{"id":14287,"date":"2012-07-03T18:45:54","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T22:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=14287"},"modified":"2012-07-07T10:48:31","modified_gmt":"2012-07-07T14:48:31","slug":"fun-fun-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/fun-fun-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun, Fun, Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8S9zMixdlvk?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p><strong>The Beach Boys, Columbia, MD, June 15, 2012.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I suspect I have been to\/go to far fewer concerts than most of my fellow RTHers.  And I\u2019d guess I\u2019ve seen far fewer acts as I tend to see the same folks over and over.<\/p>\n<p>Still and all, I\u2019ve seen some shows that I think would inspire envy: Springsteen from second row center at the Tower in December 1975; Dylan\u2019s 4-hour club show at Toad\u2019s Place in New Haven; Beefheart, Talking Heads, and Costello in the very early days; Sinatra a couple of times&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>But 2 weeks ago I saw what may have been the best concert in my life. which I suspect many of you won\u2019t believe; I can hardly believe it myself.  I\u2019m talking about the <strong>Beach Boys&#8217; 50th Reunion Tour<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>First, the back story.  (I\u2019ve told some of this before but can\u2019t find it to provide a link; maybe it was back in the RTH v1 days.) My kids are Beach Boys and Brian Wilson fans from back in the day when I could control the radio dial \/ cassette player \/ CD player in the car.  We listened to oldies and Brian and the gang naturally figured prominently.  So they\u2019ve known the classic BB songs since they were toddlers.<\/p>\n<p>In 1997, I took my daughters, then ages 9 and 6, to see the Beach Boys (of course without Brian but with Carl, who was only to live a few more months).  It was the first time I had seen them as well.  It was a fine concert that the girls absolutely loved.  They sang along, danced in the aisle and still talk about it 15 years later.<\/p>\n<p>In 1998, when Brian was promoting <em>Imagination<\/em>, he did a signing\u00a0session at Borders in downtown Chicago.  I took my daughters and my then-18-month-old son to meet Brian.<\/p>\n<p>My daughters had been listening to and loving the <em>Imagination<\/em> album and\u00a0were excited to meet Brian.  We drove 2 hours into Chicago (we lived 35\u00a0miles northwest of the city but 2 hours wasn&#8217;t unusual for that trip),\u00a0then waited 45 minutes in line.  My daughters, in anticipation of\u00a0meeting Brian, had drawn a poster for him.  It contained little pictures\u00a0depicting each song from the album.  When it was our turn, they presented their\u00a0original poster to Brian, while I explained what it was.  Brian, sadly,\u00a0didn&#8217;t acknowledge the poster or my daughters or son or me at all.  He\u00a0kept his head down, scrawled his name on the copy I had had made, and\u00a0that was it.  On the way home, my 7 year old, bless her heart, said that\u00a0the whole thing was kind of disappointing but still she was glad that we\u00a0went and she had the chance to &#8220;meet&#8221; Brian.  (To add insult to injury, 6 years later his <em>Getting in Over My Head<\/em> album had a cover with little pictures depicting each song.  I\u2019m not saying he stole Kate &amp; Rebecca\u2019s idea, I\u2019m just saying\u2026)<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14293\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14293\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14293\" title=\"beachboysplay\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/beachboysplay-300x206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"206\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/beachboysplay-300x206.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/beachboysplay.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-14293\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&quot;You scratch my back, I&#39;ll scratch Brian&#39;s.&quot;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>That 7 year old is now 21 and spent the last school year at St. Andrew\u2019s in Scotland.  When she read about the reunion tour she sent off an e-mail to the family saying we had to go.  Kate joined in on the request as did Matthew.  He had no memories of the Chicago signing but he\u2019d heard his sisters talk about that and the concert enough to be jealous so now he wanted his chance as well.<\/p>\n<p>Kate now lives in Baltimore and, as it happened, the reunion tour was playing 20 minutes from her in Columbia, MD on June 15, the Friday of Father\u2019s Day weekend.<\/p>\n<p>It took a lot of internal monologue for me to convince myself that we should do this.  $270 for 5 lawn tickets seemed like an awful lot for what I was sure was going to be a train wreck (and no way was I going to go 7 large for covered seats).  But I decided what the heck, at least it would be a fun family outing and another memory for the kids.<\/p>\n<p>In the lead-up I watched the Boys on Kimmel and Leno and watched a few YouTube videos of the early reunion shows.  They were horrible.  Brian was his usual deer-in-the-headlights mannequin in front of prop keyboards.  Mike Love had no voice left.  Vocals were clearly being doubled and tripled.  And there were so many missed notes.<\/p>\n<p>Well, June 15 came and it was certainly a perfect night for an outdoor concert.  Comfortable temperatures, no bugs, lawn seats that were close to the end of the covered seats and right in front of a large video screen.<\/p>\n<p>And you know what?  From the moment they hit the stage to \u201cDo It Again\u201d it was close to perfect.  Mike Love\u2019s vocals were strong and there were precious few smarmy comments.  David Marks played some nice restrained surf guitar licks.  The backing band (a combination of the Mike &amp; Bruce touring band and Brian\u2019s Jeff Foskett\/Wondermints band) was fantastic.  Close to 50 songs spread over about 3 hours.  All the hits and a few rarities, and the only real head scratcher was &#8220;Ballad of Old Betsy&#8221; (look it up).  Nice video tributes to Dennis and Carl (each \u201ctaking\u201d a lead vocal via video with live backing; no holograms).<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VZqYoziHzvc?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>And even Brian came through.  Yeah, for most of the show he was a mannequin.  And he missed a lot of notes.  But there were two moments that were transcendent.  \u201cI Just Wasn\u2019t Made for These Times\u201d was unbelievable.  I know there are those who think back story isn\u2019t supposed to matter but knowing what Brian has been through and hearing him sing his soul out in a battered voice was so so good.  And if anybody else said this I would totally dismiss it, but those missed notes on this song fit in just perfectly.  And then he led the band for \u201cHeroes &amp; Villains,\u201d singing the lead, directing everyone else, vocals and instruments, gesturing, and totally there.  And I thought \u201cThis is what it would have been like if I could have been in the studio when he was recording <em>Smile<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, was it really the best concert I ever saw?  Well, on an absolute basis I can\u2019t say it surpasses many other shows I\u2019ve seen but on an absolute basis it was a fantastic concert.  And compared to my expectations it surely had the largest gap between what I was prepared for and what was delivered and so in that respect it was the best. It was so good I sure wish I had spent the $700 for seats close to the stage!<\/p>\n<p>And the better half and the kids just absolutely and totally loved it, from the opening note to the last; only if Uncle Jesse &#8211; <strong>John Stamos<\/strong> &#8211; had been there would it have been better for them.  And so as a dad &#8211; on Father\u2019s Day weekend no less &#8211; it was great for me to share music that I love with the family and create memories that will, I\u2019m sure, be enjoyed and discussed long after I\u2019m gone.<\/p>\n<p>So, have any other RTHers seen this reunion?  What did you think?  (Back in the RTH v1 days there was someone &#8211; Christian? [<em>Mod. &#8211; Yes, a close, personal friend of HVB.<\/em>] &#8211; who was a big Beach Boys fan. If he\u2019s on v2 he\u2019s a lurker, but I\u2019d love to get his comments).<\/p>\n<p>And what concerts have you seen that were vastly better than your expectations?  Or I suppose, what concerts were vastly worse?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Beach Boys, Columbia, MD, June 15, 2012. I suspect I have been to\/go to far fewer concerts than most of my fellow RTHers. And I\u2019d guess I\u2019ve seen far fewer acts as I tend to see the same folks over and over. Still and all, I\u2019ve seen some shows that I think would inspire <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/fun-fun-fun\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[120,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}