Beach Boys concert brings good vibrations to Montreal; exceeded expectations

 MONTREAL – Now comes the part where the smug commentators in the media have to eat their words, as the Beach Boys might say, with a fork and spoon.

If snide remarks about the age of the members of a veteran band were ever proved to be clueless, it was Wednesday night at the Bell Centre, where the group exceeded expectations tenfold.

Take it from me. I saw the Beach Boys a few times in the 1970s, when they were in their thirties, and I never saw them, in those days, deliver a concert with as much intensity, accuracy and stamina as they did on this stop of their 50th-anniversary reunion tour – soft ticket sales of 6,700 notwithstanding.

Brian Wilson turned 70 on Wednesday – the stage was festooned with balloons and the audience was led in a Happy Birthday singalong to him – and Mike Love is 71. Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston are almost 70 and David Marks – the youngster – is only 64.

They had good-natured fun with it: as lead singer Mike Love stretched out the opening word “When” in Be True to Your School, he feigned exhaustion and was helped up by his bandmates, to the sound of creaking noises.

A decent joke, but don’t believe a bit of it: the Boys came close to performing a song for every year of the half-century they are celebrating, with no perceptible loss of energy over a generous two-and-a-half hour concert – not including intermission.

Most undiminished by time are the incomparable mountains of harmonies, still so crisp and precise that the group accentuated a cappella sections every chance they had. The magic blend might have reached its emotional peak in Bruce Johnston’s beautiful Disney Girls (1957), although an ecstatic shiver also went through the crowd when the voices stood alone in Sloop John B.

The set list was inspired, reaching a compromise between Love’s hit-heavy, crowd-pleasing agenda and the deep-catalogue gems aimed at serious students of America’s finest band. So while it would be impossible to think of a hit that wasn’t attacked with gusto, Beach Boys geeks were also rewarded with the likes of Don’t Back Down, Marcella, It’s OK, California Saga/ California, Please Let Me Wonder and the sublime rediscovery All This Is That, among others.

All the albums in the group’s formidable catalogue were represented, except for Friends, The Beach Boys Love You, MIU Album, L.A. (Light Album) and Summer In Paradise. And pleasingly, there was rarely enough space between songs to slide a sheet of paper.

Among the most moving moments were the turning over of lead vocals, via film and recordings, to the two deceased Wilson brothers, Dennis and Carl, who were each accompanied by brother Brian and the band on their showcases, Forever and God Only Knows respectively.

The two were frozen in time, their lives cut short well before they ever got to rock out at 70.

Sure, Wilson’s stage demeanour remains detached and often puzzling. And granted, the five principals were heavily augmented by nine powerhouse musicians from both Love’s and Wilson’s touring bands, including Wilson’s longtime aides de camp Jeffrey Foskett, who handled some of the falsetto work, notably on Don’t Worry Baby and wiz kid Darian Sahanaja, who smoothly glided to the heights in his lead vocal on Darlin’.

But expert assistance aside, the picture that lingers is Wilson at the piano, with his cousin Love and their three lifelong friends standing around the instrument, singing Add Some Music To Your Day.

They did that for us, with a stunning show we had no reason or right to expect.

Set list:

1. Do It Again

2. Little Honda

3. Catch a Wave

4. Hawaii

5. Don’t Back Down

6. Surfin’ Safari

7. Surfer Girl

8. Wendy

9. Marcella

10. Then I Kissed Her

11. Kiss Me, Baby

12. Getcha Back

13. Why Do Fools Fall In Love

14. When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)

15. Darlin’

16. Disney Girls (1957)

17. Please Let Me Wonder

18. Isn’t It Time

19. It’s OK

20. California Saga/ California

21. Cotton Fields

22. Be True to Your School

23. Don’t Worry Baby

24. Little Deuce Coupe

25. 409

26. Shut Down

27. I Get Around

Intermission

28. Add Some Music To Your Day

29. Heroes and Villains

30. Sloop John B

31. Wouldn’t It Be Nice

32. I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times

33. Sail On Sailor

34. All This Is That

35. That’s Why God Made the Radio

36. In My Room

37. Forever (tribute to Dennis Wilson)

38. God Only Knows (tribute to Carl Wilson)

39. Good Vibrations

40. California Girls

41. All Summer Long

42. Help Me Rhonda

43. Rock and Roll Music

44. Do You Wanna Dance?

45. Surfin’ U.S.A.

Encores:

46. Kokomo

47. Barbara Ann

48. Fun Fun Fun