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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Saturday night was for Beach Boy Brian

Dan Webster

Above: Photo by Mary Pat Treuthart

On this blog, I typically write about things that are upcoming. Particularly things such as movie openings and literary readings.

Today, however, I want to write about something that occurred last Saturday, when my wife and I attended the Brian Wilson "Pet Sounds" concert in Seattle. At the same time, I'll share news of a future event.

First, I didn't have high hopes for the show. Wilson is 74, and his much-publicized emotional and medical issues have left him more or less a shadow of the guy who, in 1962, spearheaded the Beach Boys and basically the whole surf-music movement. Things weren't helped when the show, which took place at the sold-out, 3,000-seat Paramount Theatre, began with Wilson shuffling onstage holding onto the arm of longtime friend and bandmate Al Jardine.

And during the show, which Wilson orchestrated by introducing each song, he sat in the middle of the stage, behind a piano that he occasionally played. He occasionally sang, too, his one-pristine falsetto/tenor far from the perfect instrument it once was.

But the show wasn't so much about Wilson as it was a celebration of him. Quickly paced, featuring a blend of Beach Boy hits (from "Little Deuce Coup" to "Surfer Girl" to "Help Me Rhonda") and the entirety of the "Pet Sounds" LP, the show rocked. Buoyed by the presences of Jardine, with his son Matt Jardine providing the vocals that Wilson himself used to perform, and aided by the presence of Blondie Chaplin (especially on the song "Sail Away"), that old Beach Boys energy was alive and well.

The high point for me? The band's rousing performance of "Good Vibrations." I may have been the only person in the Paramount who sat during the song, closing my eyes and letting the music wash over me the way it did when I listened to it in my bedroom way back in 1966.

At the end, I did stand up and — along with everyone else — sang and clapped and moved to the music that filled the room with such energy and joy. It made me, and this is a Brian Wilson pun, "Smile."

And the news? Wilson will be returning for a Seattle encore. Tickets go on sale tomorrow via Ticketmaster.

I'd suggest you buy some. Wilson won't be around forever, and the chance to celebrate him may soon be merely a memory.