Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
It is arguably impossible to calculate all the love in the world, you would be better off just trying to attempt collecting sand from a far off beach and turning into Cornish tin; some things are just physically impractical to do and hopeless to challenge.
Yet anyone in the Philharmonic Hall on the last day of May in 2016 might have had a shot of having a damn fine guess at how much love, how much respect there is in one vas auditorium for Brian Wilson. The feeling was not just intense as the man who gave The Beach Boys their defining sound but it was caught under each person’s top, blouse, shirt or T-shirt as their collective hearts beat in a rhythm of concentrated and passionate affection. Even before a single note was played, the crowd greeted him like an ambassador, a returning hero from the spoils of war, not one soaked in enemies’ blood and carrying the heads of those who stood in the way, but one who negotiated a long and lasting peace and brought the harvest of the Gods as an extra surprise.
Brian Wilson, like Paul McCartney, is a hero of many and one to whom the shape of music, that unique and ardent hot bloodied and heart breaking whisper magnifies a piece of their soul each time a particular favourite track is played, in such terms it was not surprising that Mr. Wilson and the band, which included the great Al Jardine, Mike D’amico, Matt Jardine and the divine Blondie Chaplin, took the eager and almost saintly crowd on a journey of high exultation; the promise, the album that kick started a revolution in America in its entirety, the phenomenal and life fulfilling Pet Sounds in its 50th Anniversary year.
It was a promise that was satisfied, that was honoured, and amosgt other tracks played in a set spanning 40 plus songs, including Little Honda, In My Room, Then I Kissed Her, a cover of the hit record Monster Mash, Funky Sailor and encores that encompassed the mighty Good Vibrations, Brian and the 11 piece band played Pet Sounds and with accompanying and very visible tears in the auditorium, in its entirety.
The album rightly sits in many people’s top 100 lists of albums ever recorded and it is with little wonder when the majesty of Wouldn’t It Be Nice, You Still Believe In Me, Sloop John B, God Only Knows and I Know There’s An Answer were all captured with great sincerity and with abundant charm.
To have a legend on stage, one who pioneered so much change in the way music is heard and felt was arguably for all in the sold out Philharmonic Hall, a once in a life time experience; to have one of the greatest ever albums played in its entirety from start to finish, a pleasure, that like love, could not be measured.
Ian D. Hall