Live Review: The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys playing Father's Day weekend is a result and so dad is fittingly recruited for plus-one duty. “Gr8. M8. I'll be there with bell!!!!” is his text response to my invitation. When dad rocks up, he admits to time spent ransacking his wardrobe for the most Beach Boys-appropriate, colourful shirt. He's done well and wouldn't look out of place alongside the Wilson brothers, their cousin Mike Love and mate Al Jardine who all arrive onstage – after an old-school PA introduction – dressed very casually in mismatched printed shirts, baseball caps and baggy chinos/jeans.

Touring as part of their 50th Anniversary Reunion, we celebrate The Beach Boys' back catalogue via the 50-plus songs they present tonight. There's an overwhelming sense that we've assembled to experience something we didn't think were possible, since founding member Brian Wilson stopped touring with the band in the mid-'60s. Incense sticks burn onstage as the swaggering drum intro to Do It Again kicks in. “It's automatic when I/Talk to my friends…” Dad's immediately impressed: “They sound just like they used to!” And it's true. Those harmonies! It's not a stretch to say that the only way to marvel at such celestial, swoon-worthy singing – ever – is to experience this reunion line-up of The Beach Boys live. There are mass smiles on dials although all bums remain on seats for now. During Surfin' Safari a seated lady waves her arms left to right and is rewarded by a Love wave. Many members of The Beach Boys' backing band look familiar from when Wilson last toured our shores for Sounds Like Summer with Chicago, America, Peter Frampton plus more – most notably guitarist/vocalist Jeff Foskett (whose falsetto truly soars when he needs to take over from Wilson) and the unparalleled Darian Sahanaja (on keyboards, mallets and vocals). “Well thank you for showin' up,” Love commends and there's constant age jokes scattered throughout between-song banter this evening.

Lead vocals are shared amongst the front line and even backing band: Sahanaja's featured turn on Darlin' is stellar, while Wilson's contributions are (predictably) the weakest. Having said that, it's definitely special having the original vocalist sing his own material. Bruce Johnston doubles as hypeman and is relentless in his attempts to get the clapping going. His standing as a Grammy Award-winning songwriter (for Barry Manilow's I Write The Songs) is announced. We're treated to a few doo-wop songs including Why Do Fools Fall In Love, which Love acknowledges is a “fun song to sing”. There's great camaraderie up there onstage and their version of Huddie Ledbetter (aka Lead Belly)'s Cotton Fields is a sing-along favourite. High school portraits of the Boys, displayed on the big screen during Be True To Your School, instigate amused reactions within the crowd. Don't Worry Baby is accompanied by visuals of the work achieved by Operation Smile (yes, moving enough to wrench a fiver from my hand into a charity bucket while waiting in the bar queue during intermission). Our spirits are lifted before interval thanks to tracks such as Little Deuce Coupe and I Get Around, although it has to be said there's something awkward about belting out the latter next to your dad.

Set two opens with the touching sight of The Beach Boys assembled around Wilson's shiny black grand piano. They sing Pet Sounds and we imagine that much of the band's best work must have been finessed this way. Wilson's delivery of I Just Wasn't Made For These Times followed by Sloop John B (I Wanna Go Home) shine a spotlight on his personal demons before Wouldn't It Be Nice ambushes our melancholy musing. All This Is That (which utilises the translated Sanskrit mantra, “I am that/Thou art that/And all this is that”) is a powerful communal prayer and recent single That's Why God Made The Radio translates great live. Kleenex moments follow when Wilson's deceased brothers are brought to life onscreen. Pre-recorded vocal tracks are played so that their voices may live on while their successors harmonise live. Thanks to this technology, Dennis and Carl Wilson 'perform' Forever and God Only Knows respectively, Brian taking care not to glance up at the footage. There's much “excitation” when Good Vibrations morphs into California Girls and jaws drop as ageing punters ogle the bevy of skimpy bikini-clad beauties on the giant screens. Avoiding eye contact with dad, this is almost as awkward as watching SBS sex scenes on the telly in his presence. Standout track Help Me, Rhonda sees us all on our feet, mimicking the onstage action: both hands rise skyward in unison, punctuating every “Help!”. Surfin' USA closes out the main set and after watching onscreen footage all night: surfing is definitely a sexy sport. Looking at visuals of the sun shining through the water while dancing to The Beach Boys could never be bad.

Introducing first encore track Kokomo (from the Cocktail soundtrack), Johnston enthuses, “You can sleep in tomorrow!” Percussionists impressively recreate the song's tropical feel and Probyn Gregory injects some major sax appeal. How fun is Barbara Ann to sing!? The Beach Boys live is the definition of Fun, Fun, Fun and bless the septuagenarians for allowing snappers into the photography pit to capture the close-up action. We leave on a high that surfing a world-record swell couldn't touch. Dad's radiant as we join the march of the penguins down Olympic Boulevard, although he deems Wilson's back-to-back vocal contributions “a bit of a downer”.