We’ve announced our first set of shows for the 2011 Summer Concert Series!

Check out:

Darius Rucker
Pink Martini
The Beach Boys
Chicago
The Temptations & The Four Tops!

Tickets are on sale NOW - ONLY to club members. Don’t miss out, Join the Club today and get your tickets before they sell out!

- JS

The Beach Boys are still happily riding the nostalgia wave

Who ever would have imagined that a band that sang catchy, danceable songs about cars, surfing and girls would still be performing those same songs 49 years later? But there’s something still fresh-sounding and appealing about the upbeat, good-time music of the iconic Southern California band created by musical genius Brian Wilson in 1961.

The perennial boys of summer (long minus Wilson) performed a double-header at the Cape Cod Melody Tent Saturday. The turnout for the first show proved that they’re one of the few bands that can draw a multi-generational audience. Everybody was out from kids, teens and 20-somethings to boomers and seniors who grew up with their music. Some folks looked ready for a beach party in their Hawaiian shirts and colorful leis.

At 69 the flamboyant original member Mike Love still acts as the emcee, waving to the audience and emphasizing song lyrics like “two girls for every boy,” with little hand gestures. The other veteran is Bruce Johnston who took Brian Wilson’s place in 1965. They’re flanked by five younger musician/singers who make up the touring band including Love’s son Christian, and handle most of the lead vocals.

The current Beach Boys nail the layered, close vocal harmonies, the band’s trademark sound. The only problem is that the sound mix often drowned out the vocals making the lyrics hard to understand. But that didn’t seem to faze the fans who knew all the words by heart and sang along.

The band rocked the house with their early songs including “Surfin’ Safari” and “Surf City” then they revved things up with their hard-driving car songs: “Little Deuce Coupe,” “Shut Down,” “409,” “Little Old Lady from Pasadena,” and the best of the batch, “I Get Around.” Their “The Ballad of Old Betsy” may be the prettiest song every written for a car.

They slowed things down with the pretty ballad “Surfer Girl” and the doo-wop style song that started them harmonizing “So Young” and the 1957 classic “Why Do Fools Fall in Love.”

The Beach Boys served up their fun songs but also squeezed in a few of their melodic ballads including “Don’t Worry Baby” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and put their own spin on “California Dreamin’.” Johnston paid tribute to the “great Brian Wilson” with Wilson’s rarely performed but beautiful ballad “God Only Knows.” No Beach Boys concert would be complete without “Be True to Your School” and “California Girls.”

The second half of the concert was more like a beach party with the audience on their feet most of the time dancing at their seats and tossing a beach ball around the theater. The band rolled out their big hits at a nonstop pace including the psychedelic-tinged “Good Vibrations,” the Caribbean-flavored pop ditty “Kokomo,” “Help Me “Rhonda,” “Barbara Ann,” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.”

Love mentioned meeting Paul McCartney in India and listening to his debut of a new Beatles song. The band launched into the rocking “Back in the U.S.S.R.” The Beach Boys wrapped up the show with what could be their theme song, “Fun, Fun, Fun.” And for the boys and their fans it was.

- Johanna Crosby, freelance writer

The Beach Boys are bringing their surf boards, woody wagons, hawaiian shirts, and California attitudes to the Melody Tent for TWO SHOWS this weekend! Come get in on the fun and bring the whole familly. Everyone from grandma to little Joey can sing along!

PLUS, the first 200 people in the gate gets a free lei!

Learn more about how it all came to be almost 50 years ago in Southern California in The Barnstable Patriot!

Rolling Stone magazine picked ["Good Vibrations"] as “the single of the century.” … Billboard names them as the No. 1-selling American band of all time.

Come see the Beach Boys Saturday at 3:30 pm or at 7 pm!