Brian Wilson, Wolf Trap National Park, Vienna, Virginia

The results are in: Brian Wilson is a rock legend

Seeing Brian Wilson was a last minute decision, but I figured I couldn’t go wrong in deciding to see the Beach Boy rock legend on a beautiful summer evening on the lawn at Wolf Trap. The night continued to improve when a guy trying to unload his extra seats outside the venue sold us seats in the orchestra pit for less than what lawn tickets would have cost and a fifth of what they would have originally cost him.

Nonetheless, we made way into the venue and onto the lawn as we had wanted to sit in the grass and enjoy some food and drinks before making our way down to the seats. The lawn was nearly empty and we were able to pick a spot right near the front. Brian and his new 10 piece crew started promptly at 8pm. His selections included a number of famous Beach Boys hits including “Good Vibrations,” “Surfin’ USA,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” and many others. It’s almost mind boggling to remember just how many hits the Beach Boys had had over the years, most of which happened from the mid- to late-sixties. Equally impressive is that his voice still sounded pretty good after all these years. While he couldn’t hit the highs quite the same as he could in his younger days, it was a solid showing for a man approaching 70 years old. He also had rearranged many of the songs over the years in some interesting ways, adding in intros/outros, instruments, and verses as well as blending his works with other famous songs.

After an hour long set, Brian and his band left the stage. While we waited for them to return to the stage, we took the opportunity to migrate from the lawn to our seats down below. They were an incredible deal, in the orchestra pit only three rows from the front of the stage. The sound at that distance was much different. We were close enough that we were hearing the instruments being played directly, both the drums and percussion on their own as well as the small stage amps behind each musician, instead of through the large speaker system on the lawn. This of course made for a much more intimate show. However, Wilson’s voice was much less pronounced being that close, being drown out by everything else happening on stage. In contrast to the Adele show I just wrote about, someone at Wolf Trap was at their peak of their professional, seamlessly bringing his delicate voice to the back reaches of the venue. However, there’s not as much acoustically that can be done at that close range to balance it out. At that distance, Wilson certainly looked his age was well, requiring help around the stage by band members and roadies. Most of the set consisted of the a live playing of Wilson’s new album, “Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin,” which includes covers of ten George Gershwin songs, bookended by passages from Rhapsody in Blue, along with two new songs completed from unfinished Gershwin fragments by Wilson and band member Scott Bennett. The new arrangements to the classic songs were layered, detailed, and beautiful, truly an example of music coming to life as art, especially that close to the performance. At the end of the set, Wilson shuffled off-stage though returned for two solid encores of more Beach Boys hits and covers.