Concert Review : Brian's Back!

It was little sort of astonishing to long-time followers of Brian Wilson when he started to tour again in the late 1990's. His retreat from the road in the 1960's as leader of The Beach Boys was a major part of his legend. As was the virtually abusive treatment by those close to him who frankly should have put their concerns for their wallets on the back burner rather than all but force a reluctant Brian back to the helm of the Beach Boys in the mid-1970's.

His return didn't appear to be lacking ambition - it was not long before he was touring concerts halls with an orchestra and performing Pet Sounds in all its' glory. Even then, the idea of him venturing outside of the USA seemed a little remote.

Times have indeed changed, and last night I saw Brian perform for what must be about the fifteenth time I have seen him lead his truly excellent band through their paces. That's encompassed seeing the aforementioned performance of Pet Sounds (albeit without the orchestra), watching him debut SMiLE after so many years and, most astonishingly, present a new album in the form of a concept album on Southern California which not only recalls some of his previous acheivements but manages to stand more than proudly beside them in the Wilson canon. Besides them a number of shows that merely claim to present his greatest hits seem almost routine.

His troubles with mental illness over the years are as well documented as his music. Indeed, it's unusual to see too many articles on the man that don't mention both. Over the years, Brian has given the impression of being an awkward performer leading some to speculate wildly that he's being badly advised in some way in performing as he has been doing. However, on the contrary, what I've seen over the last decade seems to be almost Brian taking steps in his own reconstruction by facing his musical past head-on and then moving beyond that to create new music of equal value to his consderable legacy. The change in the man has been palpable, but even now he does still come across as the adult child of yore, still full of enthusiasm about music and the impact it has on him. All the while as we marvel at the impact that his music has on us.

All of which acts as a long introduction to the fact that Brian presented himself to a loving audience at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow last night. After the artistic peak of the Lucky Old Sun tour (where I caught three shows one of which - in Edinburgh - was one of the best shows I've seen Brian give; by definition, that means it was the best concert I've ever attended) the idea of a greatest hits tour as this was advertised almost seemed like a let down but given that Brian is largely playing festivals whilst fitting some more regular concerts in between, we should consider ourselves lucky that he chose to bless Glasgow with his presence.

Starting off with California Girls, after an introductory blast of Lucky Old Sun, two things quickly became apparent. The band sounded as awe-inspiring as ever and when the first blast of harmonies from the chorus hit the soul soured with sheer joy. But Brian was very low in the mix and his vocals were difficult to make out.

This continued throughout the first half despite some shouts from the audience to turn Brian up. However, what was also noticable was how tired Brian was and, presumably as a consequence, he seemed more prone to switching off when he wasn't singing. It seemed like he was struggling to get himself "up" for some of the songs.

I had come to the conclusion that one of the issues with the volume of the vocals was that the mike was slightly too high for Brian's singing position. I did realise later that the mike was perfectly positioned - when Brian did, as he usually does, sit up his mouth was at the right position. However, he was slouching back in his seat for much of the time and this was at least a contributory factor. I have seen it recorded that an enquiry was made with the sound engineer at the interval and they were informed that he'd been asked to keep Brian down in the mix.

All in all, there were points in the evening where Brian simply looked uncomfortable. His long term friend and colleaue Jeff Foskett was more than usually attentive to Brian during the show. (During the past decade, a sign of Brian's increasing confidence has been his decreasing need to rely on Jeff's musical and physical presence, with the exception of those falsetto vocals that Brian can no longer reach).

All in all, this was the most inattentive I've seen Brian. I'm not going to speculate on the cause of this, but he did look very tired and prone to more errors than we've been used to - indeed, he had to stop Please Let Me Wonder and restart the band on the second verse. He also introduced a song out of its' planned sequence at the start of the second half.

Now did this ruin my enjoyment of the concert. To be honest, not too much. Given Brian's life and the sheer wonder of seeing him perform at 67 years of age I'm prepared to forgive him what was an off night for him.

In any event, his band quite noticably upped their game for the evening as did the audience who were noisy and exuberant. By the second half, Brian was responding positively and his own performance level was raised by a good few notches. The performance of Midnight's Another Day (from the Lucky Old Sun album) was a spine chilling moment with Brian's vocals pitched to perfection and aiming the song straight for the heart.

If I had any complaints about the song selection then it would be that there were too many of the early songs - Custom Machine, 409, Shut Down - when I'd have preferred some of the later Wilson classics. As ever with Wilson's immense back catalogue, that is simply churlish on my part.

Tonight, Brian and the band are performing in Liverpool. I rather suspect the current schedule might be a bit much for Brian and a schedule with at least a day between gigs might be more appropriate. He is, after all, 67 years of age and still has to fight a natural shyness and awkwardness that he's always exhibited on stage.

There's nothing left to prove for Brian Wilson. I know with a sense of certainty that when my son is regaling his grandchildren of the concerts he's seen that the fact that he's seen Brian Wilson many times (and at my expense!!) will mean something significant.