions. Possibly the best segue was "Let Him Run Wild" into "The Little Girl I Once Knew" - just awesome. Major props to Scott Totten.

[c-man]

I'd read that David played all of the first set and about half of the second...which songs did he sit out?

[STE]

Pretty close to full - a very few empty seats.

Actually I noticed empty seats in pretty much every row of the stalls, but it was probably mainly due to no-show ups.

David played the whole first set, and came back before Cottonfields, if I'm not mistaken.
Let me add that David was great, so much better than those 1999 shows.  He also spent some time with fans before and after the show.


And here's a small teaser for you all: Forever, lead by David  [http://www.mediafire.com/?x0bd0qdtg11]


Enjoy!

[John]

What time did they arrive at the venue?