From Myth to Mastery

By Mark Brown

By show's end on Wednesday night, it didn't really matter if you liked Brian Wilson's music or not, including his recently finished epic, SMiLE. The sheer scope and ambition and the flawless execution of what he and his band presented onstage was a jaw-dropping, unqualified success.

It's almost just the icing on the cake that 1967's long-lost SMiLE (as retooled for 2004) contains some of head Beach Boy Wilson's best compositions ever, from Heroes and Villains early on to an epic rewrite of Good Vibrations that finished it off.

At the very least, it was a fascinating social phenomenon. Fans have waited for this music for more than 30 years, and it has hung over Wilson's head for the same amount of time.

In one sense, it was a feeling of disbelief. For so many years, SMiLE existed just as bootlegs and myth, song fragments and concepts that never quite came together. Even the most optimistic fan never thought we'd see the album finished, much less performed live in its entirety, much less with such a sense of triumph and accomplishment.

It was a loose, celebratory evening at the Paramount Theater in more ways than one. The sense of satisfaction from both musicians and fans that SMiLE was finished and alive would have been enough. But despite the strict musicianship, the mood was casual and fun. Lip-syncing jokes early in the show brought plenty of big laughs. During Vega-Tables, two of the musicians held up a huge pumpkin with "RED SOX" scrawled across it in black marker.

At times there were 18 musicians onstage recreating SMiLE's intricacies, serving up note-perfect (but far from sterile) versions of some of the most complex and challenging music of the rock era. Everything from a string section to hubcaps, saws and drills were used to put together the songs and sound collage. Wilson himself was far more engaged and lively than he was on the excellent Pet Sounds tour.

It wasn't just the instrumentation; the recreation of the Beach Boys' trademark harmonies was flawless, better than any actual Beach Boys concert I've ever seen.

And fans in effect got three concerts in one. Wilson and the backing Wondermints opened with more than an hour of songs that ranged from Beach Boys classics (God Only Knows, California Girls) and obscurities. SMiLE was then performed in its entirety. At press time, Wilson and band were onstage for what was scheduled to be nearly another hour of encores of Beach Boys classics.