Right: Mike Love indicates number of Beach Boys on stage

The Beach Boy(s): On Friday, I caught the Beach Boys show at Chastain. While it conjures images of sun, surf and cars, the name doesn't so much conjure as much as explicitly promises more than one Beach Boy. Nevertheless, Mike Love was the only original Beach Boy on the stage. Carl and Dennis Wilson are dead, and Brian Wilson and Al Jardine are touring on their own.

Despite the band's questionable pedigree and the evening showers, I had a great time, as did the mostly baby boomer crowd. The show was a mix of their (his) '60s hits sprinkled with some '50s doo-wop songs that inspired them (him). The Chastain audience's love for Love is understandable when you realize that half of the songs he's singing are about driving around in big cars, something with which Atlantans can certainly identify. Personally, my love of Love derives from the debt of gratitude I owe him for teaching me how, in the song "California Girls," to geographically differentiate women's dominant traits. For example, girls from the East Coast exhibit exceptional hipness while the speech patterns of Southern girls cause you to lose consciousness.