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Last night the "Beach Boys" played to around 20,000 people here in Salt Lake City. It was the same touring band as has been around with the exception that David Marks wasn't there. There was no mention of why. I am well aware of the constant bashing of this touring band, but as has always been the case whenever I have seen them in what ever form, I left the stadium with a smile on my face.
Before the show, I attended a reception where Bruce and Mike came in and talked for a few minutes. I was literally about 5 feet away at the first table. They were very gracious. There were a few references to their history of coming into Salt Lake City and the people they had interacted with. It is interesting that in the Nashville Sounds video Brian and Mike kinda spar about where they wrote Fun Fun Fun. Mike says SLC, Brian says Australia. Mike mentioned that during his few moment and there was even an explanation in the program from a DJ who introduced the BB at every show in Utah from the 60's to his death in 1996. Bill Westerman. He said that they wrote the song in his car driving to the airport from a show here in Salt Lake City. The story was about his daughter and how he had taken her T-Bird away. There was a picture in the program of this DJ with the Boys that is supposedly an lp cover that was released in England. It is the Boys standing in the sand in front of a woody with the old Saltaire as a backdrop. I haven't ever seen the cover before, so I don't know. So maybe Mike's right and it is Brian who was "senile" at least on that subject :-).
The opening act was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy who put on nice show.
When it was the BB time, Mike and Bruce and the band came out in some vintage cars and drove around the stadium. There were incredible cheers for them. The crowd was really into them and the whole stadium became and instant beach ball heaven as they were being tossed by all the ushers and others into the crowd. The paper reported today that the stomping of the feet during the show was causing the whole stadium to rock.
The show itself was pretty good. For those that had reported on the quality of the performance being better than they expected in earlier reports, I agree. The crowd was on their feet and dancing pretty much the whole show. The vocals were pretty tight and musically the band sounded great. There were the obvious holes where Al and Carl's voices usually filled the mix and of course, that was a sad remembrance. However, Adrian Baker with the exception of the opening strains of Good Vibrations where I thought he struggled a little did a good job. The songs were done more up tempo than I had heard them in a while. There was more "rock" in the performance and the guitar work a little more electric if ya know what I mean.
The set list was abbreviated given the venue:
California Girls
Do It Again
Little Deuce Coupe
409
Little Old Lady from Pasadena
Shut Down
I Get Around
Surfer Girl
Be True to Your School
Good Vibrations
Kokomo
Sloop John B
Wouldn't It Be Nice
Help Me Rhonda
Surfin Safari
Surfin USA
Barbara Ann
Fun Fun Fun
I know the crowd really enjoyed themselves. All I can say is I miss Carl, Dennis, and Brian and I wish Al was still with them, but people this is still a great show and as I said, I left with a smile on my face.
dave marshall
Contributed by: David Marshall