{"id":237,"date":"2023-12-16T10:33:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T15:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/?p=237"},"modified":"2023-12-16T10:36:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T15:36:00","slug":"review-the-beach-boys-10-november-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/?p=237","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Beach Boys"},"content":{"rendered":"

at The Hall at Live! Casino & Hotel<\/em> Hanover, Maryland<\/p>\n

November 10, 2023<\/p>\n

By John Tilden<\/p>\n

\"Beach<\/p>\n

This was a new venue for me\u2014I couldn\u2019t pass up a chance to see The Beach Boys only twenty minutes from my house!\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t seen a \u201cMike & Bruce\u201d show since the early 2000s but by rough count it was the twenty-first time I saw the official Beach Boys.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t misunderstand–I wasn\u2019t disappointed by the band at all.\u00a0 But–the venue\u2019s sound mix left a lot to be desired. Vocals were muddy and sometimes buried. There was a point in \u201cSloop John B\u201d where only partial vocals were heard; the mics were never crisp the entire show.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n

The highlight of this night\u2019s performance was the band\u2019s \u201cnew to me\u201d drummer, Jon \u201cBolt\u201d Bolton. With lead vocals (while drumming!) on \u201cDarlin\u2019\u201d, \u201cCalifornia Dreamin\u2019\u201d, and \u201cWild Honey\u201d 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.\u00a0 Bolt\u2019s high energy came through from the first beat to the last cymbal crash and really seemed to amp up the entire band.<\/p>\n

Brian Eichenberger ably sang many lead parts throughout the evening.\u00a0 You can\u2019t have The Beach Boys without someone doing the Brian Wilson parts and \u201cIke\u201d did those and filled in for some Carl leads, too. Christian Love got the spotlight for \u201cGod Only Knows\u201d and had other nice moments.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Details:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Beach Boys: Mike Love & Bruce Johnston. Supporting musicians: Brian \u201cIke\u201d 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).<\/p>\n

(Show began 8:07 pm and ended 9:49 pm without any break)<\/p>\n

Setlist:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Do It Again<\/li>\n
  2. Surfin’ Safari<\/li>\n
  3. Catch a Wave<\/li>\n
  4. Rockaway Beach<\/li>\n
  5. Surfin’ U.S.A.<\/li>\n
  6. Surfer Girl<\/li>\n
  7. Don’t Worry Baby<\/li>\n
  8. Little Deuce Coupe<\/li>\n
  9. 409<\/li>\n
  10. Shut Down<\/li>\n
  11. Little Honda<\/li>\n
  12. I Get Around<\/li>\n
  13. Be True to Your School<\/li>\n
  14. In My Room<\/li>\n
  15. Getcha Back (Unleash the Love<\/em> lyric version)<\/li>\n
  16. Wendy<\/li>\n
  17. When I Grow Up (to Be a Man)<\/li>\n
  18. Good to My Baby<\/li>\n
  19. Help Me, Rhonda<\/li>\n
  20. Darlin\u2019<\/li>\n
  21. The Warmth of the Sun<\/li>\n
  22. God Only Knows<\/li>\n
  23. Sloop John B<\/li>\n
  24. Wouldn’t It Be Nice<\/li>\n
  25. Then I Kissed Her<\/li>\n
  26. California Dreamin’<\/li>\n
  27. California Girls<\/li>\n
  28. Do You Wanna Dance?<\/li>\n
  29. Rock and Roll Music<\/li>\n
  30. Wild Honey<\/li>\n
  31. Barbara Ann (Christian Love sang a snippet of some other song I couldn\u2019t make out near the end)<\/li>\n
  32. Kokomo<\/li>\n
  33. Good Vibrations (Thomas Dolby played the theremin notes on Tim\u2019s keyboard)<\/li>\n
  34. Fun, Fun, Fun (Thomas Dolby sang a bit at Bruce\u2019s mic)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    at The Hall at Live! Casino & Hotel Hanover, Maryland November 10, 2023 By John Tilden This was a new venue for me\u2014I couldn\u2019t pass up a chance to see The Beach Boys only twenty minutes from my house!\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t seen a \u201cMike & Bruce\u201d show since the early 2000s but by rough count … Continue reading “Review: The Beach Boys”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-take","tag-beach-boys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}