Please sign my guestbook
Back To My Beach Boys Page
Back to Setlists Page
To My Home Page
E-mail Me
This page has been visited
This is more of a backstage review since they're are alot of concert reviews already posted.
First off my friend Mike Orth, who came with me all this way 4 hours away from Hanford and I went backstage, we ran into Phil Bardowell, as he just came off the tour bus, I said his name and he immediately stopped and we met him, i had to tell him that i loved his rendition of "i can hear music" as I heard it 3 days earlier in turlock, I told him that I swore I heard Carl's voice come out of him that night, I also asked about his solo album, he apologized about it taking so long to come out and told me i could order it from his website www.philipbardowell.com, he then posed for pictures with us, next we walked upstairs and went into one of the hospitality rooms, Joel Peskin came in and he was the next band member we met, he told us that he was back with the band part time. Soon after that Adrian Baker walked in, Joel introduced Adrian to everyone in the room at once, i asked if he was going to sing "sherry" tonight? he said that they have cut it out of the setlist for the time bein g, Phil also walked in and we got autographs from him since we had forgot when we got our picture taken minutes before. minutes later the door opened and to everyones surprise it was Bruce Johnston, I got up quick to shake his hand, and he told all of us that he had to go outside because he had 15 other guests outside. So then everyone in the room proceded to go outside, once we got outside we had our picture taken with bruce, then he autographed my ticket stub. A little later Phil started talking to us for a while, when he found out who I was he said he remembered my name from the posted messages from the california saga website, then we talked about carl, and what a great guy he was, and how much everyone misses him. my friend mike was talking how we saw KISS on this farwell tour their doing and phil also told us about how he used to tour with peter chris (I think) for about 3 years, we also taked about John Stamos as he and Phil are great friends as they were in a band together when they were kids. Phil was real down to earth, and left a real good impression on us. My friend and I then walked downstairs to see if anybody was down there, just around the corner was Mike Love who was running late, immediately I shook his hand and asked for a picture with him, he said sure and upstairs he even introduced me to his beautiful daughter Melinda. Melinda was a real sweetheart, She talked with me and my friend for a long time and introduced us to Mike Meros and Mike Kowalski, both are nice guys, she told us that her dad had a sudio built in his house and that after the touring slows down that he would like to do some new material, possibly with Brian! We heard the word showtime so we went downstairs and to our seats but not before snapping a picture of the group before they entered the stage, and meeting Melinda's husband Dave, he is also a nice guy. The show was of course another success roaming through all the hits as you can tell from the setlist already posted. The musical highlight of the night for me was Phil's rendition of "I can hear music" it's real soulful, it deserves to be on a beach boy album as a remake. also "come go with me" was sung at the end of the doo wop section by Chris Farmer. Mike also joked about the pet sounds album going platinum after a short 34 years! It was a high energy performance by a group who was exhausted after all this constant busy summer touring. It was also good to hear "surfin" as this was the first time i saw them sing this live! During the encore my friend and I caught upwith Melinda and Dave on our way to go backstage again, they gave us a copy of the setlist to have the band sign. After "fun fun fun" Bruce walked to the side that we were at, and signed it, i told him I loved his version of "god only knows" he said that it's a hard one to do (I think we all know why, it was Carl's trademark song) then like a flash the band was on the tour bus on the way to nevada to perform at hot august nights the next day, We got to do what few fans get to do and i'll never forget it.
I know that some people have problems with Mike and Bruce using the beach boys name, but after all these years you can't expect everything to be the same, don't miss the chance to see what's left of this great legacy! I know everyone misses Carl, Dennis, and Al, but what Mike and Bruce have done with this touring band is really excellent. everyone was satified and having a great time, Mike and Bruce still know how to pack in a sellout crowd.
Surfs Up and Good Vibrations
Jeff Webb