Brian at the Paramount, Oakland 09/05/08

Great show, but sad that it was so very poorly attended. The balcony was blocked off entirely and balcony seat holders were directed to the orchestra level. I already knew they were selling orchestra seats at balcony prices via Ticketmaster starting last week, but all balcony ticket holders at the show were either directed to upgrade at the box office if they had bought balcony locations earlier, or were redirected by ushers. There was hardly anyone in the lobby upon entering the theater. Even worse, the orchestra level itself was only about half-full, even with all the balcony people brought down there. The theater was probably only about one-third sold in total (capacity of around 3,000). That's really bad, especially for the US debut of the TLOS tour. What's odd is that Brian nearly sold out the same theater in January of 2007 when Al Jardine toured with him. The balcony at that show was mostly full, as was the orchestra, and the lobby was teeming with people. Is it the economy (I rented a car from Hertz this week, and the clerk there said business is off 50% versus last year)? Lack of Al? Lack of interest in TLOS? Brian burn-out? Or a lack of promotion/publicity?

In spite of the empty seats, Brian was in great spirits and put on a great show. Maybe the intensity of the crowd turned him on, because it was a vocal crowd, sparse at it was. I don't write down setlists, but Brian and co. played the old classics for nearly an hour before intermission. Highlights included "All Summer Long" and "When I Grow Up To Be A Man." He did three in a row from PS (Sloop, WIBN, GOK). GOK got a standing ovation. When the band came back after around 15 minutes intermission, they started playing TLOS. It sounded just terrible, completely out of tune. The vocals were off, a guitarist was tuning up while playing like he couldn't figure out what was going on and thought maybe it was just him. In the mix, you could hear that the "tack piano" and "organ" sounded about a quarter tone flat. The show was stopped and it was announced there was a technical problem. It was the keyboard(s). After about five minutes of joking around, the problem was fixed, and they started from scratch. It sounded just fine once the keyboard was "tuned." The multimedia was a little odd, because it was there on some songs, not on others. I haven't received my copy of TLOS yet, so I haven't listened other than seeing clips, so wasn't sure what to expect. Slides of photos of the Wilson brothers got big reactions. "Midnight" was a highlight, and it almost made me tear up a little, it was very pretty and emotional, very well-done live. "Goin' Home" got a big standing ovation at the end. The TLOS set finished, then the band came back for the usual encores. "Love and Mercy" was another highlight, and another song that made me a little emotional. Brian really sang it well and put himself into it, nothing at all like the perfunctory sing/speak readings that I'd seen in clips from tours this year in Europe. The crowd gave another prolonged standing ovation as the band exited for the final time.

Oh, also: I really like Brian's current bass player. I don't usually notice bass players that much, but I noticed him (forgot his name already), and he did a great job. The rest of the band did their usual stellar job. They make going to Brian's shows such a pleasure. They really get the music.

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