I was expecting to see Brian Wilson and maybe another original beach boy at the concert, along with a new band. Unfortunately, the only founding member of the Beach Boys that came to the concert was Mike Love. There was also an early member, Bruce Johnston. Who knows who the rest of the members of the 'New Beach Boys' were? They were probably in their 20s or 30s.

After the concert, I did some checking in to the group and found out that the Beach Boys actually split up in to three different bands. Two of those groups are still calling themselves the beach boys, and those two groups are in a legal battle for the name. The third group is Brian Wilson's band, and although I don't know the name of that band, it's not called the beach boys.

So, let's get to the concert review...

The Beach Boys used a recording of Wipe Out as their introduction song. They all came out on stage and waved to every one, before entering a three song medley.

From the start, the guitars were out of sync, and the singers voice was about too low to be audible. I couldn't tell you the first three songs, although I do remember them being some of their big hits.

After the three-song medley, the band got a little better. It was as if they had to use those first songs as a warm up. The singers voice got a little louder afterwards, but it was off and on. Of course, the backup singers, the 'kids', were singing a lot louder than Mike Love or Bruce Johnston.

Mike Love started joking with the crowd, saying the next song was about people in uniform. Then, he said it was about women in uniform... and then, he said it was really about cheerleaders, and that seemed to piss a few people off, maybe some veterans or patriots that didn't think that joking about men and women in the service was funny. This was very early on in the concert, and a few older people got up and walked out.

The songs they played were generally medleys of some of their more popular songs and then one or two obscure songs and occasionally songs that they didn't write, like California Dreamin'. A few of the songs were also sung by new members of the beach boys.

The first half of the concert really wasn't that great, although like I said, they mixed their top hits with some obscure stuff. The second half, they started singing some of the songs that were apparently more popular than the first half. I really didn't see the crowd get to dancing and standing and clapping a whole lot until they sung 409, and when they started singing wouldn't it be nice, it seemed like 80% or more of the people, even 70 and 80 year olds, started dancing to it.

In the second half of the concert, the Beach Boys really vindicated theirselves for whatever they didn't do correctly in the first half.

They did probably most, if not all of their greatest hits, and I'm guessing the reason why they did so many medleys is to fit all of the songs in the time slots they've been allocated. California Girls, Cocomo, fun fun fun, little deuce coupe, little old lady from pasidena, surfer girl, surfin' usa, barbara anne, help me rhonda, wouldn't it be nice, and many more. They probably done 40 or so songs.

The whole concert was 1 hour and 30 minutes long. At the end, before the last two songs of the set, they stopped to change instruments and such, but they waved goodbye to every one, and the whole crowd got up and was leaving. Then Mike Love said, about a minute later, "Folks, do you have time for just two more songs?" and he started playing Cocomo, and lastly, fun fun fun.

Probably less than 1% stayed behind to listen to those last two songs. Fortunately, the sound system was so loud that they could hear it all the way into the parking lot.

The concert ended at 4:30, and we waited until about 6:10 to let some of the traffic, both on foot and on the road, out.

Overall, this was a pretty good concert. The band was loud, sounded good, but Mike Love's voice cracked quite a bit so they had his mic turned down quite a bit, as well as the backup singers to compensate for that.

This is my second beach boys concert. I also went to one when I was a kid, when Carl Wilson was still alive, although I can't remember much about it.

Also, when I compare this concert to the only live beach boys album I've ever heard, this one pretty much blows it away. The lead guitarist, although probably only in his 30s, played what may have been a typical 60s guitar, where the guitar is so much louder than the rest of the band, with a hot spring reverb, etc. Studio recordings hardly ever sound the same as live..