ENE REVIEW: The Beach Boys start OK, end great
- Joe Malan | Enid News & Eagle May 22, 2016
You know how they say some things get better with time?
Well, in the same sense, The Beach Boys got better and better as their show went on at Enid Event Center Sunday night.
At no point this evening were The Beach Boys bad or disappointing … but you might say they encountered some “rough waters” in the beginning.
The Boys opened the three-hour-long show with “Surfin’ Safari.” This would begin a nine-song marathon that would appropriately end with arguably the most famous surfing song, “Surfin’ U.S.A.”
It was after this long series when The Beach Boys mainly stuck to songs one at a time, that they truly hit their stride, both as a vocal group and getting the crowd excited.
The songs about surfing and beaches dominated the first part of the show, with each part being divided into approximate hour-plus segments, with a short intermission in between. The second half of the show was heavy on all the hits, from “California Girls” to “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.”
Highlights of the performance included a stirring, emotional rendition of “I’m So Young,” and basically everything involving a saxophone.
Oh, and there was an old, old song The Boys recorded back in the 1960’s called “Be True To Your School.” The band got the crowd riled up by displaying photos of OU Sooner and OSU Cowboy cheerleaders before playing the song. That was a pretty good idea; kudos to the band for that.
The end of the main portion of the show included just an avalanche of hits, the last two being “Kokomo” (the quintessential summer song) and “Good Vibrations.”
The crowd wouldn’t quite let the band go, though, as they were brought out for an encore which consisted of “Barbara Ann” (complete with kids dancing on stage) and “Fun, Fun, Fun.”
All in all, a fun evening indeed, and hopefully this isn’t the last time we see The Beach Boys in Enid.
