Review and photos by Alex Kluft
After 50 years, the songs of the Beach Boys remain timeless. Among their many honors and recognitions they are Rock & Roll Hall Fame inductees, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, and ranked at number 12 on Rolling Stones’ 2004 list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, the highest ranking for an American rock band.
The original lineup back in 1961 consisted of the three Wilson brothers (Brian, Carl, and Dennis), their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. Carl and Dennis have passed since leaving Brian, Mike, and Al as the only living founding members. While rumors persist that the three are planning a tour together, a present version of the Beach Boys still tour today with Mike Love and Bruce Johnston, who joined the band in 1965. Playing roughly 150 dates a year, they are often accompanied by part-time member John Stamos, who has been playing with them off and on for the over 25 years.
At Phieffer Hall, the Beach Boys played a solid 100-minute set of hits, which says a lot because they have a lot of them. The show started with an audio track of Surfin’, which played on through as the Beach Boys took the stage. The they started off with a medley of “Catch a Wave,” Hawaii,” “Little Honda,” “Do It Again,” “Surf City,” and “Surfin Safari,” before slowing it down with “Surfer Girl” and “Don’t Worry Baby.”
During the medley, Stamos played drums then switched to guitar and back-up vocals for a few songs. At 70, Mike Love still sounds great, and though the backing vocals will never sound the same without Brian, Al, Carl and Dennis, they still sound very close. Everyone took a turn on lead vocals. The funniest part of the show was the humor between Love and Stamos during “Be True to Your School.” Love told Stamos to do a nice little drum roll and he played a drum solo.
As a Full House fan I remember Uncle Jesse (John Stamos) being a musician on the show; he had a guitar collection and sang in a few episodes. In real life, Stamos is really a musician, a great drummer, guitarist and singer. On “Barbara Ann,” he brought up three members from the audience on stage to sing backup vocals.
From the setlist, you could tell they played every song anyone would ever want to hear and songs everyone knows the words to. Johnston still has a great voice whether it’s lead or backup vocals and plays keyboard. The rest of the present Beach Boys lineup consists of Christian Love (guitar/vocals), Randell Kirsch (bass/vocals), Tim Bonhomme (keyboards/vocals), John Cowsill of the Cowsills (percussion/vocals) and Scott Totten (guitar/vocals).
The main set ended “Surfin USA,” and a two-song encore of “Kokomo” and “Fun Fun Fun” ended the night. Pfeiffer Hall has some of the best acoustics and lighting I’ve ever seen and heard — a perfect fit for the Beach Boys’ unmistakable harmonies.
