{"id":696,"date":"2025-12-29T14:25:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T19:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/?p=696"},"modified":"2025-12-29T14:32:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T19:32:55","slug":"some-thoughts-on-al-jardine-and-the-pet-sounds-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/?p=696","title":{"rendered":"Some Thoughts on Al Jardine and The Pet Sounds Band"},"content":{"rendered":"

Live at Maryland Hall, Annapolis, MD September 13, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n

The older I get, the more I treasure experiences. This is apparently not an uncommon way to age.\u00a0 I think that Al Jardine must feel the same way. How else to explain someone that would take a ‘new\u2019 band out on the road at age eighty-three, except that he wanted to keep building new performance memories?<\/p>\n

I had the joyous experience of watching Al front the core of what had been Brian Wilson\u2019s backing band, with some newer players. Most band members are no stranger to Al, as he toured with Brian as a featured player for the last several years Wilson toured.\u00a0 I was lucky to get a front row center seat for the concert at a remodeled high school now used for a variety of performing arts performances and education.<\/p>\n

In what had been a model used by several of Wilson\u2019s tours, the first set of the performance was an overview of the \u2018greatest hits\u2019 of the Beach Boys with some deep cuts thrown in the mix.\u00a0 I was happy to realize that the band expanded their tour setlist with an energetic \u201cDance, Dance, Dance\u201d in this set.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m the kind of fan that likes to hear the \u2018deep cuts\u2019 even more than the hits. This show brought out three songs from the maligned \u201cM.I.U. Album\u201d of 1978. While \u201cCome Go With Me\u201d has been a staple for some time, it was wonderful to hear \u201cSweet Sunday Kinda Love\u201d and \u201cShe\u2019s Got Rhythm\u201d done live after all these years!<\/p>\n

After a brief intermission, in the second set the band played about three-quarters of the Beach Boys\u2019 Love You<\/em> album.\u00a0 Overlooked in its 1977 release, the album has gained \u2018street cred\u2019 as the most heavily-influenced by Brian Wilson in the band\u2019s later years.<\/p>\n

Why does a band need three people on keyboards? Well, when you are\"Darien playing the synth-heavy Love You<\/em> one needs Debbie Shair along to help replicate the sounds, besides all that she did for synth horns etc. on other songs.\u00a0 Debbie\u2019s energy all night was entertaining to watch, and she\u2019s been playing with Al for several years.<\/p>\n

The night ended with a quartet of songs that count among the Beach Boys\u2019 most well-known songs. As popular as it is, though, I really don\u2019t ever have to hear \u201cBarbara Ann\u201d again even as I acknowledge it\u2019s a fun one.<\/p>\n

One of the advantages of seeing a band up close is noticing the interactions. Matt Jardine had the sound crew adjusting his monitors throughout the night. Matt is the workhorse of the band, carrying most of the lead parts including the iconic falsetto originated by Brian.\u00a0 It\u2019s not easy to sing those parts but Matt\u2019s determination rewards the audience with something beautiful to hear.<\/p>\n

Darian Sahanaja handled several Carl Wilson leads; the biggest surprise of the night for me was how Gary Griffin sang the \u201clow Brian\u201d leads of Love You<\/em> with an accuracy coming from a place of love and respect.<\/p>\n

\"RobRob Bonfiglio handled his vocal parts well and shined on the guitar. It looked like he and Al had a good time playing together.\u00a0 Filling out the band were Bob Lizik on bass, Mike D\u2019Amico on drums, Jim Laspesa on percussion, Emeen Zarookian on guitar, and newcomer Brendan Carniaux on saxophone.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to talk about Al!\u00a0 His voice has held up very well. My observation is that older singers fall into a mode of \u201ctalk-singing\u201d and while Al did this at times, I saw him singing his parts just like Brian taught him all those years ago as well.\u00a0 Al has made some concessions to his age and status as front man. He\u2019s consistently using some kind of teleprompter, and even then had a few issues here and there with the rhythm of the vocals. A \u2018prompter for vocals is understandable, with most of the Love You<\/em> material not being performed in decades.\u00a0 Much as he did for Brian, Matt is by his father\u2019s side and ready to assume a steady lead to keep the show going.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get the impression that I am down on Al Jardine.\u00a0 Several times during the night he talked about, and to, Brian.\u00a0 With these performances he is showing his love and respect for the output of the band he helped found.\u00a0 I had a blast watching Al perform, and a personal highlight of the night was when he acknowledged my copy of his Sloop John B<\/em> children\u2019s book that I waved at the end of the song\u2019s performance.\u00a0 An Al Jardine show is highly recommended!<\/p>\n

John created a small playlist with video of songs and snippets shot during the concert <\/em>on YouTube<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Live at Maryland Hall, Annapolis, MD September 13, 2025 The older I get, the more I treasure experiences. This is apparently not an uncommon way to age.\u00a0 I think that Al Jardine must feel the same way. How else to explain someone that would take a ‘new\u2019 band out on the road at age eighty-three, … Continue reading “Some Thoughts on Al Jardine and The Pet Sounds Band”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[35,27],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-take","tag-60s-music","tag-the-beach-boys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696","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=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704,"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions\/704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntilden.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}