Appreciation: Brian Wilson, dead at 82. \u2018I never knew what \u201cgenius\u201d meant,\u2019 he told us.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nWilson died June 12 at the age of 82. He was the perpetual heart and soul of the Beach Boys. This held true even though he stopped touring with the band in 1965 to focus on songwriting and production, and even though his only extensive tours he did with the band after that were in 1982 and 2012.<\/p>\n
By coincidence, Wilson\u2019s final San Diego concert as a solo artist took place at The Rady Shell four years ago this month. No fewer than 16 of the songs he performed at that 2021 show \u2014 including such classics as \u201cDon\u2019t Worry Baby,\u201d \u201cGod Only Knows\u201d and \u201cGood Vibrations\u201d \u2014 were also done by the Beach Boys\u2019 here Saturday.<\/p>\n
It was perfectly fitting, then, that the second half of the concert opened with a tribute video saluting Wilson. It was introduced by lead vocalist Mike Love, the Beach Boys\u2019 sole original member. He has had the exclusive rights to the band\u2019s moniker since the 1998 death of fellow group co-founder Carl Wilson.<\/p>\n
Less fitting was just how few words Love \u2014 who had long been estranged from Brian Wilson \u2014 said about the late Beach Boys\u2019 mastermind before and after the video tribute. More disappointing still, the video was not accompanied by a live song, but by a recording of \u201cBrian\u2019s Back,\u201d a cloying aural confection Love wrote in 1978.<\/p>\n
No matter how clunkily it landed, \u201cBrian\u2019s Back\u201d was at least a well-intentioned homage by Love, who filed multiple lawsuits against Wilson over the years. But the other spirit \u2014 make that spirits \u2014 showcased at Saturday\u2019s concert was questionable at best.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Love launched Club Kokomo Spirits, a San Diego-based craft distillery. It is named after \u201cKokomo,\u201d the frothy 1988 song he cowrote that \u2014 37 years later \u2014 remains the Beach Boys\u2019 most recent, and least substantial, No. 1 hit.<\/p>\n
![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SUT-L-MUSIC-BEACHBOYS-0810-01.jpg\")
Mike Love, second from right, is the sole original member of the Beach Boys who is still on board with the pioneering band. His son, guitarist-singer Christian Love, is at left. Actor\/musician John Stamos, at right, also contributes vocals and guitar parts to the group, as well as drumming. on some songs (Scott Chatfield)<\/p>\n
Love is not the first Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee to launch a liquor line. The list also includes Sammy Hagar, Carlos Santana, Dr. Dre and the Rolling Stones. But Love\u2019s repeated focus on his Kokomo line Saturday was crass and then some.<\/p>\n
Just before the Beach Boys came out to begin the show, veteran radio DJ Shotgun \u201cTom\u201d Kelly made a pitch from the stage to the audience of 3,700. \u201cIt is sold here at The Rady Shell and I hear it\u2019s incredible,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, folks, get that \u2018Kokomo spirit.\u2019 It\u2019s delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Case closed? Hardly.<\/p>\n
At intermission, the three enormous LED screens that bedeck the stage aired image after image of different Kokomo beverages. And when Love and the band performed \u201cKokomo\u201d as the 12th song of their second set, the LED screens were dominated by almost nonstop images of his alcoholic brand and of attractive young women cavorting in bathing suits.<\/p>\n
It might have been tolerable had the concert included one plug for a product that Love\u2019s marketing campaign contends reflects the \u201cdesire to bottle the feeling of \u2018Kokomo\u2019.\u201d But the repeated shilling for it at the concert created a decidedly sour aftertaste, at least for anyone who wanted to focus on the music, not product placement.<\/p>\n
The Beach Boys\u2019 best songs have stood the test of time, even if the band\u2019s few remaining charter members have not. At 84 and 83, respectively, Love and Bruce Johnston (who replaced Brian Wilson as a touring member in 1965) are years beyond their vocal primes.<\/p>\n
So, while it was a treat to hear such crowd-pleasing gems as \u201cDo It Again,\u201d \u201cIn My Room,\u201d \u201cCalifornia Girls,\u201d \u201cWouldn\u2019t It Be Nice\u201d and the concert-concluding \u201cFun, Fun, Fun,\u201d listening to Love and Johnston\u2019s increasingly strained and off-key vocals was anything but nice or fun.<\/p>\n
Of course, it is unrealistic to expect these two veteran Beach Boys to match their glory days. But they hit so many bum notes \u2014 known in musician\u2019s parlance as \u201cclams\u201d \u2014 as they bleated out lyrics that soar on record and in our memories, the result was a clambake of missed notes, mangled keys and muddled execution.<\/p>\n
That this generally well-paced concert was still more enjoyable than not is a testament to the quality and durability of the songs themselves. The best vocals of the night came from the band\u2019s three guitarists, Brian Eichenbacher, Love\u2019s son, Christian, and actor\/musician John Stamos, and intermittently from drummer Jon Bolton. With up to seven hired hands pitching in on harmonies, Love and Johnston had lots of vocal buffering.<\/p>\n
It was no surprise that only two Beach Boys\u2019 song performed Saturday \u2014 \u201cKokomo\u201d and \u201cBrian\u2019s Back\u201d \u2014 were recorded after the group\u2019s halcyon days of the 1960s. The Love-led group has long traded in nostalgia. To their credit, the best songs of the night soared and inspired many attendees to sing and dance along.<\/p>\n
That may also be the case when Al Jardine, the Beach Boys\u2019 only other surviving co-founder, performs here Nov. 22 at The Magnolia in El Cajon with The Pet Sounds Group, whose lineup features key former members of Brian Wilson\u2019s solo band.<\/p>\n
But for any act to truly transcend their time, musical trips down memory lane require a palpable sense of passion, purpose, skill and spirt \u2014 not spirits. That\u2019s a distinction worth sipping on.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 10, 2025 at 4:02 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were a few too many spirits for comfort at the Beach Boys\u2019 Saturday night San Diego concert…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":124605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,5424,3549,3550,7264,1072,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-135534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-music-and-concerts","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-county","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-things-to-do","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115007084527488687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}