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c-man
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« on: June 14, 2009, 08:48:34 PM » |
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THE BEACH BOYS
Live at Heartland Events Center
Grand Island, Nebraska - June 5, 2009
A little over two months had elapsed since I last saw the band (at three consecutive performances with the top-notch Omaha Symphony Orchestra). Now they returned to Nebraska for a sold-out show in front of a wildly appreciative multi-generation audience at a mid-sized arena in the middle of the state.
My friend Rick Berger and I were invited to attend the band's soundcheck, which saw them mainly running through new transitions and segues, plus a few altered vocal arrangements that musical director/lead guitarist Scott Totten felt they needed to tighten up on. In response to our request, they also played the rarely-performed "Sail On Sailor" in its entirety, with a fine John Cowsill lead vocal (this was left out of the show because Scott felt it was still "too loose"). Mike Love, who normally does not attend soundchecks, was present at Scott's request; the band's normal front-of-house soundman was not with them, and although the guy filling in is a regular member of their touring entourage who has run sound for them before, this was his first time doing so since the band had changed last year, and Scott felt it vital for Mike to be there. Mike conferred with Scott several times and with Christian once or twice on the vocal arrangements, and was careful not to overuse his voice before the actual performance. Scott is a dedicated taskmaster who is keen on getting the band up to peak performing level; he was very diligent to the point of ensuring their enunciation was correct even on short one-syllable words such as "then" (i.e., "and then we'll be happy"). Christian Love and Tim Bonhomme both displayed some fine instrumental chops during a run-through of Joe Cocker's "Feelin' Alright".
At the two-hour show, the guys roared through a set of 43 and 1/2 songs in what was, top-to-bottom, an almost completely reorganized setlist (the band took the stage to the pre-recorded sound of their first single, "Surfin'"; toward the end of this, they took over and played the song out live, then segued seamlessly into their second single, "Surfin' Safari"). Mike and Bruce have both occasionally struggled with voice strain in recent years, and their singing at the three Omaha symphony shows in March varied from a tendency to fade out, up to to a very good level indeed. However my expectations for the Grand Island show were not great: the entire band had been sick with bad head colds over the previous two weeks. In fact, Mike and Bruce had both just recovered from laryngitis, and this was their first gig in ten days. Consequently, I was prepared to be very forgiving, but as it turns out, I had no need to be: Mike Love sounded the strongest and clearest in recent memory (really, it was the "classic" Mike Love voice, singing more than half the leads, including nine of the opening ten songs, and sounding fully energized throughout; the only flub I heard from him was the off-pitch first line in the closing song, "Fun, Fun, Fun", but he recovered quickly from that). I doubt Mike's improved vocal projection had anything to do with the change in sound guy: I really have to think that attending the soundcheck prior to the show must have had something to do with it, whether it be the chance to warm up his voice with the full band, or just the psychological benefits of being at the venue, acclimating himself onstage for a time prior to the arrival of the audience. For the first time ever that I'm aware of, Mike gave credit onstage to one of Brian's other lyrical collaborators, when he introduced "Ballad Of Ole Betsy", and mentioned that the fellow who wrote the lyrics, Roger Christian, is sadly no longer on the face of the earth. In his intro to "Cool Head, Warm Heart", Mike seemed especially gracious when mentioning that the Hallmark CD from three years ago contained new recordings from himself, his cousin Brian Wilson, and "Alan Jardine, one of the Beach Boys" (note: not "former" or "founding", but "one of").
After the show, Bruce told us that his voice cracked on "Disney Girls", but to be honest, I didn't notice it. Bruce's lead on "Summer Means Fun" sounded very clear and young, and he really was fine throughout. And, you have to give them credit for putting "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring" into the setlist at this kind of venue. Other rarely heard songs sounding especially good this night were "In My Room", "Good Timin'", and "Cool Head". "God Only Knows" will never be the same without Carl Wilson, and Bruce wisely chooses to present it as a tribute to him; in this context, it works fine.
As for the support guys: as I wrote in my review of the March shows, the recent change to the band's lineup has had a major impact on their ability to recreate live the sounds that Brian produced in the studio. By saying that, I mean no disrespect to Mike Kowalski, who is a superb drummer, but he is very much from a jazz-Latin background, and according to the other band members, preferred to play it the way he felt it, rather than sticking to the original recorded arrangements. This led, over the years, to performances that strayed further and further from the records (witness "Dance, Dance, Dance", the tempo of which had become something more akin to "Crawl, Crawl, Crawl"). John Cowsill brings a solid power-pop sensibility to the drums, and throws his whole being into not only playing the kit and singing, but also adding all the little extras (tambourine, temple blocks, tympani) that make the percussion arrangements on Beach Boys records so memorable. In his new role, he is like Dennis Wilson, Hal Blaine, and Frankie Capp rolled into one. The visual energy and excitement he projects while playing the drums is very much like that of Dennis in the mid-'60s, with his whole body moving like a locomotive through the entire performance. Scott Totten goes great lengths to achieve guitar sounds that duplicate what Carl and others played on the records...case in point is the intro to "Good To My Baby": on the album version, one guitar plays the opening riff once, then is doubled the second time by a second guitar. Because Christian Love is needed to play chords when the rhythm section kicks in, Scott's solution is to play the intro "dry" once, then step on an effects pedal to bring in a "doubled" sound the second time through. Scott and John have, in my opinion, brought "street cred" to the Beach Boys live band. They do for Mike & Bruce what the Wondermints do for Brian.
Sometime back, Bruce Johnston commented in an interview that Brian's shows were like Tiffany's, whereas his & Mike's shows were like Wal Mart. With the recent changes to The Beach Boys' band and the similarity in setlists between their shows and Brian's recent greatest hits tours, the playing field has definitely been evened. In my opinion, the legitimacy of the lead singer on at least half of their classic hits (Mike), along with another longtime band member (Bruce) continuing to take the band on the road after one of the other founding-and-touring members died and another dropped out, can in no objective way be considered less than that of the main composer (Brian) taking his own band out with basically the same material (special projects like "SMiLE" and "That Lucky Old Sun", both of which were brilliant, aside). Some hardcore fans will no doubt continue to reject the post-1998 Beach Boys due to the absence of Carl and Al. Sadly, Carl is gone and there's no getting around it. While Al's vocals would definitely be a welcome addition to this lineup, hardcore fans need to realize that Mike and Bruce care passionately about the quality of the shows they perform; they are out there representing The Beach Boys to the world, and while Brian's and Al's shows are definitely legitimate and worth seeing, they tour on a much smaller scale, whereas Mike and Bruce are bringing the music to a wider audience on a more regular basis. As Dennis Wilson once said, "The Beach Boys are not a superstar group. The music is the superstar of the group". As time goes on, I think it's important we all remember that.
Setlist
opening: SURFIN' (original recording) into
SURFIN' SAFARI
CATCH A WAVE
IT'S O.K.
HAWAII
DON'T BACK DOWN
LITTLE HONDA
DO IT AGAIN
SURF CITY
SUMMER MEANS FUN
SURFIN' U.S.A.
SURFER GIRL
GOOD TO MY BABY
DON'T WORRY BABY
CHERRY CHERRY COUPE
LITTLE DEUCE COUPE
409
THE LITTLE OLD LADY FROM PASADENA
SHUT DOWN
I GET AROUND
BALLAD OF OLE BETSY
WENDY
GETCHA BACK
DARLIN'
BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL
THEIR HEARTS WERE FULL OF SPRING
DISNEY GIRLS
IN MY ROOM
GOOD TIMIN'
COOL HEAD, WARM HEART
GOD ONLY KNOWS
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'
SLOOP JOHN B.
WHEN I GROW UP (TO BE A MAN)
WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE
THEN I KISSED HER
WOULDN'T IT BE NICE
CALIFORNIA GIRLS
KOKOMO
HELP ME, RHONDA
GOOD VIBRATIONS
Encore
BARBARA ANN
SUMMERTIME BLUES
FUN, FUN, FUN
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