The Beach Boys - Paramount Theater, New York City, 11-26-1993

I love the Beach Boys, but as far as I'm concerned, nearly all their great stuff is from the 1960s and 70s. They haven't done much that's musically worthy after about 1980. But there are a few exceptions, and when it comes to a recording of an entire concert, this one from 1993 could actually be the best of their entire career.

There are a few reasons for that. I do prefer their live recordings from their peak years in the 60s and 70s, but all the best recordings I know of are either short or incomplete. (I plan on posting some collections of their best live stuff from those years.) This concert is usually long for the band, at just over two hours.

Critically, the sound quality is absolutely fantastic. It's a pristine soundboard, so pristine that one can barely hear the audience at all. I considered trying boosting the volume of the audience reactions to songs, but there simply wasn't enough to work with. I've decided instead to enjoy it as it is, as if it was an entire concert performed for a soundcheck. The sound is so incredible, it beats the pants even off most of their official live material!

Not only that, but it happens to have been recorded at a remarkably fortuitous time. In 1993, the band released their great "Good Vibrations" box set. To celebrate that release, they played only nine shows in which they dug deeper into their back catalog and played songs to celebrate the box set release. If you look at the set lists from other shows they did in 1993, they played more songs from their recent albums, which generally were terrible. This only has a single new song from their most recent album at the time, "Still in Paradise."

Even better, the early 1990s was the time when the "unplugged" trend was all the rage. Perhaps due to that trend, they did portions of the concert in a semi-acoustic format, which was a very rare thing for the band.

In terms of personnel, there were four surviving original Beach Boys in the concert: Carl Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Bruce Johnston. (Brian Wilson technically was a band member, but for the vast majority of the band's existence he hasn't played with them on stage.) In my opinion, the presence of Carl Wilson is critical. He probably was the best singer in the band (which is saying a lot!), and sang lead vocals on some of their best songs, such as "God Only Knows" and "Good Vibrations." He died of cancer in 1998, but he still sounded a great as he ever did here.

By the way, two performances here have been officially released: "Caroline, No" and "You Still Believe in Me." I'm still including those, though, so you can hear the full concert just as it was. The only editing I did was I boosted the volume for some of the banter between songs, and I cut out some of the guitar tuning and other dead air.

01 California Girls (Beach Boys)
02 I Can Hear Music (Beach Boys)
03 Come Go with Me (Beach Boys)
04 talk (Beach Boys)
05 Rock and Roll Music (Beach Boys)
06 Do You Wanna Dance (Beach Boys)
07 talk (Beach Boys)
08 In My Room (Beach Boys)
09 Do It Again (Beach Boys)
10 talk (Beach Boys)
11 Catch a Wave (Beach Boys)
12 Hawaii (Beach Boys)
13 talk (Beach Boys)
14 Darlin' (Beach Boys)
15 talk (Beach Boys)
16 Be True to Your School (Beach Boys)
17 talk (Beach Boys)
18 Under the Boardwalk (Beach Boys)
19 talk (Beach Boys)
20 Little Deuce Coupe (Beach Boys)
21 409 (Beach Boys)
22 Shut Down (Beach Boys)
23 I Get Around (Beach Boys)
24 talk (Beach Boys)
25 California Dreamin' (Beach Boys)
26 Summer in Paradise (Beach Boys)
27 talk (Beach Boys)
28 Heroes and Villains (Beach Boys)
29 talk (Beach Boys)
30 Vega-Tables (Beach Boys)
31 Take a Load Off Your Feet (Beach Boys)
32 talk (Beach Boys)
33 Little Saint Nick (Beach Boys)
34 talk (Beach Boys)
35 Surfer Girl (Beach Boys)
36 Hushabye (Beach Boys)
37 talk (Beach Boys)
38 Add Some Music (Beach Boys)
39 talk (Beach Boys)
40 Their Hearts Were Full of Spring (Beach Boys)
41 All This Is That (Beach Boys)
42 Wonderful (Beach Boys)
43 talk (Beach Boys)
44 Disney Girls [1957] (Beach Boys)
45 Caroline, No (Beach Boys)
46 You Still Believe in Me (Beach Boys)
47 God Only Knows (Beach Boys)
48 Sloop John B (Beach Boys)
49 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Beach Boys)
50 Good Vibrations (Beach Boys)
51 Kokomo (Beach Boys)
52 Help Me, Rhonda (Beach Boys)
53 talk (Beach Boys)
54 Barbara Ann (Beach Boys)
55 Fun, Fun, Fun (Beach Boys)
56 Surfin' Safari (Beach Boys)

https://www.imagenetz.de/eACdb

I had a heck of a hard time finding a good photo to use for the cover art. I couldn't find any good ones of the band from 1993. I ended up using the cover of a bootleg of this concert. I don't know where the photo they used comes from, but it looks to be from the early 1990s. PJ of his "Albums I Wish Existed" helped me by replacing the text at the bottom. Otherwise, it's exactly the same as the bootleg cover.