One of my earliest memories of me and my Dad involves him cleaning this old hot tub we had while I was in some sort of floaty, and we were listening to the Beach Boys. I had to have been about 2. (Strangely, I have another similar memory, only we were listening to "Gimme Shelter," but since that I has nothing to do with this story, I digress.) And I swear, I knew the lyrics to all their greatest hits before I could speak in complete sentences. My first CD was their anthology Born in the U.S.A. and it wasn't until Junior High, that I started listening to "my own music," so to speak.
The questions is always The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. For me, the answer has always been The Beach Boys.
So, when Boyfriend got us tickets to see The Beach Boys as the Mountain Winery, I was beyond stoked. I don't care if there are only two original members left touring – they're one of my only favourite artists that I've never seen (or if I did when I was younger, which is a possibility, I don't remember them). And when we got there, we discovered how great our seats were.
Of course, I'll never really know what it was like to see them in the height of their musical careers, but damn, if they were anywhere as tight and impeccable as they were tonight, it's easy to see how they've stayed a touring band for so long. They played from 7:30 to 10:00, with a brief intermission, and in that time they played every thing I wanted to hear (with the exception of "Heroes & Villains," but I wasn't really expecting that) and stuff I wasn't expecting at all ("Sail On, Sailor," anyone?). Mike Love and Bruce Johnston are still amazing and their support band is fabulous.
It's strange watching a band that had it's rise and fall before I was even born. With the exception of "Kokomo" they haven't done much that's noteworthy since the 1970s. They even made jokes that they must be so popular due to Full House re-runs. But at the same time, everyone in the audience was singing along and dancing and enjoying it all. They transcend time and genre.
And that got me thinking, too. Are there any bands around today, that got their start in the past 10 - 20 years, that could someday be touring for their 50th anniversary? It seems to me that the longevity just isn't there anymore. Not with such a large catalog and such a universal love like The Beach Boys have...
What band from today would you see 20 or 30 years from now? What band that was a favourite of your parents' would you go see today?
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