Brian Wilson Live at The Beacon Theatre!!!!!!

[Ray G]

My wife and I went to see Brian Wilson in concert last night. This was an early Christmas gift from my wife and all I can say is this show was Awesome! This was the 40th Anniversary Pet Sounds concert at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. Brian was in the best shape I've heard and seen so far. In 2002 for the 1st Pet Sounds tour Brian was shakey in spots with his voice waverring a bit and some of the classic songs were played a whole tone lower than the original recordings. For the Carnegie Hall SMiLE show he was solid... last night though... man he was right on! He didn't sing the falsetto parts of days gone by but he did hit the lead vocal-high notes on God Only Knows, Caroline No, and Good Vibrations.

Brian also had an extremely special guest with him on stage, none other than, original Beach Boy Al Jardine. After the first handful of songs Al just walked on stage with his Fiesta Red Strat from the Beach Boy's middle period, the band kicked into "And Then I Kissed Her" and Brian exclaimed "original Beach Boy, Al Jardine"!!! The place erupted into an ovation AND believe me when I say that Al Jardine sings AS WELL now as he did in back in the Beach Boys early days, Al truly has a great voice. Also, although he was the designated rhythm guitarist in the Beach Boys Al can really play some lead guitar. He played the solos on Do It Again, Sail On Sailor, and he played the intro to Surfin USA.

This show was one giant highlight from beginning to end and I'm still too excited to acually give a blow by blow account but the two highlights that stand out... Al walking onstage to a huge standing ovation and then getting another after "And Then I Kissed Her" and the 10 minute standing ovation Brian got for God Only Knows.

And I'd be doing an injustice if I didn't tell you all how FANTASTIC Brian's band is. They have been with him now since his re-emergance to touring in 2000. They are all ace instrumentalists and everyone of them can sing like a Beach Boy. Guitarist Jeff Foskette sand Brain's falsetto parts and nailed em all.

Here's the set list, Brian of course sand the majority of lead vocals and the tunes that Al Jardine sang are marked. Anything in () marked Brian and Al means they swapped verses:

First set -

Surfer Girl
Hawaii
Add Some Music
Row Row Row Your Boat
Please Let Me Wonder
Drive In
Then I Kissed Her (Al coming on board)
Break Away (Brian and Al)
Dance Dance Dance
The Little Girl I Once Knew
Do It Again
In My Room
California Saga (Al)
Do You Wanna Dance?
When I Grow Up To Be A Man
I Get Around (Brian and Al)
California Girls
Sail On Sailor (Brian and Al)
Marcella (Al)
Good Vibrations (Brian. Al took the last verse)

Intermission

The Pet Sounds Album in its entirety:
1. Wouldn't It Be Nice (Brian and Al)
2. You Still Believe In Me (Brian and Al)
3. That's Not Me (Brian and Al)
4. Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
5. I'm Waiting For The Day
6. Let's Go Away For Awhile
7. Sloop John B (Brian and Al)
8. God Only Knows
9. I Know There's An Answer (Brian and Al)
10. Here Today
11. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times (Brian and Al)
12. Pet Sounds
13. Caroline No

First Encore -

Johnny B. Goode
Help Me Rhonda (Al)
Barbara Ann
Surfin' USA (Brian and Al)
Fun Fun Fun

Second Encore -

Love and Mercy

Some guitars:
Al - played what I think is the Fiesta Red Strat that he used from 1964/65 through the middle 1970's after the BB's got through the Fender Olympic White phase. The laquer definately faded or does what laquer does over time and the guitar at times appeared to be peach, pink, light red and so on depending on the lighting... You could absolutely tell though that the guitar was discolored.

Nick Walusko (Nicky Wonder)- A reissue Oly White Jazzmaster and a new-ish DanElectro Baritone.

Probyn Gregory - G&L ASAT Special and either a DanElectro or Jerry Jones 12 string.

Jeff Foskette - 2 different Epiphone Sheratons, and two Epi Rivera 12 strings (natural and red), a Seagull electric/acoustic, and a 4 string banjo.

Bob Lizget - A Lakeland 5 string bass. Natural with two pickups.

[Heather Anne Peel]

Glad to hear that Brian is still going strong!

[refin]

What a great sounding show! Glad you got to catch it.

[tomkatf]

...now THAT'S a set list! Glad to hear BW is doing well, sounds like an incredible night!

Best,
Tom

[Ray G]

Originally Posted by tomkatf

...now THAT'S a set list! Glad to hear BW is doing well, sounds like an incredible night!

Best,
Tom

You are absolutely right Tom, Brian really appears to be on top of his performing game and it was an INCREDIBLE night... the killer set list is a testement to Brian's song writing. Al Jardine was just an absolute positive presence too and it's obvious that he is a well seasoned entertainer, he did a great job

[Polk Salad]

I think we all respect Brian, I'm glad others can appreciate Al Jardine as well.

Regarding his Strat, he was playing is red one because his white '62 is in the hands of the custom shop being "copied" for a tribute CS version next year.

VERY cool!

[Ray G]

Polk Salad - You are correct, I read somewhere that Al lent his original Beach Boy's Strat to Fender. I'm not clear if Al will have his own model Strat though, that would be cool.
Al was the best entertainer on the stage, Brian is the genius songwriter and producer but you can rest assured that Al know's how to engage the crowd. The entire show was an extremely positive experience!!!
The only drawback was driving in and out of Manhattan...uggg!

[OutlawSteph1975]

Brian and Al! Holy cow! Ray, I'm glad someone who obviously appreciated this was there to see it! I'm a big Al Jardine fan too.

My favorite Brian Wilson show was about five years ago in a small club in Boston. I'm glad he's been able to keep touring.

[J-man]

Glad to hear his singing was up to scratch, he performed on the UK Music HOF last week, and I had to mute the sound after half way through his performance, his voice was awful, I think he may have had a sore throat or something...

[Ray G]

OutlawSteph - If you don't already have it, get Al Jardine's Family and Friends Live in Las Vegas. Al along with his sons (names?) and Brians daughters (Carnie and Wendy) do an excellent job and play some hits and a good number of the lesser known Beach Boy tunes. They are backed by Ed Carter, Billy Hinsche, Bobby Figeroa and some other vets of the Beach Boys touring crew.

[Polk Salad]

Ray,
Matt and Adam are his sons and you are 100% correct about Al's CD. He has a FANTASTIC band and it is well performed and produced.

All in all, it is great to see he and Brian together. This had been a long time coming.

[Ray G]

Originally Posted by Polk Salad

All in all, it is great to see he and Brian together. This had been a long time coming.

Absolutely!

[TeleOfMine]

Another fan here and it's nice to know Brian is OK these days especially considering that as little as ten years ago this would have all been wishfull thinking. I'm not surprised that Al Jardine played so well after all he sang Brian's lead vocals parts for years in concert and he also sang his falsetto parts for a while too.

[TeleOfMine]

BTW, he got a great review in the NY Post. Hope he plans on touring in the New Year>