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- [00:03]
Evan
This could be considered a track. Not really, though.
- [00:05]
Ian
We don't want to do that.
- [00:07]
Evan
This is a little intro, you know, Brian.
- [00:10]
Ian
All right, here we go.
- [00:10]
Evan
Countdown time.
- [00:11]
Ian
One, two, three, go.
- [00:24]
Evan
Okay, boys, do it. Good morning. Welcome to Jokerman.
- [00:31]
Ian
Jokerman Drive time. Radio Jokerman in the a.m. yeah, it's morning.
- [00:35]
Evan
It's the morning after for me.
- [00:38]
Ian
Yeah, for you.
- [00:39]
Evan
I'm Evan.
- [00:41]
Ian
I'm Ian.
- [00:41]
Evan
And we, as you may know, have been talking about the Beach Boys on this series from Jokerman Podcasts. And so, you know, what are we gonna do when we see that the Beach Boys are coming to town?
- [01:02]
Ian
That's right.
- [01:04]
Evan
But see them, you know, why would we have to go see them?
- [01:09]
Ian
Just like, you know, when Bob Dylan got back on the road for the first time, after we started the Bob Dylan series of Jokerman, I flew across the country in the middle of the pandemic to see him play at the Beacon Theater with Evan. You know, I took similar steps to see the Beach Boys.
- [01:26]
Evan
What kind of similar steps? What do you mean? That steps were taken?
- [01:32]
Ian
Steps were taken, Yes. I. You know, I'm up here in the Bay Area. The Beach Boys did not play in San Francisco because they don't have much of an audience in this liberal hellhole. Is that so? I had to go up to Sonoma to witness the boys play a show up here. But you got to see them just last night in your very own backyard at the beautiful Greek Theater there in Los Angeles.
- [01:59]
Evan
Yeah, I. Basically, it's walking distance from me.
- [02:04]
Ian
That's why I said, it's your own backyard.
- [02:05]
Evan
It's my own backyard. Yeah. It was at the Greek.
- [02:12]
Ian
Lot to say about these shows, I would imagine. You seem to not be very happy with what you encountered when you arrived.
- [02:19]
Evan
When I arrived. I mean, at the beginning, I texted you that I was not feeling.
- [02:26]
Ian
You said, I hate it here.
- [02:27]
Evan
Well, I said that at the beginning, and I think by the end, that changed for me.
- [02:37]
Ian
They warmed you up. Mike and Christian Love stole your heart.
- [02:42]
Evan
I'm gonna say warmed me up is exactly right in the sense that something was cold and then it became warm.
- [02:50]
Ian
The warmth of the sun, you could say.
- [02:53]
Evan
But, yeah, not. Not hot necessarily, but. But Warm.
- [02:59]
Ian
Warmer. Like 30 seconds in the microwave out of the fridge. So it's like not. Not freezing cold, but. And, like, maybe there's, like, some pockets of it that are, like, warmer than others, but then you take a bite.
- [03:09]
Evan
That's exactly what it was like. There was like. It was like, basically, oh, yeah, this is fine. Then you hit, like, a Cold spot, and you're like, oh. And then you get another. Another bite, and then it's warm. But it's overall, you know, you can eat it, it's edible, and it's not even unpleasant necessarily. But it is important to note for food safety reasons, that that's the danger zone. We're talking about the danger zone where bacteria is most likely most readily able to congregate. You can't stay there too long.
- [03:45]
Ian
You gotta get in and get out and be done with it. That's it.
- [03:48]
Evan
I stayed there the whole time. Basically. I did.
- [03:51]
Ian
Wow.
- [03:51]
Evan
I missed the very beginning.
- [03:53]
Ian
Well, we'll talk about the sequence of events and what you missed there at the beginning. I do want to just start off by establishing the Beach Boy. I'm sure most people understand at this point, but when you go to see the Beach Boys today, you're really seeing, you know, maybe one and a half actual Beach Boys on stage. When there are like 10. 10 different guys up there rooting and tooting on various instruments.
- [04:21]
Evan
1. I think 1.75. I think Bruce Johnston is like, you know, I was thinking about this while I was there. I was just like, it's kind of crazy that people think of him as, like, not really a real Beach Boy when he's been there for, like, 60 years practically.
- [04:41]
Ian
He's been. He's been around.
- [04:43]
Evan
He's as much part of the Beach Boys as you can get on this earth.
- [04:47]
Ian
I mean, in terms of, like, literally just the amount of time that he has been in and around the Beach Boys, he is probably number two, if not number three. You know, certainly more than Carl and Dennis, may they both rest in peace. And really more than Brian and Al, you know, because they haven't really been affiliated with the Beach Boys brand for the last 20 years or whatever. Maybe. Maybe for good reason. But, you know, Bruce is up there. I think Bruce's existence is really the reason that Mike can get away with calling this the Beach Boys. Because if there's no Bruce, it's just Mike. It's just the Beach Boy. Singular, no plurals involved.
- [05:26]
Evan
Sometimes it felt like that. It felt like the Beach Boy.
- [05:31]
Ian
Oftentimes it felt like that. The lineup, of course, I'm sure everyone is very familiar with the list of touring players here, but just in the rare instance in which you might not be the band is Mike Love. Bruce Johnston. Tim Bonham on keyboards, 1. Christian Love on vocals and rhythm guitar. We'll get to him. Brian Eichenberger on vocals and rhythm guitar. Randy Ligo on the saxophone. Keith Houbacher on bass. I just feel like I'm coming up with creative character names. John Wedemeyer on lead vocals and guitar, and John Bolton. Not that John Bolton, but this John Bolton on drums and lead vocals, plus an appearance from one Uncle Jesse. Mr. John Stamos. John Stamos, at one show at least.
- [06:16]
Evan
Was at my show. And, boy, I wish that you had gotten to see him, because I think there's a case to be made that John Samos is. It made me think, like, what is a Beach Boy? Like, what do you have to do to be a Beach Boy? And I think John Stamos is, like, as. As much a Beach Boy as you can be without being a Beach Boy. It's. He really is like. It's similar to Dead and Co with John Mayer, where it's like, look, he can do it. He's been doing it. He's been associated with it. He's associated with it as deeply as you can be. Well, not really. Not exactly with John Samos, but I don't know.
- [06:57]
Ian
As deeply as you can be.
- [06:59]
Evan
As deeply as you can be in this thing, which only goes so deep, you know, he's exactly as much a part of that iteration of the Beach Boys as. As you can be. And arguably one of the more important parts of this version of the Beach Boys, at least that's how it felt last night. He really brought some. Some kind of a.
- [07:24]
Ian
A youthful vigor, perhaps, that certain other members might be lacking.
- [07:29]
Evan
Honestly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- [07:35]
Ian
Was he there? Was he there for the whole show?
- [07:37]
Evan
Yeah.
- [07:38]
Ian
Wow. Beginning. Because at my show. I don't know if they did this at yours, but there was, like, a segment. Mike loves to do these little, like. These little, like, rehearsed bants and, like, kind of scene breaks in between songs, it seems, like, with a couple almost like, skits that are tied into these videos that play on the screen behind them. And there was. At my show, there was, like, a John Stamos segment that he wasn't there. He didn't come out or anything.
- [08:08]
Evan
It just like, hi, I'm John Stamos. Or, like, you know, the beginning of.
- [08:13]
Ian
Like, yeah, they, like, played the video of the Beach Boys showing up on Full House, and Mike, like, did some really corny bants about John Stamos and, you know, his appearances in the band and stuff. And it seemed to me like that was just kind of a section of the set list that had been built in and, like, if John Stamos was gonna be at the show, that's when John Stamos would come out and make the special guest appearance, but I guess he was there from beginning to end for you.
- [08:40]
Evan
Yeah, and I guess that goes directly toward supporting my point, which is that even when he's not there, they want to make sure that, you know, that they've got Stamos and he is a part of the Beach Boys.
- [08:55]
Ian
Even if he's not there, he's more.
- [08:57]
Evan
A part of Beach Boys than Brian Wilson.
- [09:00]
Ian
He's with us there in spirit, even if he isn't there in the flesh.
- [09:04]
Evan
Well, that's what he said about Brian.
- [09:06]
Ian
Well, yeah, we'll get to the Brian element of this. What was the. Can I just get a scene report from you what it was like? Because, you know, I'll deliver my Sonoma scene report momentarily, but that was a couple days ago as we speak. You are just hot off coming out of the Greek Theater last night there in Los Angeles, here at the tail end of the dog days of summer. What kind of conglomeration of Angelenos was present at the Greek Theater last night?
- [09:31]
Evan
Well, it's kind of hard to do that to. To express this, because it was like. It was just. It was like you were in An American Eagle or something. It was like you were just at the mall.
- [09:47]
Ian
Like, it was just so normal, just random. Nothing interesting or out of the ordinary or even notable in terms of the crowd makeup.
- [09:55]
Evan
I mean, it was. It seemed quite homogenous in tone. It was like. It was like a. Like a goyish bar mitzvah.
- [10:07]
Ian
Goyish bar mitzvah. At my show in Sonoma, I was. I was honestly touched by the. The crowd that that appeared. You know, it was. It's kind of way out there in a little city called Rohnert Park, Sonoma State University, which is just, you know, a weird state college carved out of nothing, middle of the old Sonoma Valley. And it really. It kind of seemed like a bingo parlor for most of the night, you know, at your grandma's retirement home. It was just an extraordinary parade of all these adorable old folks who. You know, some of them were in pretty good shape. I saw one woman in line in front of us wearing a T shirt. You know, you know, those type of T shirts. It said, like, at my age, I need glasses. But instead of spectacles on the T shirt, there were a bunch of, like, glasses of wine. You know, that. That type of thing. Yeah. Absolute delight right up to. You know, so you had those. Those folks. You also had people who could, like, honestly barely even walk. Like, barely. Barely even get up and down from the parking lot to the venue. I saw multiple walkers, I saw several people being wheeled around in wheelchairs. Numerous people actually brought in homemade treats and desserts as well. You know, the Greek Theater obviously is not going to let you bring in outside food or drinks, but at the Sonoma State Place, it was basically like everyone was set up on a big lawn. There were even banquet tables that you could reserve and just like have a picnic, like bring in your own like catered dinner and just watch the Beach Boys basically on a tv. It was. I loved the crowd. It was absolutely incredible. And as the night wore on, as we got there about an hour before showtime to get a good spot. As the night wore on, more kids actually ended up showing up. I don't know how many young kids were at the Greek, but there was a surprising number of 16 to 23 year old gen Z kids who, I don't know how much Beach Boy shit they actually knew, but they knew some of the songs and they were actually kind of into it and digging what was being played there. And if for no other reason, that was a really great thing to see that even kids 10 or 15 years younger than you and I at this point are able to experience this music and enjoy it and get something out of it. Whether or not they're going to turn into Beach Boys freaks like us, that doesn't really matter. It's like I'm just. I'm glad that this isn't totally fossilized and consigned to history at this point. It honestly felt like more of a generationally integrated crowd than basically any Bob Dylan show that I've ever been to.
- [12:59]
Evan
Yeah, I noticed that. I mean, it, like I said, it was like a bar mitzvah, but it was that way in the sense that there was old and young people, but they all seem to be like there, you know, for sort of semi obligatory slash, like polite slash wholesome reasons. There definitely seem to be some people who like were and would be listeners to our show maybe like who just would be, you know, the equivalent of weird.
- [13:31]
Ian
I saw a weird guy in a smile T shirt and I was like, that guy probably listens to Jokerman right there.
- [13:36]
Evan
Yeah, there was that. It was also like, you know, the sense of the type people who are really into the Beatles, who are younger and they kind of treat the Beatles like anime characters that they love.
- [13:53]
Ian
Like K pop bands.
- [13:54]
Evan
Yeah, which, God, that tends to listen. Sure, whatever. It's just like sometimes that exists for the stream.
- [14:03]
Ian
They could be video game streamers. You know, if the worst thing they're doing is, like, you know, Stanning George Harrison or something 30 years after he died, that's a relatively minor offense in my book.
- [14:14]
Evan
Of course, there's nothing wrong with that at all. But, yeah, there was some of that. And I think that there was generally a sense of goodwill toward the group. I didn't get the feeling anybody there was wandering in, expecting something that it wasn't. I think that everyone there thought, I like the Beach Boys. I want to see the Beach Boys music played. That was at least the sense that I got. It was completely full. And the show itself, I don't know. I can't imagine it matched or lived up to everyone's expectations. But that's sort of another matter that we can get it to in more detail.
- [15:04]
Ian
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it. I'm generally just very impressed with the Beach Boys ability to. It's understood when I say the Beach Boys in this episode, that that's in three sets of quotation marks. Their ability to continue to play and pack these shows out, at least. I mean, there's absolutely an audience of people who grew up with them and came 10 years, 20 years, 50 years after them that are still interested in them. Which explains, I think, in large part, why they are. Why. Why they're still doing what it. Whatever it is that they are doing. What. So you miss you. You said you missed the intro video, right? Did you get it? When did you get in?
- [15:46]
Evan
About, like, one and a half songs in. So. Okay.
- [15:50]
Ian
Like, surf and safari, Catch a wave.
- [15:52]
Evan
Yeah, I heard those, but I couldn't. I was in line. It's kind of hard to get into the Greek, and.
- [16:00]
Ian
Yeah, it's a pain in the ass.
- [16:01]
Evan
Yeah. I should have just walked, but we took.
- [16:05]
Ian
Did you drive up there?
- [16:06]
Evan
It took an Uber, and it, like, had to circle around, and then we just got out and had to, like, walk, like, a half mile. It was kind of an annoying way to get into that venue, which also is not as good as the Hollywood bowl in every single way. It's not as good.
- [16:27]
Ian
I don't know. I like the Greek. I think it's nice. It's more intimate than the Hollywood Bowl. You know, it's much easier to kind of be tuned into what's going on on the stage than it is. You're, like, way, way, way up in the back, you know?
- [16:38]
Evan
Yeah, that's true. But, like, when it comes to the actual amenities and, like, the look and feel of the venue, it's. Oh, sure, no contest. And I was just at the bowl recent. The other. I was at the bowl the day before because a friend of mine just had like extra tickets to see the Philharmonic. And I was like, okay. And that was kind of an interesting contrast because I was there just in a crowd of mostly older Asian people and not really any. The median age must have been 60. And it was like the quietest I've ever heard a crowd anywhere.
- [17:23]
Ian
Much respect from the senior Asian audience of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
- [17:29]
Evan
Yeah, they had like the star 19 year old pianist who was like, you know, astounding and whatnot, doing his little. His very impressive thing.
- [17:41]
Ian
Scales.
- [17:43]
Evan
Yeah. At a certain point it's just like how I don't really understand that kind of music. It's like, what am I supposed to. I'm really supposed to like be imagining horses leaping and cannons firing for 45 minutes?
- [17:57]
Ian
Well, I mean, it's music that like was written and created when the concept of recorded music, like, didn't exist. You know, like it. If you're. If you're into like going to it and like, you can get dressed up and wear a cute little outfit and, you know, have your sweetie baby on your arm and stuff, it's a fun type of thing. But, yeah, I mean, it's sort of an outmoded concept at this stage.
- [18:22]
Evan
Still not unpleasant, but you know what's.
- [18:23]
Ian
Not outmoded is the Beach Boys. The damn Beach Boys.
- [18:28]
Evan
Yeah. It's funny that this was the day of the anniversary of the release of Surf's Up.
- [18:37]
Ian
Oh, yeah. I bet Mike really spent a lot of time honoring and celebrating the Surf'sup record at that show. Single song from that record was played almost nothing from. I don't know, I was looking at the Greek set list and it looks like it was a little different than mine, but mostly the same. There's virtually like nothing after Pet Sounds. There are a couple songs here and there, but like 90% of the show is. Yeah, there's a couple songs, but 90% of the show is 1962 to 1966. And that's it.
- [19:11]
Evan
Yeah. Yes. But like you were saying, I missed the beginning, which was I could hear when I was in line that there was some kind of a medley happening. And you were telling me that this was one of the funnier parts of the show and.
- [19:30]
Ian
Yes.
- [19:31]
Evan
Can you explain to me what you saw?
- [19:33]
Ian
Yeah, well, I mean, a lot of this show, I think, unless if it isn't clear already and it becomes very clear, you know, as soon as you sit down and see them come on stage, a lot of what the Beach Boys, again, quote unquote, the Beach Boys are doing live. They're really trading on the legacy of the Beach Boys and kind of pre existing cultural touch points that are semi connected to what you're getting on stage, you know, in the audience in the auditorium with this set of players in front of you. But not, honestly not really that connected. At the end of the day, what do you mean traping and hmm.
- [20:14]
Evan
What did you say? Or do you mean trading?
- [20:17]
Ian
Trading? Yeah. Did I not say trading?
- [20:19]
Evan
Yeah, I thought you said something else.
- [20:23]
Ian
And that begins with this introductory video that plays before they emerge onto the stage. Which, you know, is. It's. I guess it's like a hype reel is kind of what you would call it, but the way that it's put together and just the particular clips that consist of, it's basically the Mike Love hype reel. With minor guest appearances from Brian Wilson and Al Jardine and virtually no Carl or Dennis whatsoever to speak of at all. And I think it makes for a tidy kind of companion piece to that execrable Disney movie that we talked about a couple weeks ago that Mike spent some time shouting out at my show. I don't know if he, if he did any sort of plugs for it at yours, but he very funnily called it like a very fair handed and comprehensive and deep look at the boys that allows everyone to tell their own story or something.
- [21:28]
Evan
He said like it really, it shows all the contributions of all the guys.
- [21:33]
Ian
Of all the guys. That's right.
- [21:34]
Evan
And so I'm not, I'm not. I didn't make it about me and I didn't say that. I'm only doing it if it's mostly about me. And that's not what it is.
- [21:47]
Ian
Be a light. That's basically what this hype video is at the beginning is like the Mike Love show. And I think to an audience that might be listening to this program or anyone with a semi deep familiarity with the Beach Boys, you understand what you're seeing and why you're seeing what you're seeing. You know, Mike Love the body of the Beach Boys, as his Spotify bio makes the claim, seems to be just the guy that has always been there at the beginning, in the middle and here at the end of the Beach Boys and kind of everything's about him. But I think if you're coming to these shows without much familiarity with what you're about to see and you're maybe a little unsure about what's the relationship Between Mike Love and Brian Wilson. And why doesn't this guy sound like the guy who sings God Only Knows or whatever you might be, you might be leaving with a very incomplete picture of what the Beach Boys really are. Because it's honestly just about five minutes of video footage, mostly from like the 70s and 80s, weirdly because they don't play any fucking music from those decades. But I guess Mike just kind of likes the way he looks in those eras of him in these like spangled shirts and the most ridiculous hats that you've ever seen. Just shucking and jiving up on stage while like this medley of. Yeah, like you said, like random Beach Boy songs. Fun, fun, Fun and God Only Knows. And certainly nothing from Surf's up or Love you or anything like that. The music just plays in the background. I was cackling to myself before they even emerged on stage. And then towards the end of this video, everyone kind of walks out, you know, one by one. Mostly these random, you know, sims that, that the band is constituted of to begin with. And then finally, finally here comes Mr. Bruce and Mr. Mike ready to, ready to rock the show. What were their looks like at your show? What was, what was the, what was the appearance of the players?
- [23:56]
Evan
Let me consult my photography of the program. Let's.
- [24:01]
Ian
While you're looking that up, I'll just say they looked. Bruce honestly, you know, looked, looked pretty. He was in a relatively tasteful button down shirt, I think darker with some vertical stripes. And he's always wearing his little Beach Boys hat. He just loves to wear a hat that says the Beach Boys. As if someone would not understand that he's a member of the Beach Boys.
- [24:21]
Evan
Mike isn't wearing hats too.
- [24:22]
Ian
It's the Beach Boys. Well, Mike always, we know he's never taken a hat off for the last 65 years, but Mike was in full Mike regalia just the most. Joseph's Technicolor dreamcoat ass shirt.
- [24:36]
Evan
This shirt was crazy. This is a really, really weird shirt. I mean, what, what were their looks? Of course it was like what you'd expect. It's like sort of, it's, it's jeans, you know, just like the most dad looking dad jeans, like a lot of shoes.
- [24:55]
Ian
They're like a little, they're too skinny. You know, they're, they're, they're skinnier than what is cool today. But they're also not like skinny enough that someone who isn't cool would think they're cool. It's like a really weird uncanny valley position for the cut of Their. Their pants.
- [25:11]
Evan
Yeah, it's like 511 or 5. Yeah, 5 11s, I guess.
- [25:15]
Ian
5 11, 5 14. Exactly. They're outfitters in 2008 wearing, you know.
- [25:21]
Evan
Just like at what I see, I see like basically probably like a really expensive, but you wouldn't know it type shirts like where it's, you know, it's just like a striped shirt that's a lot of like those. Those shirts that have like a kind of elaborate and loud like inner collar.
- [25:41]
Ian
And inner collar lining. Yeah, yeah.
- [25:43]
Evan
And they're, you know, turned up or the sleeves are rolled up a bit. There's like a vest going on on one of the guys. You know, definitely like shoes that are either like wearing just like Chucks are wearing like, like shoes that have like the white like bottom, you know, like, you know what I mean?
- [26:07]
Ian
Like, yes, Mike is wearing. Mike is wearing literally like. Yes. Like Tony Hawk create a skater PS2 ass sneakers.
- [26:16]
Evan
Yeah. The shirt that Mike was wearing last night was really, really weird. Like, I can't really describe it. It looks like it's still loading. Like this shirt has like bars of what look to be different kinds of Hawaiian shirt motifs. Or it's like it has like these vertical bars that are white that kind of obscure. This sort of like odd digital looking. It looks like a file on Photoshop that you just like accidentally got all the layers. Like you tried to mask a layer and then you accidentally like made it clear and then I can't really tell what's going on at all. It's very. It's odd. It's like it looks AI Generated.
- [27:11]
Ian
Yeah. That my. His shirt at my show was kind of similar. It's honestly like, it almost looks like it's like three different shirts put together. Because like the front of this shirt, if you can see here, is like a floral print. Right. But on the sides and the slee, it's. It's like a. It turns into a stripe print. But then the placket is also stripes. But there's stripes going a different way. It's like. It's like someone took three different Mike Love shirts and put them in the machine from the fly and zapped them. And this is what emerged. And he decided, this is what I'm going to. This is what I'm gonna don't. I knew going into this that he was gonna be wearing an absolutely incredible Mike Love shirt. And even with that understanding that expectation, I was still floored by the actual article that he ended up emerging on stage wearing.
- [28:06]
Evan
Well, it's kind of like what do you do when you're my glove? And that's what you are wearing for decades. And I guess at some point somebody just gets to you and is like, you're going to be the only one who has this type of. This type of shirt. And he's probably got a guy who makes them. Like, wasn't it like the Koch brothers son makes, like.
- [28:33]
Ian
Oh, that's right. Chaz. Chaz somebody.
- [28:37]
Evan
His actual. Yeah, the shirt that you can wear to the discotheca.
- [28:42]
Ian
That's right. He's.
- [28:43]
Evan
I'm not saying that he's the one who is the maker of these garments.
- [28:47]
Ian
Wyatt. Wyatt. Coke.
- [28:48]
Evan
Some kind of thing where it's like you get this. You get deep enough into, like wearing elaborate Hawaiian shirts. And then you're like, I've got something for you that is a really nice Mr. Love. This is something very special that nobody else is gonna have. And then he's like, oh, really? It's like in Boogie Nights when they're shopping for clothes, and he's like, and this is a. It's from a designer from Italy. And it's actually a special fabric that is only. That he. Only. Only he can use. It's fashion from Italy. That's kind of the vibe. But that's. Everyone else was just wearing, you know, you can imagine. You can imagine easily what it looked like. Jon Stamos, for his part, I think he was wearing a suit for some of it. He changed outfits, I think, at least twice.
- [29:46]
Ian
Ooh, outfit changes. That's fun.
- [29:47]
Evan
He at the end had like chapel roan class. Yeah, exactly. He had a Hawaiian shirt, like, kind of. It's like a classic loud Hawaiian shirt. Not any kind of like optical illusions going on with it. He had a guitar strap that says Stamos on it with like some kind of very graphic black and white, like, floral pattern and something like that. Yeah.
- [30:23]
Ian
What exactly is he doing on stage? Is he singing songs? Is he. I think you said he played drums at one point.
- [30:31]
Evan
He played drums for most of it.
- [30:33]
Ian
Most of it. Interesting. So they had the two drummer setup.
- [30:37]
Evan
Yeah. I mean, I think for a good chunk of it, he's playing drums and then the other guy who's playing drums, he was a kind of a standout, I'll say. Like, he covers a lot of, like the. He brings the. The Denny energy.
- [30:53]
Ian
Yeah. The big guy. Yeah. On the drums. Yeah. He's very excitable guy.
- [30:57]
Evan
Like a true Beach Boys fan. You can tell by, like, his. His vibe and the way he's singing the songs and he really was doing like a lot of stick twirls and just like big.
- [31:06]
Ian
Oh yeah, a lot of stick twirls. Very, very excitable character. Big like shaggy head and a big mustache.
- [31:12]
Evan
Yeah. Singing out like wearing what looked to be like a vintage like ringer tea of some order. And he, he definitely seemed to be like a true fan. I got that impression. And John Stamos played for a lot of it when he wasn't playing and you know, was like playing like a guy who you're. You're in guitar center and he's like playing and you're like, oh, he. Yeah, he can play.
- [31:43]
Ian
You can do it.
- [31:44]
Evan
He was doing a lot of like, you know, big loud fills and he did like, there's a couple times when he did like drum solos and generally was like really holding it down. Had a, you know, you. If you would. Didn't know it was him, you'd think, oh, that's a energetic rock drummer with, you know, he's. He wasn't, he wasn't in the way.
- [32:09]
Ian
Great. So he's not actually singing. In other words.
- [32:12]
Evan
He did sing forever.
- [32:17]
Ian
The song forever.
- [32:18]
Evan
Oh, wow. And he sounded really good.
- [32:21]
Ian
He's done that in the. I think he did that on like some weird re release record. He sang that song.
- [32:26]
Evan
There was a clip 30 years ago or something, video of that interspersed with other random footage of course, and so on that, that part was pretty good. I mean his voice sounded really good. And he came out and did a couple, you know, talking. He. He spoke a couple times, especially toward the end, which I'll get to later. But it was a good and welcome presence. I think they all seemed happy that he was there. He seemed happy to be there. The crowd seemed happy to have him. And overall I think it was an important aspect of keeping things feeling alive.
- [33:13]
Ian
Literally. Not dead, not on the operating table, flatlining.
- [33:18]
Evan
Well, I want to talk about the first versus second half. I don't know about you, but I felt like that was at the beginning. I was a little hungry. I was a little tired.
- [33:29]
Ian
I'd ran getting hungry. Hungry for my kind of sandwich.
- [33:33]
Evan
Yeah, they don't play that.
- [33:35]
Ian
What'd you get, like a pretzel or something?
- [33:37]
Evan
No, I didn't get anything there.
- [33:38]
Ian
You didn't eat the whole time?
- [33:40]
Evan
Well, I did at the intermission, which there is.
- [33:43]
Ian
Would you get a pretzel?
- [33:44]
Evan
No, I actually was like the thing about the Greek is that there's. The food options are kind of trash. Like it's.
- [33:50]
Ian
They're limited. Yeah. It's like. It's like truffle from Disneyland.
- [33:52]
Evan
And Disneyland food is better at this point, but Also it costs $3,000 to go at Disneyland now. It was like chicken fingers, what I managed to find, which was probably, I think, absolutely the best value. And I'm kind of on a diet too, so this worked for me. I went to the Zone by the patron zone. There's like a little patron pavilion, the patrons, and there was like a place where they had an actual grill and they had like, skewers. I got like a couple, like, skewers.
- [34:30]
Ian
That was like kebab type of thing. Like yakitori.
- [34:33]
Evan
Yeah, like, you know, just sort of like a teriyaki, like beef skewer. And I got like two of those. And that was like $14 for two, which I'm telling you, like, that is the absolute bare minimum. That's the cheapest thing you can possibly get.
- [34:48]
Ian
Sounds like it could have been worse to me.
- [34:50]
Evan
It could have been way worse. It was totally fine. But you have to, like, walk around to like, find that. And it's an anomaly because straight up at the Greek Theater, a regular sized beer is $20 good. And everything else is like the same. You know, it's, it's. It feels insulting. Like, it feels like you are trapped here. I know you're going to eat these truffle fries, you pig, and you're going to pay for them dearly.
- [35:20]
Ian
That's right.
- [35:20]
Evan
But I managed to have my little snack and a $17 Coors Light. Oh, man, that got me through the second part. So my opinion of the second part is colored by the fact that I had higher blood sugar, but Interesting.
- [35:40]
Ian
Well, yeah, so the first part, you know, it's a. It's. They play the first part of the show about an hour, take a relatively long intermission. I don't know if Mike did this at yours, but he had some big long spiel about how much he loves the intermission at ars, where I guess, presumably because he gets to go sit down and take a shit or something and then. And then they come back and do like another hour there for the second set. The first set is really your classic Beach Boys, you know, Hawthorne Boulevard, good times, rock songs type of thing. And the second set is also that, but like, there's a little bit more of a gesture towards, like, emotionality and affect and artistry, I guess, insofar as that even exists at these shows. I think the first part of the set, honestly. And really the first part of the first part of the set really actually did it for me again. Knowing what you're getting into, what you're about to experience, and what you're gonna see is not at all the Beach Boys. When they come out and they start with Do It Again, into surf and safari, Catch a wave, Hawaii. Don't back down. Yeah, I knew you were watching this Ramones cover. Oh, I love Hawaii. Even though this version of Hawaii, not so much. They cover Rockaway beach, they do Surfin usa, Surfer Girl. It's a really fast moving, pretty extraordinary and incredible recitation of just hit after hit after hit. And at a certain point, my idiot lizard brain got the better of me and I was just like, man, the Beach Boys fucking rock. And this is not the Beach Boys. But I guess it's the closest thing to the Beach Boys that exists in 2024 at this point. And it feels great to be, like, hearing these songs, seeing them play live amongst this crowd of oldsters who are having the time in their lives.
- [37:35]
Evan
Yeah.
- [37:37]
Ian
You sound less convinced. I guess you were hungry during this song.
- [37:40]
Evan
I was hungry. But also, I do think that there was a. It wasn't just an illusion based on my body chemistry. It was the second half. I think I was pleasantly. I could tell that, like, the second half was whether they planned this or not. More made up of songs where it's. It's more in Mike Love's range and.
- [38:11]
Ian
Oh, that is it.
- [38:14]
Evan
Yeah.
- [38:14]
Ian
I mean, more in Mike Love's range, I guess.
- [38:17]
Evan
I mean, Kokomo, which comes at the very end. Spoiler.
- [38:22]
Ian
The big. The big. The big cinema happy. The big show stopping show closer. That's what we've all been waiting for. Kokomo.
- [38:29]
Evan
Well, I realized something about Kokomo, which is that, like, it seems like, you know, which. Which I was just imagining, like, you know, when Kokomo was being conceived, he was, like, talking to, like, sports medicine specialists being like, how can I. Can you make a song that I. A sports musician specialist? Like, can I. Can I have a song where I can be 1000 years old and still sing it somehow? Because it. It just is like, the one sweet spot where, like, he can. He's not straining at all, really.
- [39:08]
Ian
Yes.
- [39:09]
Evan
And I. He sounded good. There were, like, a couple grace moments where he sounds like, good.
- [39:19]
Ian
Good enough. Yeah, I think do it again also. Is that there at the beginning? I mean, but that is. That's kind of the main. One of the main, you know, things or issues with this incarnation of the band is like, yeah, we might as well. Mike is the low, you know, portion of the vocal arrangement. And so many of these Beach Boy songs are dependent on the soaring highs of people like Brian and Carl. And, you know, there's some weird combination of these songs where either Mike is trying to do leads that he should not be doing in the first place or has one of his hired guns. There was one guy in particular who basically is the Brian Wilson. Yeah, he's got Brian voice. He's the guitar player. He was playing to. Like, Mike's left, I think, at my show. And he's got a pretty good voice, certainly. But it, like, even despite that, Mike's. Mike's vocals are always just way, way up in the fucking mix. And, like, you know, God bless him, he's up there and trying and chucking and jiving, but he just. He's. He does not. He doesn't have the chops necessary at this point, at this day and age, to be so present and out there in front of everyone else in terms of the vocal range. So you really got to. On a lot of these songs, you got to kind of look past what you're actually hearing coming out of the speakers right in front of you.
- [40:42]
Evan
Looking past it is not always possible.
- [40:45]
Ian
And it certainly is not.
- [40:47]
Evan
It's not that different on a technical. You know, just. We're looking at, like, diagnosing an issue here. Like, it's a car. Like, okay, well, you can't be doing this or that or like, you know, a medical problem.
- [41:03]
Ian
You shouldn't take this thing on highways.
- [41:04]
Evan
Yeah.
- [41:05]
Ian
But if you're on surface streets, like, you know, it'll get you from point A to point B. Yeah.
- [41:09]
Evan
Don't try to. Don't go off road. You're not going to be able to get out of those muddy patches. But with someone like Van Morrison, whose voice is obviously not what it used to be, but is still able to very much.
- [41:26]
Ian
It's still a thing of beauty.
- [41:27]
Evan
It's still great. But a lot of that, it points out that I think something that is true about Van Morrison, obviously, is that it's very much strategy and a kind of intelligence and artistry of its own to know dynamically how to adapt your voice to not putting yourself in a position where you're straining and reaching and failing, but allowing there to be times where you. You push a little bit. And mostly you keep it within a comfortable register, even if it's not, like, the record and it doesn't sound like what you used to be able to do. You're not clashing with anything. But Mike seems to be like, you get the impression it's like his temperament is not to really own up to that. And his strong suit may just not be that admittedly very technical and. And creative. A mastery, really, something like what Van has. And Bob Dylan, they use their voices in a very thoughtful way. That is like, a huge part of what makes them a good singer. You know, it doesn't even depend on actual range as much as a feel and a sense of rhythm, a sense of drama and timing. These more subtle aspects where it's like, you feel, watching this, that basically Mike Love doesn't want to not be the star of the show at any point for more than 10 seconds at a time.
- [43:26]
Ian
Exactly the absolute minimum amount. I think what you're saying, without really saying, is that, like. And this is clear, obviously, but, you know, there's no getting around this fact. If you're gonna go see the Beach Boys live today, you know, like, people like Bob and Van are artists and they deploy their vocals and their music, you know, artistically, they make artistic decisions. And Mike is not, you know, he's not doing that. And, you know, that's not to say that he's not doing something that is still, you know, artistically interesting or impressive or certainly entertaining for a lot of people. But it's just. That's not part of the equation for him, you know, and it never really was. He was always part of the group. It was the group. It was the Beach Boys. And his voice, his vocals, his range was an important element of that, you know, cocktail, that stew of sounds and timbres. But. But when you're missing everything else that went into that and you're just getting like, that's it kind of. It can't help but fall apart a little bit at that point.
- [44:28]
Evan
Yeah, but that brings it to, like. I think we can't talk about that without sort of getting into the bigger question or idea of, like, what Mike Love is doing here, what the point of all this is. And I think it's like something you shouldn't overthink. And honestly, John Stamos came out and said the most concise. Said it very concisely. After the break, he basically. He pointed out directly like this. He did a very, like, heartfelt. And he seemed very genuine, too. It wasn't like, when he said this stuff, it didn't feel like schmaltz. I mean, it was schmaltzy, but it didn't feel, like, disingenuous. He was, you know, saying, like, in this beautiful man, you know, he was like, this night Feels like so great. And every, like, thanks everyone for being here. And you know, he did like a very earnest, just like, look at Mike Love. He's 83. He said this 83 year old man as if to say, like, look, we all know he's not able to do that thing that you thought vocally might be. You know, he was basically apologizing for him, but not in a way that was like embarrassed. It was more like just, hey, let's, let's just give it up for Mike. And he said like, this is music that goes, that bypasses the, the head and goes straight to the heart. And I think that honestly that's the best way to understand what the point of seeing the Beach Boys is in this form. And the point of what Mike Love has always brought to the Beach Boys, it does depend on a foundation of that intent is like what so much of this music is about. Those artistic flights of fancy. I mean, more than flights of fancy. The artistic peaks that they were able to achieve, which are like not what this version represents.
- [46:37]
Ian
No, you don't say.
- [46:40]
Evan
Those things are remarkable in part because what they are doing is branching off of something that is very purely about that kind of sentimental, straightforward, happy, go lucky music. So then when Brian stretches that and the group, the times when they're able to stretch with him, it's like that's a, you know, a huge thing that's very special. And it's, it's just a reminder seeing this, that like that bass thing from which they stretch, there was never really anything wrong with it. It's still quite good compared to all the other people who try to make that music.
- [47:34]
Ian
Yeah, I think that's true. I mean, the phrase that Mike is kind of associated with so often and kind of hangs like an albatross around his neck is don't fuck with the formula. Which people rightly in many cases interpret as his reticence, his hesitance to try to broaden the artistic horizons of the group and Brian & Co. And represents sort of a conservative, reactionary streak in him. All which is true. And at the same time he does say that because there is an element of truth to it, the formula does work. And it worked from the beginning and it still works today. Even in this kind of broken down degenerative state. I think it almost speaks to like how correct he was with that phrase or that mindset. The fact that it still can work this well, even at this late date, even with almost no original members on Stage and the 1.75 of original members in barely even a state in which they can still get along with this Bruce's voice. On that note, just very briefly, as an aside, completely shot. You can barely even hear him when he's singing. He's a great little hype man over there on the side, but. But his days as a vocal heavy hitter are long in the rearview mirror. There was something. I couldn't help but be kind of satisfied and inspired by the end of this show. Even as weird and kind of gross as it might have seemed at certain points, I had this thought witnessing it because we just saw Bob a couple weeks ago. Obviously, like, Mike is kind of the opposite of Bob, you know, as a live performer and artist. But not in the way, like, kind of in the same way that the opposite of love isn't hate, but indifference. Right. Like, Mike is. Mike actually is the opposite of Bob. If this made more sense in my brain when I was, like, kind of drunk on Charlemagne Show, I'm trying to pull it all together. Like, Mike is the opposite of Bob. Mike is to Bob as love is to hate, not love to indifference. And I mean that kind of in a positive thing. It's kind of the exact antithesis of anything that Bob would ever do or want to do as a live performer. But there is still something kind of interesting and important animating him. Mike. To go out there night after night at stages across the country and still put this show on and still do this night in and night out, because the man has tens, probably hundreds of millions of dollars at this point. He doesn't need to be doing any of this shit. But there is still something that's kind of driving him and animating him to push forward. And that might be just spite and the desire to outlive the legacy and brilliance of Brian Wilson and kind of step out beyond his shadow as much as he ever can, but that's still something. There is kind of like a. You can't help but admire the son of a bitch element to this.
- [50:51]
Evan
Yeah, absolutely. That sentiment is felt by me as well. Like. And also, I will say his bants were generally not as obnoxious. Feeling, like, they didn't feel as, like, grown.
- [51:07]
Ian
They're kind of charming.
- [51:08]
Evan
Yeah, yeah.
- [51:08]
Ian
Like, I. Kind of. Like, I kind of. He had me smiling. He had me grinning like it was. It was, it was, it was. It was a positive element of the show.
- [51:17]
Evan
Yeah. And they wished his wife a happy birthday on the stage, and his kids came out and were dancing, singing. And. Yeah, like I said, it was like a blonde bar Mitzvah. It was hard to be upset, especially in the second half where I will say a lot of the second part was stacked with more of the. As deep as the cuts went, it was like you did get Sloop John B. And God only knows which I will say the graphics that were playing through the whole thing.
- [51:56]
Ian
Pretty, pretty rough.
- [51:58]
Evan
Yeah. Pretty bleak especially Wouldn't it be nice Was like. Oh like it was like the most literal. Like you just typed into AI like a direct literal interpretation of every lyric with like the most kind of cloying, stupid clip art looking stuff. Pretty awful. Like if they had somebody who was good at this.
- [52:37]
Ian
And there are a couple decent video videos that pop up but they're. They're videos that are related to like recent like major productions of like re releases and stuff. Like the Darlin video.
- [52:48]
Evan
Yeah.
- [52:48]
Ian
Re litigate Darlin again. But like.
- [52:50]
Evan
Well, I will say that I was feeling Darlin.
- [52:54]
Ian
Well, Darlin's great. We love Darlin. And the drummer does all of Carl's parts, you know, so he. The drummer guy, you know, the big energetic galoot. He was the one doing. Doing Darlin and he sounds. He sounds pretty good. And it's certainly, you know, high T and is digging and clearly. Anyway, just on the video note, they have a little kind of well put together animation of the Wild Honey cover. The stained glass kind of flying around in the background. That's great stuff. But 90% of the songs are accompanied by videos that seem to have been made by someone that Mike hired off of Fiverr.
- [53:28]
Evan
Fiverr?
- [53:29]
Ian
Yeah, he just needed something turned around in about 48 hours. And so these random like just like 320 by 320 image search results from Google that are just like, you know, Ken Burns affected across the screen. You know, pictures of Mike and Bruce from 48 years ago with like a little sparkly filter on top of it. That's what you mostly get.
- [53:55]
Evan
The worst part in this way was there was like a sing along aspect to some of the songs toward the end and it was straight up like the. I guess it's just like imovie like built in like imovie from like some time ago. You know, where is it like the.
- [54:12]
Ian
Bouncing ball, like Disney sing along thing?
- [54:15]
Evan
I mean like it's like a black screen. Then it's like sparkles and then it's the next line and then it sparkles and then it's the next line. Those like big fat sparkles. You know what I mean?
- [54:25]
Ian
Yes, I do.
- [54:26]
Evan
That was like. That's like a preset setting that comes on every computer from 10 years ago, if not more.
- [54:36]
Ian
Probably 20.
- [54:37]
Evan
20. Yeah, I don't even know. It's not even like a recent. They probably have changed it by now.
- [54:45]
Ian
I mean those are clearly videos that were exported in the year 2006 and they've just been sitting on a hard drive for the last 18 years and reused on every tour that they've embarked on.
- [54:56]
Evan
Yeah, the vibe was like somebody who is a senior citizen who, you're looking at their Instagram and their Facebook page and they do know how to post on it. And they're, they're not like, you know, accidentally searching like for their grandkids names like in the caption or anything like that. But it's kind of like a, a big stew of, of just whatever the algorithm like tells an old, you know, nudges an old person along to like post anything.
- [55:37]
Ian
We see that, you know, Mike isn't the only one guilty. We see that with our friend Van Dyke on Instagram. Honestly, the Michael Imperioli Instagram is basically just a bunch of like, you know, barely legible photos of Kamala Harris at this point.
- [55:50]
Evan
Yeah, I mean that's just like as.
- [55:51]
Ian
Soon as you hit the 50 years old, this is just what happens to you online.
- [55:55]
Evan
That won't happen for much longer. You know that it's something that I think is going to go away because old people from now on are not going to not know how to use these basic things. But we're in.
- [56:09]
Ian
See, I like to think that it just like it happens like even if you knew how to use the computer, like Once we hit 50, just like this is. There's some sort of brain chemical process that happens that makes us start posting like this.
- [56:22]
Evan
Well, we'll definitely seem like that to the young people by the time that happens, no matter what. I mean young people now like gen zers and God forbid, like even younger. I mean they don't even. They look at a nicely curated page like, like on like, like Jokerman page for example, you know, where we, we take some time to make everything look like a certain way and keep it looking not like a mess. And they're just like, well this is stupid.
- [56:53]
Ian
It's gay.
- [56:55]
Evan
It's gay cringe. They don't even say cringe anymore. They say Ohio apparently Ohio.
- [57:02]
Ian
That's a new one to me.
- [57:03]
Evan
That's what I heard is that young children, they say that.
- [57:08]
Ian
I've been informed by my little sister who's right on the edge of Alpha and Z either like the oldest the youngest Z or the oldest alpha that you can get that both Twitter and Instagram are just quote for moms at this point. So. Yeah, yeah, you know. Well, I mean, she doesn't even do TikTok or anything. It's just like. It seems like the concept of social media might just be, you know, quote unquote cringe and a bad look to future generations.
- [57:37]
Evan
Yeah, well, that's a conversation. That's a whole other conversation back to.
- [57:41]
Ian
I will say that in the second set, you know, there were. There were a couple moments that I. That I did enjoy. You know, honestly, seeing Mike do California Girls was. Was fun. You know, he's. He's the California Girls guy. And you know, you could see that he was loving it, singing to all these beautiful California ladies out in the audience. God Only Knows felt indecent to me because he had Christian his son sing, sing God Only Knows and you know, I don't know about you.
- [58:15]
Evan
What do you think of Christian song?
- [58:16]
Ian
Christian Love does not have the juice. He does not have Riz.
- [58:21]
Evan
He could hit the notes though. But he did. He did his original song. It. Did you. I think.
- [58:26]
Ian
Did he do Some Some Summer for you?
- [58:28]
Evan
He sure did. I think Some Some Summer, which is his original number. It was interesting.
- [58:35]
Ian
What a song.
- [58:36]
Evan
Willie Nelson and his son playing.
- [58:39]
Ian
Lucas.
- [58:40]
Evan
Lucas Nelson. He. Did he play that song of his when you saw him?
- [58:48]
Ian
Did who play? What song?
- [58:49]
Evan
Lucas. Lucas Nelson did he play?
- [58:54]
Ian
We left like like 10, 10 minutes into Willie, so.
- [58:57]
Evan
Oh, really? Oh, wow. He. His son did one song that was like an. An intentional like imitation of Willy song to comedic effect, which was actually pretty good. It was like about getting high and it sounded like a country.
- [59:14]
Ian
Was he like roasting Willie?
- [59:16]
Evan
Yeah, I mean it was loving sort of spook send up, but that was fun.
- [59:23]
Ian
I would not say that Some Some Summer was a loving send up or spoof of a Beach Boy.
- [59:29]
Evan
No, but what I do want to say as well is though he did a different song, an original song of his that seemed completely original which was like, like Terrence McKenna guy writing a country song. So it was like about like it was sort of like Neil Young when he gets like to something where he was like. It was about sort of how he was like everything is bullshit. And then that literally was like talking about Stoned Ape theory with mushrooms growing out of cow patties.
- [60:05]
Ian
This is in Christian Love's song.
- [60:06]
Evan
No, this was Lucas Nelson. And so I will say I preferred the like Airhead Dol. Some Some Summer, which is not even a play on Words. It's not like, it's not like I want some. Some summer or something like that. Like that would be clever.
- [60:27]
Ian
It's just a stutter. It's just Joe Biden stuttering, trying to say summer.
- [60:31]
Evan
Just yum, yum, yummy. It's just like it's that simple and.
- [60:36]
Ian
And it's like a. It's a weird, you know. Presumably the audiences, our listeners are not going to be terribly familiar with some, some summer. But it's like it's the Beach Boys filtered through like Jimmy Eat Worlds or like Mid era blink182 type thing. Or like a pop punk interpretation.
- [60:55]
Evan
I wouldn't say pop punk, but it's like the music that would be in like a reality show about tattoos.
- [61:03]
Ian
Yeah. It's honestly, you know, some, some, some obviously, you know, goes without saying, dog shit. Just an absolute stinking turd of a song. And nothing more embarrassing than being up there on stage as a 56 year old man. To me, you know, poorly imitating Brian Wilson singing or excuse me, Carl Wilson singing God Only Knows. There.
- [61:28]
Evan
Yeah. That wasn't fair.
- [61:28]
Ian
There was something kind of pornographic about it to me. And not in a cool way where you get horny from porno. Just like disgusting, just gross. About Christian love doing God Only Knows.
- [61:40]
Evan
Yeah, there was a little bit of a. Indecent. They had like we love you Carl RIP style montage going on at some point. I don't remember if it was during that. There was also some that were like Dennis based. They didn't actually directly shout out Dennis.
- [62:04]
Ian
He didn't say anything about Dennis. Yeah, he mentioned Carl and he mentioned Brian. In mind. He hates Dennis. Yeah, exactly. Dennis has basically been erased from the bench and you know, for understandable reasons, I guess. Not that he shouldn't be.
- [62:17]
Evan
They never got along.
- [62:18]
Ian
We know that they've always hated each other and they had plenty of internecine fights.
- [62:23]
Evan
When it comes to Brian Wilson and the tribute moment to Brian, it was kind of like it was as if he was dead. And that was weird. And the fact that it was. Yeah, he was like Brian.
- [62:36]
Ian
Was it when he introduced Warmth of the Sun.
- [62:37]
Evan
Yeah. Which is like the oddest choice. Cause it's like the one time that he working on a song with Brian that feels like powerful at all. And he can say that he wrote the lyrics and then he talks briefly about that. It was on the eve practically of JFK's assassination. And he said, we found out the next day that President John F. Kennedy was taken to the hospital. And I was Kind of just thinking, like, taken to the hospital.
- [63:11]
Ian
Is that what he said, taking it?
- [63:12]
Evan
He didn't say his brain.
- [63:17]
Ian
Yeah, he didn't say that John F. Kennedy was unalived.
- [63:21]
Evan
Yeah, he sort of implied when he mentioned Brian in that context with a big black and white photo of Brian. And he's like, Brian is. Well, he's with us in spirit. And then he's like, had just mentioned JFK's death. It's like, why are you acting like Brian has passed away? And also this. This song is, like, not a Brian classic. You know, it's like.
- [63:49]
Ian
I mean, it's an early, you know, strong effort. But, yeah, I mean, it's way, way, way down there.
- [63:54]
Evan
But what would have been the best song? Like, what would have been the same? But, I mean.
- [63:57]
Ian
Well, that's the thing is, like, if part of this project is sort of like, erasing or minimizing Brian Wilson's legacy and his import in the Beach Boys and jettisoning it, jettisoning everything that Beach Boys did after Pet sounds like, you know, heroes and Villains would have been a great choice. Or like, Til I Die would have been a great choice. Obviously, Surf's up would have been. But all of that stuff is untouchable for Mike, you know, and for this iteration of the beach choice. Not that you wouldn't want it to be touched. I wouldn't want these guys to do those songs. But, like, you have to. And this is basically what happened with the Disney movie, too. You kind of just have to pretend like the Beach Boys cease to exist after 1966 and just kind of ignore half a century's worth of struggles and artistic achievements and high points and low points and stuff.
- [64:56]
Evan
Yeah, I agree.
- [64:57]
Ian
And so that's why you end up with something like the Warmth of the sun as the Brian Wilson moment, because Lord knows he's not really gonna give him much credit for the Pet Sound shit, what little of it there is.
- [65:07]
Evan
I think that generously, you can say that this is about highlighting Mike Love and his contribution. And if you look at it that way, it's, you know, a lot less like friction, because it's not about burying the rest as much as it is just like, what is. What. What did Mike Love bring to this? And you get a sense for what he brought to this group. Brings to the group. John Stamos came out and, you know, during that portion where he was, like, praising Mike, he also said, like, this. This music, you know, he was saying it was, like, about the heart. It's direct to the Heart music. And. And in this time, you know, we're living in a time when it's a high point of discord and a low point of decency.
- [66:07]
Ian
Thank you. Thank you, John Stamos.
- [66:08]
Evan
I didn't. I didn't. You know, that's interesting, because I hadn't.
- [66:10]
Ian
Thought about credibly accused, you know, sexual pest John Stamos. Low point of decency. Yes.
- [66:20]
Evan
I didn't know that.
- [66:21]
Ian
Yeah, we don't need to get into that either. You know, go see them. You know, if they're coming through. Fucking. Why not? You're not gonna be able to see this for much longer. It's a fun night. Exactly. I had a great time with my wife and her parents and, you know, semi buzzed on some not very good Chardonnay. It's like, you know. What else. What else are you looking for?
- [66:42]
Evan
Were you semi buzzed on the Kokomo brand? What do they have? Is it. Did they have that?
- [66:48]
Ian
They didn't have a Kokomo spirit set up at ours, unfortunately.
- [66:51]
Evan
So these are like canned cocktails, right?
- [66:53]
Ian
Canned cocktails. Yeah, exactly.
- [66:55]
Evan
Club Kokomo. You know, the design of it just looks very like this.
- [67:01]
Ian
This is. This is the one point of the Venn diagram between Mike Love and Bob Dylan where there is some overlap. It's the. It's the. The co. Brand alcoholic beverage line that they've introduced here in their seventh and eighth decade on the planet.
- [67:15]
Evan
Yeah, they had the. Oh, my gosh. The shirt he's wearing on the. He looks. He looks evil in this picture. I mean, like, look at that shirt he's wearing. Go on the Kokomo Spirits Club. Kokomo Spirits.
- [67:32]
Ian
I'm on Club Club.
- [67:33]
Evan
Down a little bit.
- [67:35]
Ian
Scroll down. I don't see any. I don't see him anywhere. I just see drinks here.
- [67:38]
Evan
No, scroll down.
- [67:39]
Ian
Oh, wow. Oh, there. Whoa. He's, like, in a dark. It almost looks like a suit of armor or something.
- [67:46]
Evan
It's like another one of these shirts. I gotta find out where he gets these. They look like they.
- [67:51]
Ian
They're custom made. They gotta be custom made.
- [67:54]
Evan
These are alien technology.
- [67:58]
Ian
Yeah, it sort of looks like. Like, you know what it looks like to me? Do you remember the Pokemon movie? When you would go to the first Pokemon movie and they would give you the MEW card as, like, a bonus thing, and it was supposed to look like this. Like, ancient, like. Yeah, hieroglyphic foily thing like that. That is what Mike's shirt looks like here.
- [68:20]
Evan
Like I said, this is. This is of exotic origin. This is off world technology that he's getting these shirts from.
- [68:28]
Ian
It's like I'm starting to believe those crackpot theories that like, you know, human beings had invented computers and spaceships 10,000 years ago and all the evidence has been lost. Like these shirts feel like a legacy of a pre human master civilization.
- [68:45]
Evan
Yeah. This is a, you know, a good opportunity also for, for this brand to do some outreach. There's literally parts where there's an ad sort of like subliminally spliced into, like when they played Kokomo, there was like shots from a commercial for the club Kokomo Spirits. There was a part where he actually did just talk about the, the documentary and just like plugged it. Like right after the intermission. They just played the trailer basically for it and it said, disney really big on all the Jumbotrons.
- [69:25]
Ian
That was my club. Never, never a man to turn down a branding collaboration.
- [69:30]
Evan
There's just something I will say, a.
- [69:32]
Ian
Canny businessman about all of it though.
- [69:34]
Evan
That's like a little bit like, you know, embalmed. And, and yet it's the, it's like the feeling of. I don't know what it must be like for when, when a Weekend at Bernie's type situation. Like it's working for a short time. Like nobody notices that he's dead and everybody's just having a good time at the party. And for now that's good enough.
- [70:07]
Ian
That's right. The party's gonna end sometime, but you know, it, it isn't over quite yet. Even though maybe it should be. One star for the Beach Boys Live in 2024.
- [70:18]
Evan
Pretty good. One star out of three. I was singing along to Barbara Ann. I was singing along.
- [70:23]
Ian
Oh, bop bop, bop bop, Bobann.
- [70:25]
Evan
I was singing along to Rhonda.
- [70:26]
Ian
Oh, they were doing Rhonda at the end.
- [70:28]
Evan
I was getting into it. Help me, Rhonda. I, I, we also.
- [70:33]
Ian
You finally come around to Rhonda. Now that you've seen the majesty of Mike and Christian Love performing it live.
- [70:39]
Evan
There were times when there were songs I didn't even. I don't really think of as being like, favorites that I kind of was like, actually, I see it. You know, sometimes you do have to see a thing from several unexpected angles to really start to understand what's great about it, the majesty of its form. And I think that's true of some of these numbers. There were a couple of songs that I was like, glad to hear that. I would not have known had I not endeavored to cover this material with you. On the Jokerman program. I don't think I really would have known. Let him run wild. Like, did.
- [71:24]
Ian
They do Let him run wild.
- [71:25]
Evan
They did let him run wild.
- [71:26]
Ian
Whoa, that's great. I did not get that.
- [71:28]
Evan
They did let him run wild. They did. There were a couple other, like, bust outs that I think didn't happen. I don't have the set list right in front of me, but I had.
- [71:41]
Ian
A. Yeah, there are a couple like that. Like, don't back down. I think is a relative deep cut. Deep cut from the beginning or from the early days that they played.
- [71:49]
Evan
What's the one where it's good to my baby?
- [71:51]
Ian
Yeah, you're so good to me.
- [71:52]
Evan
You're so good to me. Which is a song I don't particularly have a fondness for. I found myself being like, ah.
- [72:01]
Ian
That'S not too bad.
- [72:02]
Evan
I recognize it.
- [72:03]
Ian
Yeah, you know. Enjoy it. Go. Go to catch the show, folks. It. It's not gonna be the greatest performance you've ever seen, but it's not gonna be the worst one you've ever seen either. And it sure, sure as hell will be the only one that you can credibly say is the Beach Boys. It says Beach Boys on the ticket, so that's gotta count for something.
- [72:30]
Evan
Jokerman.
- [72:42]
Ian
R. Maybe we can let it.
- [72:46]
Evan
Out Tell each other feelings that we hold inside.
- [72:53]
Ian
In the sum sum summer did it all last summer? In the sum sum summer we did it all last summer.