The Beach Boys, The Beach Boys In Concert
Featured Album
Capturing them in topnotch form
They may have had their ups and downers in the studio, but the Beach Boys were always a reliable touring act, and this 1973 set captures them in topnotch form, waving the flag of their classic hits to a rapturous crowd. The core band of Carl, Mike, Al, Dennis, Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar, is aided and abetted by such as Billy Hinsche (who was the only non-celebrity offspring in Dino, Desi, and Billy) and Carli Munoz, who would later help produce Dennis Wilson's second album, and the accumulated fullness of sound befits the arenas that embraced them. You know the songs, and each era is well represented, whether the simplistic joys of the surf years, the more complex emotional undercurrents of "Caroline No" and "Heroes and Villians," or the band's then-recent hits "Marcella" and "Sail On Sailor." There is a sense of excitement and celebration in these performances, the band at its live high point, before ennui, loss and the rigors of the road wore them down.
