The Beach Boys - Live in Sacramento 1964 (2014)

Released digitally at the tail-end of 2014 so Universal could retain copyrights to the recordings, Live in Sacramento 1964 contains two complete shows (plus two rehearsals) that were used as the source for the 1964 LP Beach Boys Concert. This means some of the material will be familiar -- but not everything from that record is here; there's no "Long Tall Texan," for instance -- as is the general ragged feel, yet these two shows play differently than Beach Boys Concert, largely due to being sequenced like a concert, not a record. At 17 or 18 songs, this does get a little long but the two shows have momentum, opening with a blast then settling into a slower patch before closing out with the hits. The audio is thin and the screams emanating from the audience are a bit too incessant, but there's a real kinetic kick to the Beach Boys' performance that's hard to resist. Certainly, it's not as tight as they were in the studio, when they were aided by studio pros, but the fun of this is hearing them as a stripped-down, excitable rock & roll band who could work up a crowd. It's fun stuff and even a bit instructive too: the Boys could bring it on-stage.
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo