Last month, the Venetian Theatre hosted the iconic American rock act The Beach Boys, and, despite the presence of only two of the band’s original members on the current tour, the classic surf hits and sophisticated ballads were brought vividly to life, authentic and unfaded.
Though all five of the surviving 60s-era Beach Boys were reunited last year for their 50th Reunion Tour, performing in Hong Kong as a quintet as recently as last August, this year’s concert in Macau, featured the duo of Mike Love and Bruce Johnston, who have toured together under the Beach Boys name consistently over the past decade. The three absent members were erstwhile leader and chief songwriter Brian Wilson, along with Al Jardine and David Marks.
Importantly, Mike Love’s is one of the two unmistakable Beach Boys voices: the nasal lead on such surf rock anthems as “Fun, Fun, Fun” and the foil to Wilson’s falsetto and tender lyricism on the ballads. Hearing Love sing at the Venetian immediately brought the Beach Boys musical legacy into sharp focus, and Brian Wilson’s traditional role in the band was admirably filled by supporting musician Randell Kirsch, on bass guitar and the iconic upper harmony parts.
Love, along with Bruce Johnston, who joined the Beach Boys in 1965, claimed in the pre-show press conference that the presence of the original line up is far less important than the music itself, citing the fact that two of the Wilson brothers, founding members Dennis and Carl, had long since passed away.
“Whenever any of us sings, the spirit of the Beach Boys comes to life,” Love said, with Johnston adding, “The real stars are our songs.”
The pair, now both in their early seventies and still performing some hundred shows a year, are lively and excited as ever to be on the road.
“We love singing, and we are always inspired when we come into contact with the world’s different cultures, cuisines, architecture and languages.”
Their Macau performance brought the band’s career hits vividly to life, with Love singing lead on most of the rock songs, and Johnston giving a very moving performance of the ballad ‘God Only Knows’, which he dedicated to the late Carl Wilson, the original lead singer on the recording.
“Primarily we’re known for our hits from the past,” Love said at the press conference, though the Beach Boys are in fact still creatively active, having last year released ‘That’s Why God Made the Radio’, an album of mostly new material recorded by all five surviving members, which debuted at number three on the Billboard charts.
Yet, despite the success of the band’s recent release, their Macau set list was confined to the oldies.
“Many people relive memories from their lives when they hear our music,” Love asserted, “and we’re no different, except that in this case we’re the ones singing it.”
“Our thing was always melody, great arrangement and harmony,” Love adds, “and people still surf, still chase pretty girls and still love fast cars.”
Indeed, their’s is a quintessentially American, and more specifically, Californian sound that never seems to go out of style – from the 1963 single ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’, which irrevocably linked the Beach Boys in the eyes of the world with the innocent, carefree side of the American social revolution, to the complex and masterful songwriting of the album ‘Pet Sounds’, which further established ‘America’s band’ as ‘America’s answer to the Beatle’s British invasion’.
During last year’s Reunion Tour, before the original quintet once again parted ways, Brian Wilson had revealed his desire to return to the studio this year for yet another record with the full Beach Boys line up, but when asked in the press conference if such a project was in the works, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston demurred. “But we just got out of the studio!”
Johnston exclaimed, “When I first joined the band, we recorded and released three albums in under 12 months; we’re not that prolific these days.”
The public may just have to content itself with a discography spanning half a century, 25 years of hit singles and a performing career running 50 years, and counting.
The Beach Boys formed in 1961 in California and were initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. They signed to Capitol Records in 1962 and their early music gained popularity across the United States for its close vocal harmonies and lyrics, reflecting a Southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance. The group has had 36 United States Top 40 hits (the most by an American rock band) and 56 Hot 100 hits, including four number-one singles. Rolling Stone magazine listed the Beach Boys at number 12 on their 2004 list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.
