My interest piqued by an article over at the Powerline blog, Juimiin and I attended most of Brian Wilson’s concert in Toronto. I suppose the word “most” gives away a hint of my disappointment. The problems were severe enough that we ducked out at intermission, 70 minutes into the show.

Among the problems:

• The sound engineer seemed catatonic. He barely touched his control board, even though Wilson’s voice was barely audible. A lot of the sound was dominated by a single 300-600Hz tone accompanyment of some guitar or synthesizer. The sounds were smeared together, lyrics could just not be understood. Often the backup singing turned into shouting.
• Bizarrely for a professional performance, the music drifted off key all the time. It was as if some electronic pitch correction or autotuner machine was constantly malfunctioning. No, it wasn’t just Wilson’s usual semitone magic.
• Wilson seemed tired, and his physical performance seemed very forced. He barely touched his keyboard, and instead often gestured oddly with his arms, sort of like a sleepy seal moves his flippers. OK, he’s an aging star on a busy schedule, but this must be a little embarrassing.

• The base cost ($65) was too high, considering a likely overall duration; Ticketmaster’s added $12 commission (18%) was absurd; Massey Hall’s upper seats were as cramped as the cattle rows on commercial jets.

On the bright side:

• When the band stuck to songs where there was minimal or no instrumental accompaniment, it sounded sweet.
• The performers made an effort to bring the audience into the show, though not much beyond the “clapping above my head” trick
• Several of the newer songs have a nice rich arrangement (though hearing that tonight took determined listening effort).
• We still got a good view from those way-high-up seats.

• We got to see a music legend in real life.

The show could have been so much better.