The Beach Boys - Wild Honey Tour 2017

When did Murry join Mike's band?

 

It's not a Mike Love show, it's a Beach Boys show. Let's not go down this old Mike vs Brian path again - it's the same format as a Beach Boys show for the past 50 years; Mike is the lead singer and sings most of the songs that he helped to create, and Bruce plus some extremely talented players (who have been with the band for years, decades even in Jeff Foskett's case) take the occasional lead and provide flawless harmonies and talented sympathetic backing.

Let's face facts; Mike has done more Beach Boys shows than anyone else. He is and always has been the face of the band when it comes to live performance, and he's a fantastic front man and singer. The live band is comprised of all the people who want to go on the road long enough to be dedicated to performing The Beach Boys' music as exhaustively as they do, with the full permission to do so from the surviving members of the band. They're not pretending to be the original band, and fully acknowledge Carl, Dennis, Al and Brian both in person and on the accompanying videos (Al particularly gets a whole load of face time in the clips). Hell, even Carl and Dennis get lead vocal tributes. What more could anyone realistically want?

 

At this point, I'd give the nod to the "Beach Boys" to the Brian Wilson show. Sure, everyone should see Brian once. But he's often barely there.

The "Beach Boys" these days is a professional well oiled machine that presents a very solid, professional, show with full participation by those on stage. And as demonstrated by that set list, they're still trying to mix it up at least a little bit.

 

I saw them all in Barcelona in the 2012 tour. That's the best "Beach Boys" you can realistically expect. I can tolerate Mike's ego in small doses during a show, don't need to see him unleashed.

 

Having seen the Mike-fronted BB band six months ago, I couldn't agree more. I was skeptical, and was expecting more of a Mike-doing-the-surf-and-car-oldies cabaret act. And, sure they did all those songs, but they also did a number of non-hits, as a well as no less than seven tunes from Pet Sounds. Mike and Bruce's voices aren't what they used to be, but with the Beach Boys, stellar harmonies trump everything else and the current line-up delivers them perfectly. And Jeff and the other newer members all sound great on their solo vocal turns.

The only other time I saw the Beach Boys was in 1993 and, aside from my being in complete awe of being in the presence of Carl Wilson on that occasion, overall I found the 2016 band more satisfying and very faithful to the original records. Also, Cowsill looks very cool behind the drumkit.

I would just say, whatever your feelings about Mike, don't be too hasty to write off the current touring line-up. You could be missing out on a great time.

 

I take back everything bad I've said about Mike Love, he's really a pretty talented guy.

 

Same for me here. As good as they may sound, these guys are not the Beach Boys and they should not pretend to be. If they'd at least call themselves "Mike Love and Bruce Johnston's Beach Boys" I'd have a bit more sympathy for them.

 

I was there too (front row!), and it was great. But last night was comparable in terms of quality - and Mike wasn't any more or less self-absorbed than that show.

Anyway, let's not get bogged down. See this tour if you like, I'd recommend it..

 

Same here. I saw Brian twice -London Smile and the reunion tour I go in July on the PS tour. I saw the Mike Love whatever you call it band three times included reunion.

All I can say they are both very enjoyable. Mike is a front man and seems to love it. The reunion was perfect. I would love this to go on. But that is a fact ; now you have to choose.

The Beach Boys touring band is like a hit washing machine and it's very pleasant (they have some deep tracks to please the hardcore fan too).

 

The name of the venue escapes me but it was in the middle balcony of an old theatre converted into a concert venue in Charlotte, NC in September 2016.

 

Wow. You got lucky!

Generally speaking Mike and Bruce's shows are cheaper than Brian's shows. That depends on the kind of venue though obviously.

 

Sure and I can understand and respect those opinions.

In real terms though, the actual shows would probably be much worse if they had to use either of those names. Crummier venues, a smaller backup band to cut down on costs, less interesting set lists due to having to share the bill with other acts etc. Mike's band certainly the true Beach Boys, but they are the best that we are going to get at this point.

 

Their Hearts were Full of Spring:

 

When I saw Brian this past September, he sat behind the piano but it didn't look like he played it very often. He walked off stage a few times (when Al, Matt, or Blondie took a lead vocal) and someone led him off the stage when he got near the backstage area. He was in pretty good voice for many of the songs (although like most other male singers after a certain age, he can no longer sing falsetto, but Matt Jardine handled the high notes wonderfully), but he struggled vocally a bit with the Pet Sounds material. It was a great show with a great band and sometimes Brian was right on it, but other times he did seem to be drifting a bit.

 

Both Mike Loves are talented.

 

I'd pay 5o bucks to see Brian do a 3 songs set of "Let Us Go On This Way", "Roller Skating Child", and "Ding Dang". And an encore of "I'll Bet He's Nice".

 

I'm not a "hater", but Wild Honey seems like a very odd tour choice. I can't recall Mike or Bruce having any lead vocals on that album - mostly Brian and Carl, right? (if wrong, apologies in advance from someone who hasn't listened to it in a couple of decades). Isn't that like Ringo doing a "Let it Be" Tour?

 

Is this tour seriously called The Wild Honey Tour?

 

Yes, it's the name of the tour. No, they are not performing the album.

 

Shame - that is a real missed opportunity to do something totally unexpected. The whole album is only 24 minutes long! They could have included it in full and still banged out 120 minutes of the usual tracks.

 

Yeah, Mike sang some leads on the album including Aren't you Glad which they have added to the set list.

 

And now there are three!

 

Oh OK , haven't heard it in a while, but remember Carl on the choruses, so must be Mike on the verses sounding like Carl.

 

More significantly, Wild Honey is the only Beach Boys album from the 'classic' years which is almost entirely made up of songs written by Brian and Mike, bar two - one cover and the only Al/Bruce/Mike/Carl cowrite in the band's entire catalogue.

Less charitably, you could say it was chosen because it's an album where Mike has more composition credits than Brian. But I doubt that's the case.

 

Last night's setlist was identical, save for the lead vocal on 'Warmth Of The Sun' which featured Ambha Love (Mike's daughter).