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Sydney Festival 08 - Brian Wilson
Review

Sydney Festival 08 - Brian Wilson

January 8 2008
Sydney Festival 2008

Brian Wilson - Pet Sounds/That Lucky Old Sun (a narrative)

"Living legend" is a barely adequate description for the great Brian Wilson, but in its essence, it is true. Against the odds he is alive, reasonably well and - if his demeanor at the State Theatrein Sydney (Monday, January 7) is anything to go by - reasonably happy too.

Part of the happiness must come from the rapturous reception he received when he strode to centre-stage at 8pm and launched into a non-stop torrent of some of the most perfect 3.5 minute pop symphonies ever written - and, of course, he wrote them all.

Another part of Wilson’s clear and gentle pleasure in his evening’s work-out must also come from anticipation of the second half of the show: the new work consisting of 38 minutes of a song cycle and paean to Los Angeles and California titled That Lucky Old Sun.

Wilson has famously and always celebrated California: the sun, the sea, the surf, the girls (even and most poignantly when his fragile mental health caused him to hide away from it with his bare feet in a bedroom sandpit). Pet Sounds and the string of No.1 hits is the joyous innocence of a young man; That Lucky Old Sun is the mature, wry, melancholy vision of the man who’s seen it all and finally come out the other side.

In the program notes is a page of tributes by other musicians and the most perceptive comment is by John Cale: “What Brian came to mean was an ideal of innocence and naivety that went beyond teenage life and sprang into fully developed songs. Adult and childlike at the same time. I thought how it was difficult for me not to believe everything he said. There was something genuine in every lyric. That can be a very heavy burden for a songwriter.”

Sydney Festival 08 - Brian Wilson

The truth and wisdom of Cale’s observation was evident in beautiful and moving ways. At 65, Wilson is clearly fragile and just as clearly adored and admired by those around him - not just the musicians on stage and those charged with his welfare while he’s in Australia but the capacity audience too that appreciated the chance to hear, live, the pop genius and to see - through the multi-skilled, mega-talented band - the extraordinary imagination and musical ability that put the sounds together.

And one piquant factor of the band is its age range: around half the players weren’t even born when Pet Sounds was written! The same goes for the audience: the fans and the famous, babyboomers and their kids and everyone knew the words, the choruses and the beats when called upon to sing along and clap.

For the audience, it’s a night to savour and remember for lots of reasons: a rock show that starts on time; a performer whose back catalogue is such that his choice of first half material ranges across scores of the great tunes of the 60s; and a veteran of music whose new work is even more questing, complex, fascinating and listenable than one might reasonably dare to hope for.

At the end most members of the band echoed the chief’s view that he loves Sydney - roars or approval, of course - but in a funny way, if there is an body of work, a concert, a performer, an event (the summer festival) and a town that magically go together and create instant oofle dust, it’s Brian Wilson and Sydney. The stuff of legend.

 

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