Brian Wilson Performs at Carnegie Hall

Brian Wilson has truly come full circle. In 1967, as the then-mastermind of the Beach Boys, he was hyping up his in-progress album "Smile" as a collection of "teenage symphonies to God" which would one-up his magnum opus "Pet Sounds" and serve as an American version of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." It was music that dwelled in the connective tissue between psychedelic rock, vocal bubblegum pop and classical symphonies.

But soon afterward, the album sessions were aborted and Wilson's nervous breakdown and/or troubles with drugs entered the public sphere as the reason for the music's downfall. He spent the next 30-plus years denouncing the work, releasing its treasures sporadically to spice up occasionally mediocre Beach Boys albums, but telling interviewers that the demise of "Smile" was down to it just being "wrong" to release. There was something about the planned album, now considered rock's most infamous lost record that the public just wasn't ready for, then or now.

Flash forward to Wednesday (Oct. 13) and where was Brian Wilson? At Carnegie Hall, with an 18-piece band, performing "Smile" before a packed house that included his lyrical collaborator on the project, Van Dyke Parks. With the help of his touring band, featuring members of L.A.'s Wondermints, Wilson has come around to "Smile" and re-realized the album as a solo effort, which he released earlier this month on Nonesuch Records.

While archivists and fans have fashioned their own bootleg versions of "Smile" over the years, compiled from studio scraps and officially released Beach Boys songs, to hear it performed as a piece by its creator is to really understand what it is: an incredibly complex set of music that has a simple goal -- to make listeners smile.

At the show, the band warmed up with a set of 23 songs from Wilson's storied career, first performing a capella on a mostly darkened stage, then acoustically with 11 players, and finally in full electric-band mode with the eight-piece Stockholm Strings & Horns ensemble. Guitarist/vocalist Jeff Foskett, who served as MC for most of the night, introduced the first song, the Beach Boys tune "And Your Dreams Come True" by saying, "We're gonna do one of the hardest things we do -- sing a capella at Carnegie Hall."

The band made wonderful use of the venue's historic sonic properties, its richly textured music bouncing off the cavernous room's ceiling and walls, and filling the hall to the brim with its sound. The crowd responded in kind, offering many standing ovations throughout the night and participating in a number of sing-alongs, including the children's round "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," which Wilson entreated the audience to start early in the night, reinforcing the bond many seemed to feel with the pop icon.

The performance of "Smile" itself was a revelation. The songs, woven together by repeated themes and snippets of music that bobbed to the surface on numerous occasions, realized Wilson's grand musical vision. To steal a line from Gram Parsons, "Smile" is cosmic American music. The songs represented the country's aural tradition and tied together many disparate elements of Wilson's homeland, from "Roll Plymouth Rock" and its lyrical references to industry and its effect on "the church of the American Indian" to the Midwest idyll of "Barnyard" to "Cabin Essence" and its surreal imagery depicting the building of the first American railroads.

The album winds down by celebrating the farthest reaches of America's manifest destiny, and the logical extension of Wilson's Californian paradise, "In Blue Hawaii." And then capping it all off is a re-imagined version of Wilson's biggest hit, "Good Vibrations," the "pocket symphony" which is still an intense experience to hear performed live.

After a short break filled by thunderous applause, the band returned for a rousing encore filled with classic good-time rock songs from the Beach Boys' heyday -- "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Surfin' USA," "I Get Around" -- before closing with Wilson's traditional encore of his reflective solo cut "Love & Mercy."

Having apparently exorcised most of his demons, Wilson appears to be enjoying himself more than ever on stage these days. Maybe it's because the music he strove to complete as a 24-year-old and then convinced himself he couldn't pull off is finally being presented to audiences on his own terms. The best part is that it works: as the audience streamed out of Carnegie Hall, nearly everyone was wearing a grin.

Here is Brian Wilson's set list:

Set One:
"And Your Dream Comes True"
"Surfer Girl"
"Row, Row, Row Your Boat"
"Hawaii"
"Wendy"
"Gettin' in Over My Head
"Add Some Music to Your Day"
"Happy Birthday"
"Please Let Me Wonder"
"Drive In"
"You're Welcome
"Sloop John B"
"Dance, Dance, Dance"
"Desert Drive"
"California Girls"
"Your Imagination"
"God Only Knows"
"Little Girl I Once Knew"
"Good Timin'
"Forever"
"Soul Searchin'"
"Sail on Sailor"
"Marcella"

"Smile:"
"Our Prayer/Gee"
"Heroes and Villains"
"Roll Plymouth Rock"
"Barnyard"
"Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine"
"Cabin Essence"
"Wonderful"
"Song for Children"
"Child Is Father of the Man"
"Surf's Up
"I'm In Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop"
"Vega-Tables"
"On a Holiday"
"Wind Chimes"
"Mrs. O'Leary's Cow"
"In Blue Hawaii"
"Good Vibrations"

Encore:
"Do It Again"
"I Get Around"
"Help Me Rhonda"
"Barbara Ann"
"Surfin USA"
"Fun Fun Fun"
"Love & Mercy"