The Beach Boys Gave a Lukewarm Tribute to Brian Wilson at Red Rocks: Photos

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band the Beach Boys teamed up with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, August 3, to bring “surf rock” to a land-locked state.

Colorado Symphony resident conductor Christopher Dragon kicked off the show at Red Rocks, leading the orchestra with an overture of Beach Boys music to a video reel. As the overture concluded, the current lineup of the Beach Boys walked on stage and were welcomed by the cheering crowd.

Touring acts who team up with the Colorado Symphony can use the opportunity to perhaps play songs that they might not otherwise play on the rest of their tour dates. The Beach Boys, however, seemed to miss this opportunity.

The group did utilize the symphony to back its most famous songs, “God Only Knows” and “Wouldn’t it be Nice?,” off its most famous and industry-changing album, Pet Sounds. Besides that highlight, the setlist didn’t differ much from its show at Levitt Pavilion last summer.

There were high hopes the band would deliver something different for a Red Rocks show this summer. Even the only original member of the current lineup, Mike Love, 83, acknowledged the privilege to play the famed venue, calling it “the greatest ‘rock’  in rock-and-roll!”

So you would figure there would be more passion; the band’s beloved co-founder Brian Wilson passed away in June. After the group returned from a twenty-minute intermission for the second set, it did played a short video to remember Wilson. But this tribute seemed more like a speed bump to get back to Love’s songs about cars, sunshine and of course “vacation spots” with the 1988 number-one hit “Kokomo,” for which fans sang along.

However, the rock gods know the Beach Boys can do better. Hopefully the band can return to Red Rocks next summer with the CSO and perform Pet Sounds, which will be then celebrating its sixtieth anniversary, in its entirety.

See more photos from the show below:

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