Brian Wilson: Renaissance in Minneapolis

The Brian Wilson concert on Saturday March 13 was just great.   He played with a 13 piece band and did music from his own albums and from the Beachboys.  As the show went on, it just got better and better and Brian was really into it.  

As a matter of fact, he began telling us in the audience what we should be doing next.   He sang really well and did the lead vocals for every song, including Good Vibrations, Don't Worry Baby,  Fun Fun Fun and Caroline No.    He did at least half of the music from the Pet Sounds album, including some instrumental pieces.    When they did an encore of All Summer Long, it felt like summer in Minneapolis, as the whole theater was rocking.    After two full sets and an encore of about 4 songs, Brian did the signature lead in for Barbara Ann and the band and audience were off to another rousing rendition of a Beachboy classic. Brian left toward the end of the next and final song, Fun Fun Fun, to thunderous applause, leaving the band to finish the music.      

There were at least 6-8 band members doing vocals and the blends were wonderful, and did great justice to getting the Beachboys sound.    Brian shared the musical leadership with on stage musical director Joe Thomas, who had co-produced Brian's last album Imagination. Thomas played keyboards and led the tight band much of the time, but from time to time Brian would turn around and direct the band himself, notably on the instrumental tunes Let's Go Away for a While and Pet Sounds.

Last night I was privileged to see that rarest of things in this world: to see a living legend of the rock world return to the live stage in absolute triumph! For years, there have been PR flacks and music writers who every few years or so have told us that "Brian is Back". Unfortunately for his many fans, the returns have been mixed, usually featuring some great Brian Wilson music, but it seems there have almost always been qualifiers. For example, the New York Times music critic Jon Pareles dismissed the album "Orange Crate Art" as being the music of a has-been and noted that Brian had not even been able to follow through with promised live appearance to sing Caroline No. However, last summer, Brian released a new album, Imagination, which had several excellent new compositions and a fine set of arrangements, and the drums started beating again that this time he was really back. Later in the summer, there was a Brian Wilson special on VH-1, where Brian was featured singing several old and new songs in front of a live audience. The audience was adulatory, but I could not help but notice that the backup band had ringers such as Bruce Johnston, Christopher Cross, and Timothy Schmidt of Eagles fame. I liked what I heard, but the special kept going away from the music and airing all these interviews in a way that quickly became irritating. A nice tribute, but not enough of Brian's music for me. A few months later, I was surfing on the web and decided to see if I could find out anything about Brian Wilson bootlegs, notably from the Smile period. I had just read Dominic Priore's outstanding and obsessive book about the Smile period, (Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile!) and was intrigued by the beauty of the songs from this period found on the Good Vibrations box set. I found listings of these items, but no sources, so I started probing around and ended up on the "Brian Wilson" web site. Here one could find a newsletter, which was in the process of being shut down, as well as some words of appreciation from Brian for the support of his many fans. Then I saw something that really caught my eye, the schedule for Brian's first tour as a solo artist. There was a Connecticut date scheduled, at the Mohegan Sun casino, but I was unable to find out anything more about the concert, which was still several months away. Then, I heard that the tour had been postponed and I forgot about it for a while.

In the middle of February, I took a business trip to Japan at the invitation of a technical group and was keynote speaker on one of my business specialties, fax over the Internet. The speaking appearance went well, even to the extent of having a very successful press conference in Japanese, but I was feeling tired and not well as I sat waiting for my plane in the Narita airport outside of Tokyo one night later. While waiting in the United Airlines lounge for my flight to Honolulu, I decided to sign on to the net. That evening, the noted film critic Gene Siskel had died, so I decided to see if I could read an article online to find out more about what had happened to him. From the MSN web site, there an "entertainment" link, so I clicked on it to see what I would find. The next thing I saw was a limited listing of Brian Wilson concert dates, all for March. I looked at the dates and saw a listing for Minnesota. I did some quick lookups in my calendar software and discovered that the concert was on the night that I would arrive in Minnesota for an Internet Engineering Task Force meeting. This was promising. However, there was no information available online about tickets, so I made a mental note to try to find out more when I got back home. Well, over the next few days, I got quite sick and had a really uncomfortable journey home, highlighted by a red-eye flight from San Fran to JFK in New York that left me a basket case. It was several days before I was starting to feel any better, at which point I decided to pick up the trail on the concert. This time, I was able to find online tickets available on the Ticketmaster web site for the Minneapolis concert date, but was disconcerted to find that the web links were broken. However, they had a phone number, so I called in. I told the agent that I wanted the best available ticket and she said there was one available in a side row, in fact in row 1. This sounded good, so I took it.

However, I was still astonished when I was escorted to my seat and found that I was actually sitting in the orchestra pit area and was one foot away from the stage when I stood. For a while, I was the only one there, but I was soon joined by two men and we struck up a chat. It turned out that one of them was a free lance photographer for the event and the other was a music fan who basically just tagged along. I talked with the latter fellow at length. He had just discovered some of Brian's more personal music, from the Pet Sounds and Smile sessions, recently. We compared notes about concerts we had seen. He is a big Yes fan and had seen them several times in recent years. We also talked about Rick Wakeman and I mentioned how I had seen him in Waterbury about 24 years ago during the Knights of the Round Table tour. He favorite Beachboy material was from Pet Sounds, so we both agreed that we hoped the band would play a lot of this music. At it turned out, our wishes would be granted.

As show time approached, the theater filled and it looked to be a sellout crowd. The theater itself was in the classic style of the twenties, with ornate ceiling patterns surrounding colorful murals that seemed of museum quality, at least from my vantage point.

Finally, the lights dimmed and a gray haired man, evidently the stage manager, came out to do the introduction right in front of me. He promised that we were in for a great experience based on the quality of the last 3 shows. He then said that we would see a film to bring us up to date on what Brian had been doing over the years. The film started out with scenes from Hawthorne, California, home town for the Wilson brothers. Brian talked about the Four Freshman and how their music had influenced him and his brothers. The crowd applauded as each of the Wilson brothers appeared on the screen. The premise of the film was clear, to show the clear connections between Brian and his old band, the Beachboys. There were clips from recent interviews with band members Mike Love, Brian , Carl, Al Jardine, and even short time Brian sub Glen Campbell. One particularly funny clip was when Brian was with Carl and Al, and insisted that one of them hold his nose. Brian then went on to do an uncanny imitation of the nasal sound of Mike Love singing Surfing USA. Many of the words were from Carl, who always was the one of the brothers who best seemed to be able to explain the many strange and different ways of older brother Brian. The sad notes in the film were when the deaths of Dennis in the eighties and Carl just last year were mentioned. However, the film went on to show scenes of Brian with his wife Melinda and his baby girl. He had the girl playing around with the mixer during a Beachboy tune. The clear theme here was of renewal. The film went on a bit long for my taste, but got us warmed up for Brian and his backup band to appear.

The tone for the show was set quickly. The first two songs were from the collection of lesser known gems from the Brian oeurve, and are examples of the music that the touring Beachboys never play anymore. The first tune, The Little Girl I Once Knew, made me catch my breath, as it featured a powerful arrangement with crisp background music and echoing drums ala Phil Spector. Brian was the last one on the stage. He stood almost motionless behind and electric piano, right in the middle of the stage. He wore a loose black collared shirt and in these early songs, sang without much visual expression. On this song, he sang lead, but was also helped by a doubling of the vocal by the lead guitar player standing a few steps away from him. The group also included a phalanx of harmony vocalists, who quickly proved that they were capable of achieving the patented Beachboy blend behind Brian's lead vocals. The next song, This Whole World is an upbeat melody with a catchy Aum-da-didit theme vocal from the Sunflower album, where Brian showed that he was in good voice for the evening, as he led with a strong vocal and showed that he could still hit some high notes when he wanted to. At this point, the audience was enthusiastic and supportive, as if we were collectively telling Brian how much we loved his music and appreciated having him and the band there to share it with us.

However, the first few songs had a somewhat tentative feel, as if Brian was still getting used to the idea of opening up to an audience. The next song was a fan favorite, Don't Worry Baby, as many in the audience jumped up to dance along and it was especially poignant to have Brian singing this particular lead vocal, again with some help from a doubled lead and the six backup vocalists. Bear in mind, that in Brian's music, the many voices weave in and out, with the leads shifting frequently. I particularly noticed a young vibes player with short dark hair, who seemed to effortlessly hit the extremely high notes that were Brian's original hallmark with the group. After Kiss Me Baby, another high lonesome surf anthem, Brian told us about his the experience he used to have with his brothers as they would sing in a bedroom of their suburban house together. This was the lead in to "In my room", as several musicians left the stage to produce a somewhat leaner ensemble for two quiet pieces. My sense was that Brian took one of the middle parts that Dennis or Carl used to sing and other male vocalists covered higher and lower notes. Then, Brian took the solo lead during the "dreaming, scheming" lyric, showing that he could sing leads that had been originally been sung by others in the band with uncanny accuracy. He then introduced Surfer Girl as the first song he ever wrote. The group sang with softly, with almost an a cappella feel, as some of the vocalists capped their ears to make sure that they were hitting the notes with notes and blending with the other vocalists.

At this point, the rest of the band returned to the stage and began to play the famous first notes of the overture to California Girls, as a two piece horn section laid on the top. At this point, Brian told the crowd to start rhythmic clapping, leading us with his hands above his head, and Joe Thomas followed with the background theme on his Hammond organ. Brian again sang lead, this time taking Mike Love's part and he punched out the mid-range vocals with authority. This music was happy and Brian was starting to be more animated on the stage. I was waiting for some kind of roar to come up when he sang about the Midwest Farmer's Daughters, but the crowd was too busy singing along and clapping to care about anything else. The pace faltered a bit on the next tune, Do it Again, as the band sounded good, but the song did not quite measure up to some of the other pieces. However, that was remedied immediately as the band them moved directly into "I Get Around" and Brian again sang the lead vocal with real power. On some of his recent albums, he did not seem to have the strength of some of his past vocal efforts, but on this night, there were times when his lead vocals punched through with the intensity of Frank Sinatra. Among the other brothers and singers in the band, Carl was the one who sounded the most like Brian, but most of Carl's most famous vocals, such as Good Vibrations or God Only Knows had a soft edge to them. By contrast, Brian showed he was capable of belting out high tenor notes in the G to A range that many tenors can reach only in falsetto.

By now, Brian exuded confidence. As the song ended, he clapped a little bit with the audience and then told us (really ordered us) to quiet down, because it was time to slow the pace down. He then conducted "Let's Go Away for a While" and the band reproduced the eerie beauty of this song. Continuing in the instrumental mode, Pet Sounds was magnificent. This band had a drummer and percussionist, and other band members also helped out on percussion. One of the percussionists doubled as a vibes player. This was one of several songs which had clear ties to the heritage of the producer Brian most admired, Phil Spector.  Pet Sounds on record is exquisite, but the live rendition had a big orchestral sound with its own virtues.   Thunderous at some moments, but then the dynamics would move to a spare, clear sound and then begin to build anew. Part of the legend of Brian was built based on his ability to lead a crew of studio musicians to create a unique sound,  and this song showed that he and Joe Thomas were able to make this happen even on stage.

Mind you, that we were still in the first set and had already heard a remarkably broad cross section of Brian's music. We heard a lot of the Beachboys sound, but this show was dramatically different from the last Beachboys concert I went to two summers ago. At that concert, the band was in transition, as Carl was sick and only sang on a few songs. However, much of the music suffered from two things. One, was that the group seemed to just "run through" certain songs and didn't seem to care if the quality of the vocal blend was not always up to snuff. In particular, I have found Mike Love's lead vocals to have deteriorated over the years, as the sound gets more tinny and the tone more weary. The other trend was the bows in the direction of a "Las Vegas" show mode, where the band would do things like a six song set of "automotive music" and one song just seemed to run into another. This kind of show had some high points, notably when Al Jardine's son Matthew sang some great high register leads with a style that borrowed from both Brian and Frankie Vallee, but I left feeling disappointed. The main reason for the disappointment was the that group had the feeling of an oldies band. For a group with a thirty plus year history and an incredibly diverse set of songs over many years, they were really limited in the range of material. The thing that was most notably missing was Brian, not just his personal presence, but it seemed to me as though his music from 1967 forward had just been edited out of the band's material. By contrast, when I saw the band in 1972 and 1973, they sang music from all of their periods, including songs from the never released Smile album such as Heroes and Villains, Surf's Up and Cool Water, interspersed with later songs like Darling, Trader and Sail On Sailor.

By contrast, this Brian Wilson concert was much more diverse. Sure, there were lots of tunes from the band's Greatest Hits, but each song was treated separately and Brian gave his own interpretations of the lead vocals. The insiders had always marveled about how Brian could do a demo for a song and then teach the Beachboys and the band all of the vocal and instrumental parts. In this show, we saw that in action, as Brian very capably did leads that had been sung on record by Mike Love, Carl and Al Jardine, as well as taking on his normal lead vocal duties. There was doubling of many lead vocals, but this is a tried and true method of getting a more solid vocal sound and Brian's singing was quite distinct even when he was being doubled. After all, many of the best Beachboy leads had been done when Carl and Brian doubled up in the studio.

The final song of the first set was from his latest album, South America. Here the band was solid and the audience tuned in, even though this was obviously an unfamiliar song for many who only knew Brian from his Beachboy classics. Here, the lyrics were particularly telling: "I've been around so long, I don't care what anyone says", and he seemed to be singing this song from the heart. The band then left the stage, with Brian promising us that they would be back soon.

Amazingly, I was in row 1, sitting in the orchestra pit, so I had one of the best views in the house.   Brian was looking fine, with his face seemingly much less lined that it was at some points in the past.    He was described during an introduction of the band before the second set as the "Big Kahuna" and he was all of that.    He really is a big guy, about 6 ft 4 and probably about 225.     

Between sets, I talked with my newfound friends in the front rows. The two women in back of me were covering the concert for a New York based alternative magazine. We were all amazed at just how good an experience this was proving to be.

And on to the Second Set

After about a twenty minute break, the band was introduced. The musicians consisted of the two percussionists, 2 guitarists, who doubled as vocalists, a bassist, two horn players, band leader Joe Thomas on keyboard and about four other vocalists who also played some instruments, three men and a woman. Four of the group were introduced as a group within the group (the Wondermints) and this quartet consisted of four of the strongest male vocalists cum jazz-rock musicians. These guys sang wonderfully together, thus providing a strong head start toward the superlative vocal blend that we were hearing.

After the energetic first set, I had a feeling that Brian would wrap it up with a short second set. Fortunately, I was wrong. The second set picked up right where the first set had left off, with a powerful version of Wouldn't It Be Nice. Brian got us to start clapping and then the bank kicked in with the famous intro guitar licks. Brian sang an energetic lead and was getting stronger by the minute in his vocals. The show was rapidly becoming "Pet Sounds Live" and Minneapolis loved it. Continuing in this vein, the next song was Sloop John B. The young man I talked with before was up and dancing ecstatically, since this was his favorite song. Brian sang the lead and left the high notes for some of the young guys in the band, but the blend continued to work. After this song, Brian talked with us about his love for Phil Spector. Four rows behind me, a man held up a sign for "This Could Be the Night" and indeed, it was. The song kicked in with the chararacteristic Spector "wall of sound" and the band was off again. Brian was now really energized and sang with great passion.

However, when the song ended to an ovation, Brian asked us to quiet down. He announced that this would be the sad part of the show and that the next song was dedicated to Carl Wilson. The announcement and the beginning of the song brought tears to my eyes, but Brian maintained his composure and led the band through "Lay Down Burden", from the Imagination album. The song itself is of high quality and the meaning behind it only added to its power. This was clearly the Carl Wilson part of the set, since the next song was "God Only Knows". Brian sang a strong lead vocal, showing again that his voice was well suited to sing the songs that Carl had once sung, although Brian sings the high notes with less strain. As usual, the song ended with a round, with Brian singing what appeared to be the Dennis Wilson part. Moving from soft high to power, the next song was the all time Brian opus Good Vibrations. Here, Brian sang the lead that Carl had made famous and the band produced a very full vocal tapestry over the instruments.

His next tune was the title track from the last album, Your Imagination, which Brian sang with verve. The set ended with two very familiar tunes, Help Me Ronda from the group and the Phil Spector classic Be My Baby. Brian and the group again had no trouble producing the archetypal "wall of sound" and this produced a high energy ending for the set.

Brian left the stage to huge applause, followed a little later by the band as they finished the tune, then followed Brian off the stage. At this point, the audience shouted for more and I figured that we might hear two more songs. After several minutes, Brian returned to the stage by himself and sat down in front of Joe Thomas's upright piano and began to play "Love and Mercy". I would have loved to hear the whole song, but Brian got through one verse and chorus, and then waved the band on. But rather than break into an upbeat rocker, Brian introduced the next song as being one of his favorites. He proceeded to sing "Caroline No". He has recently made comments that on the original album he sang "like a girl" on this song, but here, it was the mature Brian singing. The song seemed as heartfelt as ever and he punched through a solid vocal. His voice does not have the sweetness and purity that it once did (no surprise - there is noone who sounds quite like Brian did in the early days), but he does sing with power in his upper registers and his voice has an edge that reminds me of the later (mid-seventies and early nineteen-eighties) Frank Sinatra. I also noticed that at the end, he did sing the final "Oh, Caroline No….." line in the original way, rather than settle for a much lower note as he did on his studio album with Don Was from a few years back.

The next song was one of the highlights of the night, All Summer Long. This song is one of the nicely layered vocals that Brian put together in the period before Pet Sounds. On this night it was suddenly summer in Minneapolis as Brian picked out one of the mid-range vocal leads and the group filled out at least six other parts.

At this point, we were sure the show would be over, until Brian started the next song by himself with "Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba, Barbara Ann" and the band joined right in with the rest of the vocals. Here, Brian sang again with power as a "lead vocalist" and I again marveled that he had basically sung the lead vocals for every single song over two long sets and had sang the lead vocal part of every single one of the Beachboys in one or more songs. The only other one in the Beachboys who could have done that would have been Carl, and even Carl had trouble singing the really high parts. Lest one thought we finally had heard it all, there was more song to go.

In the absence of Mike Love, Brian took the lead once again for "Fun, Fun, Fun" and then picked out parts in the vocal choruses. The band had at least a couple of singers who could reach the highest parts better than Brian, so he let them fill in the top end and Brian contributed to the overall blend. As for the audience, we were all on our feet, dancing in the aisles and singing (hoarsely) along with the group. The energy in the room was unbelievable and we just poured out everything we had in tribute to the master, Brian Wilson, who together with his band had just brought Brian's music from all the eras to splendid life. As the choruses of "Away, away…." Resounded, Brian finally left the stage for the final time. The band pounded out a few more choruses and then Joe Thomas led the band in striking one final resounding chord.

As I write the end of this, it is a few months later, but I still remember just how energized I felt by the end of the show. Not wanting to let go of the experience, I looked at the available souvenirs and picked out a smart looking Brian Wilson tour hat, which had aqua letters on navy blue. As I walked out, the people around me were still buzzing with amazement at what we had just seen.

Personally, I had really no idea what to expect on this night. This is really the first time Brian has toured as a solo act featuring his music. He had played occasional gigs with the Beachboys in the seventies and eighties, but seemed to do very little in the film clips I saw. By contrast, at this concert, the focus was on Brian as composer, arranger and lead vocalist. We did not see much in the way of smiles from him, but his body language got more and more comfortable as the evening went on. As for his vocals, he was tentative to start, but seemed to get stronger as the night went on. As I recall, some of this best vocals of the night were right toward the end. So, in sum, it was a great concert, equaling the best I'd seen from the Beachboys (touring without Brian) twenty five years before.