I Missed the Yanks Pounding Schilling, But Check Out My SMiLE...
I take it back. I take it all back. Anything disparaging, negative, or even questioning that I wrote in my review of the SMiLE album was wrong. I just couldn't realize it until I heard the album live, which I did last night at sold-out Carnegie Hall. Brian's voice? As strong as I've heard it in ages. The fact that he jumps between melodies too often? On the album it sometimes sounds spliced together and overbaked, but performed live I wouldn't change a note. It's impossible to explain in words how this sounds without doing it justice... one simply has to see and hear it for themselves.
For the concert in general, it came as no surprise that the band was practically flawless. The show started with Brian surrounded by the 10 members of his backing band, doing a 9-song a capella / acoustic set including "Surfer Girl," "Wendy," and "Please Let Me Wonder." When they picked up their instruments and launched into "Sloop John B.," I got goosebumps. Another dozen songs followed, featuring tracks from his most recent solo album interspersed with late Beach Boys works like "Sail On, Sailor" and "Forever." After a brief intermission, the band (and an 8-piece string section) played SMiLE with such clarity and precision, it boggles the mind. I can't even begin to count how many different instruments (or objects such as drills and saws) were employed to create a sound I once thought impossible to achieve outside a studio. After SMiLE, the band returned for a party set of 7 classic Beach Boys tunes such as "I Get Around" and "Help Me Rhonda," and finished off the night with his closer, "Love & Mercy."
2 1/2 hours, almost 50 songs, a crowd hanging on every note and inundating Brian and the band with standing ovations... it's truly a night I (and I hope Tommy) will never forget.