CLEAR LAKE, IA—All the Surf Ballroom lacked for a good beach party Sunday night was some sand on the floor for dancing. Story and photos by Dave Hansen.|Story and photos by Dave Hansen
CLEAR LAKE, IA—All the Surf Ballroom lacked for a good beach party Sunday night was some sand on the floor for dancing.
No one seemed to care about the oversight though as the man behind the classic sound of the Beach Boys provided the music.
Brian Wilson opened his show with California Girls and took his fans on a musical journey of rock’n roll hits that have become the summer soundtrack for countless fans and he also included some standards from another era.
A near capacity crowd was treated to a 10 piece group that included 2 percussionists, 3 guitarists and 3 keyboard players (counting Wilson) a bassist and a one-man horn section.
At times at least 7 of group’s members harmonized with Wilson who is now 69-years old and helped him recreate the classic Beach Boys sound that he had so painstakingly constructed in studio recordings during the 1960’s.
“Fantastic, sounded great,” said William Eddleston who brought his son and a neighbor couple down from Shoreview, Minnesota and met up with relatives from Des Moines for the show.
In My Room, When I Grow Up (To Be A Man), You’re So Good to Me, Do You Want to Dance, I Get Around and several other songs featuring sweet and familiar harmonies prompted many audience members to sing along.
“The man is a genius, he brought everything to the stage,” said Dave Theiss of Clear Lake.† “He’s still having fun at 70 years old and wow.”
Seated front and center on the stage behind a piano during most of the performance, Wilson looked somewhat uncomfortable and rarely smiled.
But he still has that distinctive falsetto and when he used hand gestures to punctuate certain parts of songs, audience members† responded and band members seemed impressed by their enthusiasm.
“The most fun part was that his passion for his music showed over and over and over,” said Theiss.
After playing for about an hour, Wilson and his group took a brief break and then opened the second half of the show with five songs that sounded familiar to many listeners, but they weren’t Beach Boys tunes.
Summertime and They Can’t Take That Away From Me are among the man tunes he performed which were originally penned by celebrated composer Ira Gershwin.
Wilson recently released an album reimagining Gershwin’s greatest hits in the Beach Boys style.
“I loved it, we thought maybe he was going to do a little bit more of it, but I liked it a lot that’s a really good album,” said Konni Hovey of Shoreview, Minnesota.
It was a surprise because earlier reports suggested Wilson planned to only perform Beach Boys material.
“I think being at the Surf he probably felt like he had to do a lot of the old tunes too,” said Hovey as she made a reference to many of the big bands and famous acts that have shared the Surf Ballroom’s stage over the years.
Wilson saved some of his best Beach Boys tunes for last.
He told fans The Little Girl I Once Knew was his favorite of the hundreds of songs he has produced.
His band performed memorable versions of Sloop John B, wouldn’t it be nice, Help Me, Rhonda,† and Good Vibrations.
Then as if fans weren’t already impressed with the voices Wilson had assembled to back him up, he introduced Heroes and Villains by saying, “now we’re going to show you how we can sing.”
Wilson also said this is “one of the best songs we’ve ever written” before launching into the lush, layered harmonies of God Only Knows.
Wilson even stepped away from the piano to play bass on Barbara Ann and Surfin’ USA.
The show ended with a rousing rendition of All Summer Long.
“This was beyond a concert, this was an experience,” said Theiss.
A fitting musical wrap-up to a beach party that for fans, had to end far too soon.
View photos:
|
