Brian Wilson and band promise Good Vibrations in Festival Big Top
If you have any plans for Sunday, July 23, then cancel them pronto, because that’s the day Brian Wilson and his band are playing the Galway International Arts Festival.
Wilson is the genius behind The Beach Boys, and oversaw the vast majority of their hits. This show, co-presented by Róisín Dubh, will see the seminal Pet Sounds album played in its entirety, along with a host of other Beach Boys classics.
Released in 1966, Pet Sounds is a work that deserves to heard from beginning to end, but it does include standout hits like Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Sloop John B and the magnificent God Only Knows. The latter was described by Paul McCartney as the greatest song ever written – and, apparently, it was composed in under an hour. That may be the case but, as with the rest of Pet Sounds, it’s the arrangement that really lifts the song into the stratosphere.
Getting those arrangements right in concert is a challenge. But the success of Wilson’s live show is due in no small part to The Wondermints who have been his backing band since 1999. Impeccably recreating the sound of The Beach Boys, they perform pitch-perfect versions of gems like Good Vibrations, California Girls and Surfin’ USA. You can expect similar exuberance and talent in their recreation of Pet Sounds.
■ Tickets for Brian Wilson are on sale this Friday, March 3. You really don’t want to miss it.