Because the Seashore Boys are one of many handful of greatest rock teams in historical past and that is their dwelling city, it’s no surprise they obtained a sequence of standing ovations over the weekend on the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Although the group performed the Whisky a couple of nights final fall, the Saturday night time live performance was in an actual sense a homecoming for the group that popularized Southern California women, browsing and different teen-oriented actions in the course of the Nineteen Sixties.
Together with report producer Phil Spector, the Seashore Boys had been crucial and everlasting pressure in rock music within the Nineteen Sixties earlier than the rise of the Beatles and the numerous different English teams. Brian Wilson, the Seashore Boys’ chief, captured teen themes and moods higher than anybody since Chuck Berry.
Although Brian watched all of it from the wings Saturday (he has not been an everyday member of the Seashore Boys’ live performance lineup for years now), the remainder of the Seashore Boys went by means of a few of their early hits (equivalent to “I Get Around” and “Good Vibrations”) and a few of their more moderen recordings for practically two hours, having fun with all of it apparently as a lot because the capability viewers.
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Since then, solely The Band, maybe, has come near the sleek use of concord in rock. Equally, the Seashore Boys have an instrumental self-discipline that enables them to combine the normal rock unit (drums, bass, guitar) with piano and a five-piece brass part completely. The main target within the Seashore Boys’ music is at all times crisp. The songs transfer ahead with financial system and route. There isn’t any flashy, self-defeating, self-indulgence within the music.
Whereas the early songs proceed to obtain the best viewers response (there have been viewers requests for “Surfin’ U.S.A.” all night time), the Seashore Boys have moved ahead steadily for the reason that mid-Nineteen Sixties when their “Pet Sounds” album grew to become a mini-classic. The group’s present “Sunflower” album was named one of many yr’s greatest by a number of rock reviewers.
However the group continues to have an id disaster. The issue is that a big share of the rock viewers continues to consider the Seashore Boys up to now tense. A lot of the post-”Pet Sounds” work has gone unheard. The group’s final top-10 report was in 1966.
In current months, the Seashore Boys (Dennis and Carl Wilson, Alan Jardine, Mike Love and Bruce Johnson) have begun an lively marketing campaign to improve its picture. They just lately toured Europe, have scheduled some key U.S. concert events (together with New York’s Carnegie Corridor on Wednesday) and plan some additional promotion of the “Sunflower” album. If the rock neighborhood (which frequently tends to pay extra consideration to new acts and developments than to established skills) will give them an opportunity, the Seashore Boys could make it to the highest as soon as once more.
It needs to be identified, nevertheless, the Seashore Boys had been responsible of some sloppiness Saturday. They need to keep on with enterprise between songs reasonably than decelerate the pacing by pointless chatter. And, there’s no motive they need to waste time permitting Bruce Johnson to sing Elton John’s “Your Song.” The group has an excessive amount of at stake now to not make each second on stage depend.
