The Beach Boys Live in Concert
Capitol/Brother

By the early '70s the Beach Boys were a group without a rudder, a ten-year-old sun 'n' fun act trying desperately to stay current. Although their record sales were slumping, the Boys' constant touring had made them one of the most versatile and polished live acts in the business, able to tackle complex material like “Good Vibrations” and “Let the Wind Blow” onstage with conviction. It's possible the band could have found its way out of its creative malaise, even without the help of former guiding light Brian Wilson (who'd sunk into a near vegetative state by then). Fate intervened, however — in the form of a sudden wave of early '60s nostalgia — and expedience sent the Boys cruising back to the beach.

The Beach Boys' commercial comeback began purely by accident in late summer 1973, when the group attempted to satisfy a contractual obligation by assembling a pile of live takes from shows spanning 1972 to 1973, which was issued as The Beach Boys Live in Concert in November 1973. It was a stalling tactic, perhaps, but to a generation of 16-year-olds suddenly caught up in the popularity of American Graffiti and Happy Days, the surfin' sound of live tracks like “Sloop John B,” “Surfer Girl,” and “Good Vibrations” was just the ticket. Smelling big bucks dead ahead, opportunistic Capitol (the same label that had deleted the entire Beach Boys catalog just three years earlier) quickly repackaged the group's early '60s hits on the twofer Endless Summer. The floodgates had opened.

Ironically, electrifying renditions of newer or lesser-known works like “The Trader,” “Leaving This Town” (both cowritten by Carl Wilson), and Brian Wilson's final pop gem “Marcella” (revamped with a flawless crossfade out of “Darlin'”), overshadow the various car-chick-beach tunes included on Live in Concert (one in a series of Capitol's Beach Boys reissues). Nevertheless, the disc set reveals a band standing at the crossroads. And despite the Boys' brave attempts to forge a new identity, it's the crowd-pleasing oldies like “Good Vibrations” that elicit the horniest screams. When Dennis Wilson begins “California Girls” with the pronouncement “This is for the girl who brought me here tonight,” it's not too hard to tell which road they are about to choose.
Rating (out of 5): 4