The Beach Boys at AMT February 15, 2007

Young and old and everything in between came together to kick off their sandals, feel the sand between their toes and listen to the surf as Southern California’s favorite sons, the Beach Boys performed for 2 nights at the American Music Theater in Lancaster. Due to the inclement weather, the Valentine’s Day show was canceled. For those who braved the cold weather the next evening were treated to the warmth of the sun and a bit of nostalgia of sand, surf, cars, and of course, girls. You cannot have beach boys without those California girls. The current touring lineup of the Beach Boys shows little resemblance to the original Beach Boys, which featured the Wilson brothers, Brian, Dennis, and Carl, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Bruce Johnston joined in 1965 and is still a member of the band. Brian Wilson and Al Jardine are currently performing on solo tours and working on other musical projects. Carl and Dennis Wilson have since passed away. For those fans who want to see the original Beach Boys, sorry to say that will not happen. At this moment in time there is little hope of an onstage reunion between Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Brian Wilson. Love is the only original Beach Boy in the current line up. What fans will receive with today’s Beach Boys are some of their hits plus an extended oldies act which features many of the backing band members on lead vocals instead of Love or Johnston. Fans who do not care about who is or is not touring with the band anymore will be treated to all of the songs they grew up listening to on the radio.
Mike Love’s onstage persona of a “young” California boy still exists to this day even though he is well into his mid 60’s... He waves his hands and arms with the flow of the imaginary surf during “California Girls” and “Surfer Girl”. He is at the top of his performance when it came to the Beach Boys’ car songs. Once those old hotrods have been hotwired one more time, Love and the band are off and burning rubber in 5th gear. Unfortunately it took almost half of their show to reach that point.
As expected they opened with their anthem, “California Girls” and moved directly into “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”. “When I Grow Up to Be a Man” was a surprising addition to their line up for this show. After playing 9 songs straight, Mike Love took the opportunity to introduce the band members, Mike Kowalski on the drums, John Cowsill, Bruce Johnston, and Tim Bonhamme all on the keyboards, Randall Kirsch and Scott Totten both on electric guitar, Chris Farmer on bass, and Christian Love, Mike’s son, on acoustic guitar.
A few highlights shown through an otherwise auto pilot performance. The highlights came when Christian Love sang lead on “Getcha Back”. His vocals were reminiscence of a young Carl Wilson as Carl would sing lead on “Long Promise Road”. The beautiful acapella version of “Their Hearts Were Full of Spring”. This song featured the vocal harmonization of Randall Kirsch, Scott Totten, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, and Chris Farmer. It was the first resemblance that night that the true Beach Boysesque harmonies to come alive. The most obvious highlight was the car songs. The band came alive and out of their autopilot mode to become hotwired themselves.
Christian and Mike Love tag teamed the vocals on “Good Vibrations”. To end their set list they pulled out their surfing songs, “Surfin’ Safari” and “Surfin’ USA”. As the guitar riffs began to ring out for “Surfin’ USA a giant American flag was unfurraled at the back of the stage. What is more American then a Beach Boys concert?
Though Mike Love has received a bad rap over the years and has been portrayed as the “villain” of the group, he keeps The Beach Boys out in front of the fans and continues to give then what they want to hear day in and day out almost 300 shows a year.
As for now the surf is not rising and the surf boards are losing wax so it is time for these Beach Boys to catch a wave to a new surfing spot, but don’t worry they will be catching a wave back here soon.