That Lucky Old Fan:

My Experience Meeting Brian Wilson

Okay, here is my stream-of-consciousness version of a fantastic night. We dropped the kids off, ate a quick meal, and then proceeded down to D.C. in the end of rush hour traffic. The parking garage I tried told me they’d be closed before the show was over, but I ended up realizing that there was street parking available at 6:30. So Christine (my wife) stayed with the car while I went to the box office to see if we were going to be allowed in early to meet Brian. The tickets weren’t even at the box office yet, so I went back to the car, waited until 6:30, then we killed a few minutes in the Barnes & Noble on 12th Street.

At about 6:45 we went back and the tickets were there. Since the directions said we were to meet Brian pre-show, I called Chuck and “the other” Christine (friends from the Pet Sounds Mailing List) to let them know to come over.

We struck up a great conversation with Dan and his family as we were waiting and I gave them wristbands, too. Turned out that they had the seats right next to ours!

I’m not sure when we got ushered in to meet Brian. “The other” Christine missed the pictures but was able to see Jeff and also meet post-show.



So.…it felt great to be treated special and we were ushered into a small side room backstage. Jeff Foskett greeted us and Brian was sitting on a stool. He shook our hands and then we got pictures, both with the pro photographer and with our personal cameras. Dan & family and Chuck & Molly were also able to get pictures. Brian was also very gracious in signing some things for us. Then, we got a picture backstage of all of us. Darian was also backstage at that time and talked to us.

Brian wasn’t in a talkative mood, which was actually OK with me because I was a bit shell-shocked. Jeff noticed that I was wearing my Carl Wilson Foundation polo shirt and commented “Cool shirt”.





That was pretty much the pre-show time, which was just for me and my “party”.


The concert was a LOT of fun. There were a couple of free spirits behind us (but not immediately behind us), one guy that clapped and hooted a lot, and a girl who was doing some kind of arty-pretentious version of “the swim”. I’m not sure but I think the band was laughing at them throughout the night. Several of us in the first rows (we were in row C dead center, which was really the fifth row—PERFECT seats) had either cameras or camera phones going. I got a few pictures and some brief video, just enough to jog my memories. Christine helped write down the setlist (she was very understanding the whole night) and tried to take some audio with our cellphone but I don’t think it will come out very well.



At the intermission Christine and Molly thought it really funny that the women’s room line was fast and the men’s room was really backed up. I still had two wristbands left, and feeling the Good Vibrations I went up to the 'nosebleed' seats in the back of the theatre (well, the farthest rows in the balcony, there really aren't bad seats in the Warner), and found Rick and Tory sitting there. I told them who I was and offered them the backstage passes, which got Tory really excited.



I made my way back to my seat, and got to experience TLOS live. I realize I haven’t said much about the music yet. This is the fourth time I’ve seen the BW band and each time I’m just blown away. The Warner seems to be a hard place to get a good mix in, but the vocals, the arrangements, were just fantastic. Look at that first set. Just awesome. I realized I knew every word of every song in the first set, and I was surprised that I knew most of TLOS already. “Can’t Wait Too Long” with the montage of the Wilson brothers on screen was just awesome—I had never seen most of the pictures shown, and I’ve got just about all of the books published about Brian and the Beach Boys.



Brian did seem a bit tired. Jeff helped double his lead vocal in a few spots which seemed impromptu, and Brian got mixed-up with his TelePrompter a couple of times. Who the heck cares—it was great to see how that band cares about him and the love in the theatre was real.



Jeff Foskett was a real gentleman to us and it’s just so obvious how much he cares for Brian. After the show there was a brief meet-and-greet where a radio station contest also went backstage. I realized I didn’t have Brian sign my Smile CD cover before the show, so he signed that for me and I got a picture with Jeff. Then Nick invited us through the backstage back to the side of the stage where most of the rest of the band was hanging out. I got to tell Darian my little story about the first time I heard Smile, and asked him if he still had the iBook with all the 60s-era music on it (he does). I also got to thank Scott for creating TLOS, and got autographs from some of the rest of the band. Nelson was a really nice guy. Taylor had been signing her CD up front, but I missed her there, so he took my copy back to her dressing room and she signed it for me.



















I realized I had left our coats back in the meet-and-greet area, so I went back and got them by myself, and then Christine & I walked out with Chuck & Molly into the loading dock. Chuck and I realized that the equipment cases still had “The Beach Boys In Concert” Brother Records emblem on them (we figure they might have been Jeff’s) so we took a few last pictures. They went to the Metro to their hotel, and we drove home.


It was such a wonderful experience. I got to have one of the best nights of my life, and I was able to share it with some other good people, too. Thank you to Brian and the Band for making it all possible!!