The Beach Boys will kick off their 50th anniversary reunion tour on April 24 in Tuscon, Arizona, in dates announced today on their Web site. Major festival stops include the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Bonnaroo.
“This anniversary is special to me,” Brian Wilson has said, “because I miss the boys and it will be a thrill for me to make a new record and be on stage with them again.”
These are the first shows to feature the band’s surviving members in decades. Following the death of Carl Wilson, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston continued to tour as the Beach Boys. Al Jardine, meanwhile, has been appearing with the Endless Summer Band. Long absent from the road, Brian Wilson started playing separately with his early-1990s comeback — all amidst a flurry of lawsuits back and forth between the members.
Al Jardine then joined Brian Wilson in a solo concert, and then appeared in the Mike Love-led Beach Boys edition of the band last year. By December, the band had confirmed plans for a reunion tour. These dates will also include early guitarist David Marks, who left the group as a teen in 1963.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and recipients of the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, the Beach Boys have already recorded several songs for an already-announcing new album, to be released in 2012 by Capitol/EMI, with more tracks to be follow before its completion. The as-yet-untitled album, the first to feature all of the band’s surviving original members in decades, is being produced by Brian Wilson and executive produced by Mike Love.
Today’s announced dates for the Beach Boys 50th anniversary concert tour …
4/24: Tucson, AZ – Anselmo Valencia Amphitheater
4/26: Grand Prairie, TX – Verizon Theatre
4/27: New Orleans, LA – New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
4/28: Atlanta, GA – Chastain Park Amphitheater
4/29: Raleigh, NC – Raleigh Amphitheater
5/2: St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheater
5/4: Hollywood, FL – Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
5/5: Tampa, FL – Stratz Center for the Performing Arts
5/8: New York, NY – Beacon Theater
5/9: New York, NY – Beacon Theater
5/11: Pittsburgh, PA – Benedum Hall
5/12: Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
5/13: Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
5/15: White Plains, NY – Westchester County Center
5/17: Bethlehem, PA – Sands Bethlehem Events Center
5/19: Atlantic City, NJ – The Borgata Hotel Casino
5/21: Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre
5/27: Las Vegas, NV – Red Rock Casino
6/1: Berkeley, CA – The Greek Theatre
6/2: Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl
6/8: The Woodlands, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
6/10: Manchester, TN – Bonaroo Music and Arts Festival
6/13: Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center
6/15: Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
6/16: Camden, NJ – Susquahanna Bank Center
6/17: Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
6/22: Bangor, ME – Waterfront Park
6/23: Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center
6/26: Boston, MA – Bank of America Pavilion
6/29: Darien Lakes, NY – Darien Lakes Performing Arts Center
6/30: Clarkston, MI – DTE Energy Music Theatre
7/1: Milwaukee, WI – Marcus Amphitheater
7/3: Virginia Beach, VA – Farm Bureau Live at Virginia Beach
7/10: Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
7/13: Woodinville, WA – Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery
7/14: Eugene, OR – Cuthbert Amphitheater
7/15: Stateline, NV – Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Amphitheater
[amazon_enhanced asin=”B005J29HCQ” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B001BN732I” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B000093BDX” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B0002LI11M” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /] [amazon_enhanced asin=”B00005ASHM” container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /]
Here’s a look back at our recent thoughts on the Beach Boys. Click through the titles for complete reviews …
THE BEACH BOYS – THE SMILE SESSIONS (2011): Wilson’s long-awaited mythical masterpiece was issued in expanded form as The SMiLE Sessions, nearly 45 years after its conception. Be warned, though: While the original album has been referred to as the Beach Boys’ Holy Grail, this massive collection of studio recordings will probably be more well received by musicians and the serious music fan. Novice passersby need not apply. That said, despite the newly recorded version of this project released by Wilson in 2004, no one could have expected what depth and quality Sessions would bring to the table.
SOMETHING ELSE! FEATURED ARTIST: THE BEACH BOYS: As the Beach Boys prepared to celebrate their 50th anniversary with the 2011 release of The SMiLE Sessions, an updated version of the 1968 track “Do It Again” and a proposed world tour, we took a look back at some fun, fun, fun old favorites — including tracks from Surfer Girl, Pet Sounds, Holland, Smiley Smile and Sunflower.
BRIAN WILSON – MIDNIGHT’S ANOTHER DAY (One Track Mind, 2008): While completing his own version of SMiLE in 2004, Wilson at long last regained his foothold on feel-good popcraft, a sturdy piece of ground he’d largely conquered by the mid-1960s. Unfortunately, Wilson doesn’t advance that notion over the balance of The Lucky Old Sun, so much as confirm that SMiLE was his own personal vista. Sun is, really, a grand-sounding yet somehow empty album — from the staid “Forever She’ll Be My Surfer Girl” to the outdated linking narratives by SMiLE co-writer Van Dyke Parks. Still, “Midnight’s Another Day,” with its gospel-tinged piano signature, can’t be denied. It’s a direct link between “In My Room” and the modern-day Wilson.
THE SOUND OF SUMMER: CELEBRATING THE BEACH BOYS’ LASTING JOYS: Think Beach Boys, and many remember a group perhaps irrevocably reduced by its tragicomic storyline. Admittedly distracting plot points, beyond the 36 Top 40 hits (most of any U.S. rock band), include shocking revelations involving drugs and mental breakdowns, one never-finished Musical Statement, a slow decline into moldy oldies caricature, several different touring ensembles trying to lay claim to the franchise, various resulting suits and countersuits, and a remarkable moment of jackassery at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fifty years later, too, there is the unironic visage of old men still playing the part of fun shirt-wearing purveyors of a long-gone California surfer lifestyle. Forget all of that. They remain, at least on the 1960s records, the very sound of summer.
- Angell & Crane, “Himalayan Dial-Up” from ‘Angell & Crane’ (2024): Video Premiere - November 22, 2024
- Michael Attias, “Avrils” from ‘Quartet Music Vol. II- Kardamon Fall’ (2024): Streaming premiere - October 11, 2024
- Bryn Roberts, “Aloft” from ‘Aloft’ (2024): Video Premiere - September 20, 2024
