Concert #423 - Brian Wilson at UCLA's Royce Hall (November 1, 2006)

Four years after the exceptionally good show put on by Brian Wilson & Friends at UCLA's Royce Hall, I returned to the same venue expecting to relive the great moments of the 2002 event. Long story short, I went home somewhat disappointed. The show had its moments, but as a whole, it wasn't special. Then there was this young lady sitting right in front of me. It seemed that buying a ticket for her son was cheaper than getting a baby-sitter, so she brought him along. I put up for a while with their endless interaction, but at one point I couldn't hold back any longer and asked her to cut it off. By then, though, my evening had been ruined.

This was the first outing of a short Pet Sounds tour. Fittingly, Brian played many songs from his legendary album, along with a healthy dose of Beach Boys hits. His voice sounded shaky at times, in spite of his band's efforts to beef up the overall sound. Brian remained seated at his keyboard for almost the entire duration of the show.

SET LIST

Surfer Girl

Drive-In

Please Let Me Wonder

Add Some Music To Your Day

You're Welcome

Then I Kissed Her (lead vocals: Al Jardine)

Breakaway

Dance, Dance, Dance

Do It Again

In My Room

California (lead vocals: Al Jardine)

Do You Wanna Dance

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Come Go With Me (lead vocals: Al Jardine)

When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)

I Get Around

California Girls

Sail On Sailor

Marcella

Good Vibrations

Intermission

Wouldn't It Be Nice

You Still Believe In Me

That's Not Me

Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)

I'm Waiting For The Day

Let's Go Away For Awhile

Sloop John B.

God Only Knows

I Know There's An Answer

Here Today

I Just Wasn't Made For these Times

Pet Sounds

Caroline No

Encore 1

Johnny B Goode

Help Me Rhonda (lead vocals: Al Jardine)

Barbara Ann

Surfin' USA

Fun, Fun, Fun

Encore 2

 Love And Mercy

Al Jardine's unannounced appearance was definitely one of the highlights of the show. He took the stage while Brian was playing "You're Welcome" and the crowd went absolutely wild. Al took the lead vocals on a few songs and sounded great. Looked great, too. Sometime late in the show, he approached Brian and put his arm around him in a loving way. Very touching.

Brian was accompanied by the same able band that I saw in 2002. They did a good job recreating the intricate sounds of "Pet Sounds", the album.

Brian's band

Jeff Foskett

Bob Lizik

Paul Mertens

Darian Sahanaja

Nicki "Wonder" Walusko

Probyn Gregory

Taylor Mills

Scott Bennett

Jim Hines

Nelson Bragg

Gary Griffin

The show opened with an unconvincing set delivered by UK's newly revived Scritti Politti and its leader, Green Gartside. Also in the band: Alyssa McDonald, Dicky Moore, Rhondri Ferrett and Ralph Phillips.

Scritti Politti's Green Gartside

UCLA's Royce Hall

Concert #282 - Brian Wilson & Friends at UCLA's Royce Hall (October 6, 2002)

Announced as "Brian Wilson & Friends", this was the fifth annual Carl Wilson Foundation benefit concert, organized at UCLA's Royce Hall. From the moment I saw the concert announcement I knew that a few notable "friends" would show up, and they did.

Over the years, I have had relatively good luck getting decent seats at UCLA. For this concert I sat about seven or eight rows back from the stage, dead center. Not bad.

The most notable friend turned out to be Eric Clapton. He was featured extensively in the second half of the show. First, accompanied by Brian Wilson's band, Eric played  "Stormy Monday" and "Layla", then a bit later he took the stage during Brian's headlining set and once again for the encore.

Brian Wilson (left) & Eric Clapton at UCLA (photo by Adrees Latif)

Led by Mark McGrath, Sugar Ray, the band, delivered a short set that included "Every Morning" and "Fly", their catchy radio hit. They ended the set with "Do It Again", the old Beach Boys song, performed with the participation of Carnie and Wendy Wilson (Brian's daughters and two-thirds of the successful trio appropriately named Wilson Phillips).

Earlier in the evening, In Bloom, a three-piece band that included Justyn Wilson and Carl B. Wilson, the sons of Carl and Dennis Wilson, respectively, delivered a short set that wasn't bad, but did not stand out either. They were followed by their cousins Carnie and Wendy Wilson, who sang "Til I Die" and "This Whole World", but they weren't done - they came back after the intermission to provide back-up vocals for Brian and some of the guest stars.

Brian Wilson's band consisted of the Wondermints, an LA-based power-pop band, reinforced with a few musicians among whom the talented Jeff Foskett stood out. Jeff played the guitar and sang lead as well as back-up vocals on a number of Beach Boys covers. Jeff's singing, especially his falsetto voice, was remarkably good. The band did a great job recreating the many different sounds of the Beach Boys.

Brian's headlining set benefited from the participation of a number of guests: Eric Clapton helped out on "Good Vibrations" and "Warmth Of The Sun", while daughters Carnie and Wendy provided harmony vocals on "God Only Knows". Matthew Sweet and Billy Hinsche sang the lead vocals on "Sail On Sailor", with Brian singing back-up and I was quite impressed with Matthew's singing. The three members of In Bloom came back to sing lead on "Time To Get Alone" and "Forever", the latter being Dennis Wilson's best-known song. Brian's set also included "Help Me, Rhonda", "Wonderful" and "Heroes And Villains".

Other contributors included Van Dyke Parks, who, together with Matthew Sweet, performed "Ride", a tune written by the Wondermints, the accompanying band. Van Dyke also performed a couple of songs from "Orange Crate Art", an album released jointly by Brian and Van Dyke in 1995.

The encore brought together all of the earlier performers, plus Bill Medley, Jackson Browne and America's Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell, who apparently couldn't just sit idle and watch. Seeing these legendary artists on stage alongside Eric Clapton, Brian Wilson and all the others gave me a massive thrill. Together, they played "Barbara Ann", "Surfin' USA" and "Fun, Fun, Fun", with Eric looking the happiest of them all.

After all the guests left the stage, Brian and Jeff Foskett played Carl Wilson's "Heaven" in what turned out to be the final song of an evening that was both unforgettable and exhausting.

Concert T-shirt

 Brian Wilson's band 

Jeff Foskett (guitar, vocals)

Darian Sahanaja (keyboard, vibraphone, vocals)

Nick "Nicky Wonder" Waluska (guitar, vocals)

Probyn Gregory (guitar, French horn, trumpet, vocals)

Scott Bennett (keyboards, vibes, percussion, vocals)

Paul Mertens (saxophone, flutes, harmonicas)

Mike D'Amico (percussion)

Taylor Mills (vocals)

Bob Lizik (bass)

Jim Hines (drums)

The following photos are taken from:

http://www.carlwilsonfoundation.org/walk02/concert02b.htm

(copyright holders: M. Dowdle Head and Rene Diaz)

If requested, I will remove all photos without delay.

Brian Wilson with daughters Wendy (left) and Carnie at UCLA

Carnie Wilson (left) and Wendy Wilson at UCLA

Eric Clapton (left) & Jeff Foskett at UCLA

In Bloom at UCLA

Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath at UCLA

Darian Sahanaja of the Wondermints at UCLA

Matthew Sweet (left) and Billy Hinsche at UCLA

Van Dyke Parks at UCLA