Beach Boys tribute concert coming to Alex Theatre Saturday

“It’s the Beach Boys’ most underrated period — even [last year’s film biography of Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson] ‘Love and Mercy’ avoids this material,” says Paul Rock, talking about the Wild Honey celebrates the Beach Boys, 1967-77 concert that’s set to take place at the Alex Theatre in Glendale on Saturday, Feb. 13.

“Although songs such as ‘Heroes and Villains,’ ‘Darlin’,’ ‘Do It Again,’ ‘I Can Hear Music,’ and ‘Sail on Sailor’ were hits, it’s not their most commercial period,” Rock continues. “But those 10 albums, from ‘Smiley Smile’ to ‘The Beach Boys Love You,’ are aesthetically very strong. You get to hear different sides of the band members that hadn’t been heard before. Both [now-deceased brothers] Dennis and Carl Wilson got to shine during this time.”

Saturday’s three-hour-plus show will feature close to 40 songs, sung by nearly 30 different lead vocalists, ranging from original Beach Boys members Al Jardine and David Marks to Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees to previous Wild Honey event participants Debbi Peterson of the Bangles, Susan Cowsill, the Muffs, Syd Straw, ex-Records member John Wicks, and Thomas Walsh of Pugwash, for openers. Rock adds that there may be some last-minute special guests as well.

The nonprofit Wild Honey Foundation, which takes its name from the 1967 Beach Boys album, has been putting on similar all-star events to benefit the Autism Think Tank — which is also a nonprofit and enables parents of autistic children to teleconference with medical specialists from all across America — for several years.

Saturday’s concert will also benefit the L.A.-based Children’s Music Fund, which provides free music therapy for children with autism, disabilities, and life-threatening diseases. These causes are close to Rock’s heart, because his autistic son, Jake, who’s soon to be 12, has benefitted from these programs.

The Wild Honey Foundation traces its origins back to a 1993 house concert that honored Brian Wilson. “That’s when we met [local indie pop-rockers] the Wondermints and Baby Lemonade,” Rock recalls, noting that members of both outfits will be participating in Saturday’s show.

When Brian Wilson himself attended a similar concert held at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica the following year, Rock and the other Wild Honey principals (bassist David Jenkins, guitarist Andrew Sandoval, and attorney Michael Ackerman) decided to build on that momentum.

While a 1996 Wild Honey event at the El Rey Theatre was devoted to songs from the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” and “Friends” albums, the foundation has never been exclusively focused on that one group, having since put together tribute concerts to various Beatles albums as well as cult pop group Big Star, among others.

“On one hand, Saturday’s show is going back to the basics for us,” says Rock. “But we’re also trying to shed some light on a period that most Beach Boys fans feel never really got a fair shake. Most of these songs have never been performed live, especially in anything resembling their original recorded versions. Some of the songs are very simple. Others are very complex and present a real challenge, so the musicians — eight of whom have been members of Brian Wilson’s touring band — have to work a little harder. Come down to one of the rehearsals at S.I.R. next week, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

Five days later, this writer is watching guitarist and musical director Rob Laufer lead keyboardists Jordan Summers, Debbie Shair, and Willie Aron, drummer Jim Laspesa, percussionists Perry Ostrin and Nelson Bragg, bassist Derrick Anderson, and guitarists Rob Bonfiglio and Andrew Sandoval through “Heroes and Villains.” They’re doing a fine job of recreating the layers upon layers of sound, but the tempo changes are proving to be a little tricky.

Bragg says that one of the troubling transitions was actually created by splicing two different pieces of tape together, so the best way for the band to negotiate that is for him to play two quick strokes on a wood block between the sections. Later, Laspesa notes that the band will have to rely on the lead singer to cue their entrance into another section. Since there are several different recorded versions of “Heroes and Villains,” this also creates a bit of confusion until the band decides to stick to the 45rpm single version because it’s shorter and the show is already running long.

Eventually, it all gets sorted out, and the band moves into less demanding material, such as “Marcella,” where Aron wonders out loud why Brian decided such a hard-rocking song wasn’t complete without the addition of an autoharp and a harpsichord.

Meanwhile, bass players David Nolte, Robby Scharf and Marcus Moore cycle in and out and Mike Randle comes in on lead guitar. (Several other musicians will be added to the mix on Saturday.) After an hour, vocal director Chris Price and another eight singers, who’ve been rehearsing in an adjacent room, join the band. While many of the musicians are capable vocalists, it soon becomes clear that they need these extra voices to replicate the multitracked harmonies heard on the original recordings. Rock notes that on Saturday night these musicians and vocalists will be augmented with horns and strings.

“All the musicians are excited about doing their favorite undiscovered songs,” Rock adds.

For example, actor/musician Bill Mumy says, “I’ve chosen to perform ‘Back Home’ from the ‘15 Big Ones’ album. It’s probably the simplest musical progression that Brian ever composed, but it’s soulful and it rocks and it’s fun. The 1976-77 Beach Boys period is Brian’s primal, stripped-to-the-basics, almost childlike period of composing, and although it will never match the brilliance and sophistication of his ‘Pet Sounds’- and ‘Smile’-era work, it resonates powerfully with me, and I wanted to be sure the show included a little of that style.”

“As much as I’d like to sing ‘Surf’s Up,’ my voice is pretty far from Wilsonesque,” says Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate. “But I flashed back on my buddy [R.E.M. guitarist] Peter Buck enthusiastically handing me a cassette of ‘The Beach Boys Love You’ when we first met in 1983. It was way off my radar, but it’s a great album, and ‘Let Us Go on This Way’ is right in my vocal wheelhouse.”

Each musician also came to this era of the Beach Boys through a different journey. Anna Waronker of That Dog says, “My brother did a radio show in college and sent me a cassette recording of one of them that had ‘Feel Flows’ on it. That was the first time I heard that song or anything like it from the Beach Boys. It was so beautiful, so interesting, so different. And the melodies! My mind was blown. How a band can go from ‘Help Me, Rhonda’ to ‘Cool Water’ is only specific to the journey of the Beach Boys. There are no other melodies and no harmonies like theirs.”

For Darian Sahanaja of the Wondermints and longtime musical director of the Brian Wilson band, “The Beach Boys have been my favorite band since I bought the ‘Endless Summer’ compilation when I was 12. But by the mid-’70s, most of their albums weren’t available. Then I came across a pair of double-album sets. One had ‘Smiley Smile’ and ‘Wild Honey.’ The other had ‘Friends’ and ‘20/20.’ I thought I’d hit the jackpot of fun-in-the-sun sounds. But when I dropped the needle, it was anything but that, and I felt let down.”

Around that time, his family went on a road trip to Northern California, and he took cassettes of those albums to listen to in the car. “While driving through the redwoods and savannah,” Sahanaja says, “it dawned on me that although the music was still inherently Californian, its soul had evolved inland from the beaches and cities to the mountains and forests, from summer to the changing of the seasons. This new phase had Carl and Dennis Wilson bringing their laid-back soul to the forefront as writers and singers. And I would argue this influenced just as many artists through the years, including the most current hipster band of today, as their earlier era. That’s why I’ll be performing ‘Darlin’.’”

As Rock says, “It’s fans doing the show for the fans.”

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Who: “Wild Honey celebrates the Beach Boys, 1967-77”

When: Saturday, Feb. 13, 8 p.m.

Where: The Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale.

Tickets: $25 balcony; $45 terrace and orchestra; $100 V.I.P.

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DON WALLER is a regular contributor to Marquee.