Review: The Beach Boys

at The Hall at Live! Casino & Hotel Hanover, Maryland

November 10, 2023

By John Tilden

This was a new venue for me—I couldn’t pass up a chance to see The Beach Boys only twenty minutes from my house!  I hadn’t seen a “Mike & Bruce” show since the early 2000s but by rough count it was the twenty-first time I saw the official Beach Boys.

The Beach Boys have their stagecraft perfected, with a short opening film and appropriate big-screen graphics for every song, even including lyrics or at least choruses for quite a few songs.  You can get a sense of the history of the band and even as a long-time fan at times I was more attracted to the screens than the band.

Don’t misunderstand–I wasn’t disappointed by the band at all.  But–the venue’s sound mix left a lot to be desired. Vocals were muddy and sometimes buried. There was a point in “Sloop John B” where only partial vocals were heard; the mics were never crisp the entire show.

Despite what I saw as sound issues, Mike Love carried his share of vocals and is still the unquestionable front man. He seems happy these days to have the leads parceled out to share the load.  Bruce Johnston is a wonderful cheerleader to engage the crowd, leaving his keyboard to wave and clap and point and ducking back to his mic just in time when he knows his vocals are crucial to the blend of the band.  This Beach Boys iteration gave us thirty-four songs in a little over 90 minutes which is incredible for a touring band in their sixty-first year!

The highlight of this night’s performance was the band’s “new to me” drummer, Jon “Bolt” Bolton. With lead vocals (while drumming!) on “Darlin’”, “California Dreamin’”, and “Wild Honey” he showed the crowd that he had more to give than just a high-energy drum performance that echoed the spirit of Denny Wilson above on the video screens.  Bolt’s high energy came through from the first beat to the last cymbal crash and really seemed to amp up the entire band.

Brian Eichenberger ably sang many lead parts throughout the evening.  You can’t have The Beach Boys without someone doing the Brian Wilson parts and “Ike” did those and filled in for some Carl leads, too. Christian Love got the spotlight for “God Only Knows” and had other nice moments.  Keith & John filled out the vocal mix well and their instruments. Tim Bonhomme filled in a lot of orchestration with his keyboard parts. Randy Leago moved to the front of the house for some sax solos, but his other instruments were a welcome part of the mix throughout the show.

There was a short surprise appearance by Thomas Dolby on the last two songs, as Dolby is now a Professor at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore not far from the casino venue.

Details:

The Beach Boys: Mike Love & Bruce Johnston. Supporting musicians: Brian “Ike” Eichenberger (vocals/guitar/bass), Christian Love (vocals/guitar), Jon Bolton (drums, vocals), Tim Bonhomme (keyboards), Randy Leago (saxophones/flutes/harmonicas/percussion), Keith Hubacher (bass/vocals), John Wedemeyer (guitar/vocals).

(Show began 8:07 pm and ended 9:49 pm without any break)

Setlist:

1. Do It Again
2. Surfin’ Safari
3. Catch a Wave
4. Rockaway Beach
5. Surfin’ U.S.A.
6. Surfer Girl
7. Don’t Worry Baby
8. Little Deuce Coupe
9. 409
10. Shut Down
11. Little Honda
12. I Get Around
13. Be True to Your School
14. In My Room
15. Getcha Back (Unleash the Love lyric version)
16. Wendy
17. When I Grow Up (to Be a Man)
18. Good to My Baby
19. Help Me, Rhonda
20. Darlin’
21. The Warmth of the Sun
22. God Only Knows
23. Sloop John B
24. Wouldn’t It Be Nice
25. Then I Kissed Her
26. California Dreamin’
27. California Girls
28. Do You Wanna Dance?
29. Rock and Roll Music
30. Wild Honey
31. Barbara Ann (Christian Love sang a snippet of some other song I couldn’t make out near the end)
32. Kokomo
33. Good Vibrations (Thomas Dolby played the theremin notes on Tim’s keyboard)
34. Fun, Fun, Fun (Thomas Dolby sang a bit at Bruce’s mic)