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Post by newbbfan on May 31, 2023 14:11:39 GMT -5
Nater enjoy the show and I share your sense of excitement.The songs are just so good and the absolute authenticity of two beach boys together on stage creates enough great great magic.
I'll be seeing Al quite soon, and that's one beach boy on stage but tremendously authentic in its own way.
In the absence of seeing 5 or 7 beach boys together these days we take what we can get and celebrate.
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Post by Emdeeh on May 31, 2023 20:42:57 GMT -5
Nater, they are still switching leads around. Jon Bolton even sang one at the show I attended. With Scott gone, Ike is doing more leads.
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Post by lonesurf on May 31, 2023 22:09:29 GMT -5
I caught the revamped lineup last week in Nashville with the symphony & thought they acquitted themselves well.
The setlist was fairly safe, but did include a couple of rarities: Warmth Of The Sun (featuring Ambha Love on lead) & Here Today. I enjoyed John Bolton’s vocals on California Dreamin’ (a bit of which is in the video below at about 1:40).
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Post by newbbfan on May 31, 2023 22:17:01 GMT -5
Lonesurf
Thank you for the excerpt and congratulations on attending such a great and memorable show.How does a group just all of a sudden play one day with the Symphony orchestra? I guess during the Christmas shows they had different orchestras so I suppose the musical director just rehearses the boys in the band on the charts and somehow it all winds up working out? Great pros can do, it and these are all great pros.
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Post by Mikie on May 31, 2023 22:40:11 GMT -5
Thanks, Charlie! Damn, what an addition to the band Bolton is, eh? And Wedemeyer cooks on lead guitar!
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Post by Micha on Jun 6, 2023 15:45:13 GMT -5
I even think Bolton has a kind of Dennis vibe none of the other replacement drummers had.
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Post by Micha on Jun 6, 2023 15:46:15 GMT -5
Nater, they are still switching leads around. Jon Bolton even sang one at the show I attended. With Scott gone, Ike is doing more leads. So the meaning of the phrase remains a mystery...
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Post by lonesurf on Jun 7, 2023 7:31:27 GMT -5
Here’s a complete version of California Dreamin’ with John Bolton on lead:
I see that he also sang Darlin’:
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Post by John Manning on Jun 7, 2023 9:13:17 GMT -5
Reminds me of Keith Moon!
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Post by AGD on Jun 7, 2023 14:34:39 GMT -5
Here’s a complete version of California Dreamin’ with John Bolton on lead: I see that he also sang Darlin’: Hm. Can't say I'm overly impressed with either of those.
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Post by newbbfan on Jun 7, 2023 16:15:45 GMT -5
Well you put this California dreamin' up against the one of the 5 beach boys from the reunion show in 2012 and you've got quite a contrast there. I think someone had said in these pages something to the tune of "my God how good we had it back then."
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Post by lonelysummer on Jun 8, 2023 15:54:35 GMT -5
Here’s a complete version of California Dreamin’ with John Bolton on lead: I see that he also sang Darlin’: Hm. Can't say I'm overly impressed with either of those. He's not John Cowsill, but he sounds fine to my ears. Of course he's a Seattle boy, so I have to root for him.
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Post by lonesurf on Jun 8, 2023 17:13:56 GMT -5
My thought is that losing Scott & John could have been absolutely catastrophic. The late 90s and early 2000s shows were brutal for me personally … basically unwatchable… and Scott and John really made the shows palatable for me again. As such, I was very concerned about these recent changes.
I’ve now seen the new configuration, and at least I’m not having horrific flashbacks to the years right after Carl’s passing. Both of the new additions are definitely better than competent… and I have to admit that I especially enjoyed the fresh energy that John Bolton is bringing to the performance.
Look, I’ll definitely miss seeing Scott & John, but at least I’m no longer dreading this change.
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Post by AGD on Jun 9, 2023 3:17:47 GMT -5
Hm. Can't say I'm overly impressed with either of those. He's not John Cowsill, but he sounds fine to my ears. Of course he's a Seattle boy, so I have to root for him. My ears must be worse than I thought, then. At times he's slightly off key, pitchy, and his delivery of the whole song is, for lack of a better phrase, insipid when compared to Cowsill's.
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Post by andrewhickey on Jun 9, 2023 15:18:19 GMT -5
He's not John Cowsill, but he sounds fine to my ears. Of course he's a Seattle boy, so I have to root for him. My ears must be worse than I thought, then. At times he's slightly off key, pitchy, and his delivery of the whole song is, for lack of a better phrase, insipid when compared to Cowsill's. Agreed. Admittedly I am very much a partisan for Scott and John and don't like that they're out of the band, but I was also a big fan of Randell Kirsch and could still appreciate that him being replaced with Brian Eichenberger wasn't a massive degradation to the sound. In this case though, Bolton is just... not very good as a vocalist. Not *terrible*, and I'm going to reserve proper judgement until I get to see the new lineup live myself, because I know that gigs that have sounded great to me in the venue have sounded much less so in mobile phone videos, but definitely *much* less good than Cowsill. And the loss of Scott and John simultaneously has *really* damaged the harmonies. Bruce and Christian have very thin voices -- they're good singers, but don't have much vocal power -- and that means you only have Mike and Eichenberger with strong-sounding Beach-Boys-sounding voices on stage. The other backing members are competent but anonymous-sounding, while Scott and John both had voices that fit the Beach Boys sound. I also don't get what people are saying about Bolton having more energy than Cowsill, who at times reminded me of Animal from the Muppets in his energy. I'll still go and see them any chance I get -- hell, I saw the version of the band with Mike Kowalski and Adrian Baker in multiple times, and this lineup definitely doesn't sound *that* bad -- but on the evidence of the videos I've seen, they've gone from being one of the best live acts around to being mediocre. Maybe that'll change once the new members settle in, maybe these videos really don't represent the sound in the venue, but... I'm very unimpressed.
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Post by monolithic on Jun 9, 2023 17:05:07 GMT -5
Here are It's Ok and Do It Again:
The band still sound pretty good to me (considering Mike's age). Bolton is very solid as a drummer and I don't have any real issue with the musicianship.
I agree, though, that the harmonies are thinner than they were with Scott and John in the band.
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Post by andrewhickey on Jun 9, 2023 20:43:31 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't have any real problem with the instrumental performances -- I prefer Cowsill's drumming style to Bolton's, but he seems perfectly adequate. But the vocals... they're really, *really* ropy now in every recording I've heard from the new lineup. And the Beach Boys are, after all, a vocal group...
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Post by John Manning on Jun 10, 2023 2:07:41 GMT -5
Here are It's Ok and Do It Again: The band still sound pretty good to me (considering Mike's age). Bolton is very solid as a drummer and I don't have any real issue with the musicianship. I agree, though, that the harmonies are thinner than they were with Scott and John in the band. Mike’s voice sounds more forceful than I’ve heard it on occasion in recent years, yet that just emphasises the age-related issues – the wavering, the missed pitch etc. Christian’s voice also seems drawly, going through motions. Hope things improve.
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Post by andrewhickey on Jun 10, 2023 7:44:05 GMT -5
Here are It's Ok and Do It Again: The band still sound pretty good to me (considering Mike's age). Bolton is very solid as a drummer and I don't have any real issue with the musicianship. I agree, though, that the harmonies are thinner than they were with Scott and John in the band. Mike’s voice sounds more forceful than I’ve heard it on occasion in recent years, yet that just emphasises the age-related issues – the wavering, the missed pitch etc. Christian’s voice also seems drawly, going through motions. Hope things improve. Yeah, Christian had a period in 2019 when he'd recently rejoined the band where he was sounding *really* good and enthused, but in the last year or two he's been sounding more like he did back in 2011ish -- "Aw Dad, do I have to sing 'Sail On Sailor'? I want to be out playing on my BMX with the other kids!" "You'll sing 'Sail On Sailor' and like it, lad, remember who puts food on your table"
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Post by filledeplage on Jun 10, 2023 10:35:00 GMT -5
Mike’s voice sounds more forceful than I’ve heard it on occasion in recent years, yet that just emphasises the age-related issues – the wavering, the missed pitch etc. Christian’s voice also seems drawly, going through motions. Hope things improve. Yeah, Christian had a period in 2019 when he'd recently rejoined the band where he was sounding *really* good and enthused, but in the last year or two he's been sounding more like he did back in 2011ish -- "Aw Dad, do I have to sing 'Sail On Sailor'? I want to be out playing on my BMX with the other kids!" "You'll sing 'Sail On Sailor' and like it, lad, remember who puts food on your table" Not sure I agree. When I heard Cool Head, Warm Heart, I got a chill. That voice of Christian is very close to Carl's. It was the same feeling I got when I heard Chicago's "Wishin' You Were Here" on the radio for the first time. I heard Carl on the background vocals. I've watched Christian grow-in-the-job, even when he was with Cal Surf, and he is really close to Carl, even if that is really an unfair comparison. Everyone should be measured on his/her own. And yet, here I am making that comparison. But as all of this is "relative" (pun intended) how do you get so lucky as to have such similar vocals to one of the most legendary voices in rock music? I realize Brian was nominated recently for great voices, but Carl's voice was so refined, in multiple contexts. Carl should have been nominated posthumously, as well, if only for GOK. His voice keeps the historic, Wilson vocal consistency, among all the BB vocalists. You can learn a BB "technique" but you won't sound like the originals unless you were blessed with that gene pool, if you are extremely lucky. Even Matt Jardine, who is a great singer, in his own right (maybe taking his vocal cords from his singing mom, as I think Carl got his from his mom) does not sound at all like Al, to me. And Adam is a great singer as well. I really enjoy Christian's leads and even his background vocals. He's got to be about 50 and hardly a kid. The band had been established between 25-30 years by the time the 60s members hit their 50th birthday. And he is a musician in his own right. If I had to stand and perform next to the legendary Mike Love, I'd be very intimidated, even as a relative. He is reserved, and just does his job without a lot of fanfare. He doesn't sound like Mike - he sounds like Carl. But that fills out and continues the sound original vocal lineup. As to the other new guys, I will reserve judgment until I see them and am following the YouTube's. They look as though they are enjoying it and every musician brings his/her own style and we have to respect that, I think. And, I still have deep respect and gratitude, for the work of all the BB musicians, who "brought it" to the audiences for the last few decades.
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Post by andrewhickey on Jun 10, 2023 12:22:35 GMT -5
I think Christian absolutely does have a great voice, and he *can* be a great singer when he chooses. But he often seems frankly bored on stage, and putting the bare minimum effort in. When he's on form he's stellar, but when he's not the great voice doesn't save the performance from seeming bored.
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Post by Emdeeh on Jun 10, 2023 14:13:37 GMT -5
I agree that Christian has a decent voice, but he does NOT sound like Carl to me -- he sounds like he's related to Carl, which of course he is.
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Post by filledeplage on Jun 10, 2023 14:39:18 GMT -5
I agree that Christian has a decent voice, but he does NOT sound like Carl to me -- he sounds like he's related to Carl, which of course he is. Emdeeh - I don't mean Christian sounds exactly like Carl because he doesn't, but you (I) can hear in certain tones, there is a resemblance (or I can) to Carl's voice. It has a similar vocal quality that catches my attention. Something that sounds familiar...
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Post by lonelysummer on Jun 10, 2023 15:07:15 GMT -5
I've been very impressed with Christian as a singer, and yes, it's hard not to compare him to Carl. I think his demeanor is similar, too. Quiet, soft spoken. What people see as a lack of enthusiasm is IMO just the way he is. Obviously he's not the band leader like Carl, so no one's getting the stink-eye from him. He doesn't have that dynamic, belt-it-out side that Carl displayed on Darlin', Keep the Summer Alive, or Rockin' All Over the World, but he's great with things like Feel Flows and God Only Knows.
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Post by Emdeeh on Jun 10, 2023 16:17:28 GMT -5
I actually think his sister Hayleigh sounds more like Carl than Christian does. She has some of Carl's phrasings and a powerful voice (when she wants to use it that way).
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