Post by Chips on Sept 7, 2012 17:29:03 GMT 9.5
Beached Boys show they're just washed up
Date September 4, 2012
HECKLER
SURELY it's only a matter of time until the phrase "dying on stage" becomes an SMH headline, and I, for one, don't want to be there to see someone who was big in the '70s and is now into their 70s keeling into the front row.
It certainly felt like it was on the cards last week as the Beach Boys 50th Anniversary Tour creaked into town to do the replacement hippy hippy shake. Sure, it seems unlikely that Mick Jagger or the drug and death-proof Keith Richards will ever die, let alone on stage; but what's left of the band that gave us heavenly harmonies and Pet Sounds looks perilously close to finding out what God Only Knows.
The Beach Boys' former creative force, Brian Wilson, is 70 but seemed closer to 90, sitting slumped and stony-faced throughout the show and looking, in portly profile, like a cross between Homer Simpson and Mr Burns.
When Wilson was called upon to sing, the cameras hooked up to the big screen would take a reluctant close-up of his scarecrow face. At these moments, he looked for all the world like he didn't quite know where he was, but he did know he didn't want to be there. It's a look you'll see on some 70-year-olds in old folks' homes.
As they shuffled around stage, you couldn't help but wonder why they - and so many other past-it groups from the past - are bothering. Surely they can't need the money, and what can they spend it on anyway? Incontinence pants? Comfortable sandals? It's too late for Botox.
Part of it, surely, is just greed. As rich as many of these bands from yesteryear must be, they've probably still managed to spend most of their cash reserves down the decades. And the shift from album sales to iTunes probably hasn't helped their superannuation.
The main way modern bands make money, when so many kids steal their music off The Pirate Bay, is to tour, and it's clearly no different for older acts.
But I've learned my lesson. I won't be tarnishing the memory of any former greats by handing them my cash again.
This realisation struck me when I found myself unable to look at Brian Wilson any more, as he began to search the crowd with his weepy eyes, seemingly looking for some sniper the other band members had paid to keep a bead on him so he couldn't sneak off stage.
I found the only way to enjoy the concert was to close my eyes and listen.
And I could do that at home.
Connor Corby
Date September 4, 2012
HECKLER
SURELY it's only a matter of time until the phrase "dying on stage" becomes an SMH headline, and I, for one, don't want to be there to see someone who was big in the '70s and is now into their 70s keeling into the front row.
It certainly felt like it was on the cards last week as the Beach Boys 50th Anniversary Tour creaked into town to do the replacement hippy hippy shake. Sure, it seems unlikely that Mick Jagger or the drug and death-proof Keith Richards will ever die, let alone on stage; but what's left of the band that gave us heavenly harmonies and Pet Sounds looks perilously close to finding out what God Only Knows.
The Beach Boys' former creative force, Brian Wilson, is 70 but seemed closer to 90, sitting slumped and stony-faced throughout the show and looking, in portly profile, like a cross between Homer Simpson and Mr Burns.
When Wilson was called upon to sing, the cameras hooked up to the big screen would take a reluctant close-up of his scarecrow face. At these moments, he looked for all the world like he didn't quite know where he was, but he did know he didn't want to be there. It's a look you'll see on some 70-year-olds in old folks' homes.
As they shuffled around stage, you couldn't help but wonder why they - and so many other past-it groups from the past - are bothering. Surely they can't need the money, and what can they spend it on anyway? Incontinence pants? Comfortable sandals? It's too late for Botox.
Part of it, surely, is just greed. As rich as many of these bands from yesteryear must be, they've probably still managed to spend most of their cash reserves down the decades. And the shift from album sales to iTunes probably hasn't helped their superannuation.
The main way modern bands make money, when so many kids steal their music off The Pirate Bay, is to tour, and it's clearly no different for older acts.
But I've learned my lesson. I won't be tarnishing the memory of any former greats by handing them my cash again.
This realisation struck me when I found myself unable to look at Brian Wilson any more, as he began to search the crowd with his weepy eyes, seemingly looking for some sniper the other band members had paid to keep a bead on him so he couldn't sneak off stage.
I found the only way to enjoy the concert was to close my eyes and listen.
And I could do that at home.
Connor Corby