The Beach Boys - The Lost Concert

The Beach Boys - The Lost Concert

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Movie Reviews of The Beach Boys - The Lost Concert

Movie Review: Quintessential Southern California of the 60s
Summary: 5 Stars

The DVD, only 22 minutes in length, has the group singing 9 of their songs, including "Fun, Fun, Fun", "Little Deuce Coupe", "Surfer Girl", "Surfin' USA", and "Shut Down". The performance on March 14, 1964 - before a live audience - was filmed by promoters to air on closed-circuit TV in theaters. The DVD seems to be a faithful reproduction of the original B&W film, though one gets the impression that the promoters were working on a limited budget. The teenage audience, the makeshift stage, and the overworked sound system suggests that the venue was a commandeered high school gym. And, as the camera pans the fans, I was left wondering, "Did we really look that geeky?" (I myself was a high school frosh at the time.)

Regardless of the unsophistication of the production, this DVD is a must see for Beach Boy fans of that long ago era when US pop-music performers could still be well-groomed, clean-cut, and heart-breakingly All-American, and their lyrics celebrated fast cars, bikini-clad girls, and catching the next monster wave.

Though I grew up in Malibu, the center of the SoCal beach culture, I was never a surfer myself. I would have been disowned by my Mom at least, to whom "surfer" conjured up visions of long-haired, lazy bums (only to be replaced in the 70s by "long-haired, drug-ridden hippies"). But, in that carefree period of my life, the sun shone, the ocean breezes swayed the palms, the waves caressed the beach off Point Dume, and the Beach Boys provided the background music. I miss those days. Truly.

Summary of The Beach Boys - The Lost Concert

Cutaway shots provide a wonderful glimpse of what teen audiences were like during the heyday of the surfin' craze (plenty of Gidget hairdos, and a few parents in the crowd, marveling at the frenzy of it all), but it's the music that counts here, and clearly the boys were having a pretty good day. Most of the early hits are played here ("Fun, Fun, Fun," "Little Deuce Coupe," "In My Room"), and while lead vocalist Mike Love hams it up, it's fascinating to witness early indications that bandleader Brian Wilson was growing tired of live performance. He revs it up for a wacky cover of "Papa Oom Mow-Mow," though, and that makes this video a time-capsule treasure, showing the Beach Boys in their prime before Wilson retreated completely into the sanctuary of the studio. --Jeff Shannon