The Beach Boys @ Central Park

Andy Meyers — June 17

Photo c/o lizasokool

There are a handful of bands that become true household names due to their timeless songwriting and musical legacy such as: The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Beatles, and The Beach Boys. The Beach Boys' hit songs are inescapable, even if you live under a rock. Everyone has heard "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "California Girls", and "Good Vibrations" at least 20 times in their lifetime. They are masters of vocal harmony and their album "Pet Sounds" is critically acclaimed as one of the best albums of all time. They are celebrating their 50th anniversary as a band this year and have just come out with a new album entitled "That's Why God Made The Radio."

Now, I don't know anyone personally that has gone to one of these morning show performances because I just don't know many diehard fans that would be willing to wake up at 5am or earlier and trek their way to midtown or Central Park to see a musical act perform 3 songs. I've wanted to go a couple times in the past, but when the early morning rolls around, I decided sleep was a better option. Well, what better way to make my first Good Morning America experience memorable than with The Beach Boys! They rarely ever play and who knows how long they are going to keep the band going so this was a special performance I didn't want to miss. 

Here's my personal experience Friday morning to let you know what to expect if you so happen to want to go sometime in the future. I go to the gate at 5:45am as suggested from the show guidelines. There are 2 short separate lines that already formed about 25 people deep each. One is for VIPs and the other is general admission. The VIPs get to go to the front of the stage first and the general admission folks are behind a barricade sectioned off a few yards further back. After half an hour has passed, they open up the barricades to let the general admission step forward and fill the space in between. They passed out about 50 sunglasses to the hundreds amassed and threw beach balls into the crowd to make the filming of the performance have a beach-like feel.    

Sound check started at 7:30am and lasted about half an hour. Brian Wilson told the crowd that the beach balls were distracting him so he wanted the crowd to stop playing with them. The Beach Boys leave the stage and don't come back until 8:30am when they performed for the taping of the show. They played 3 songs in between commercial breaks and other sections of the broadcast, starting with "California Girls" and went on to play their new album single, "That's Why God Made The Radio." They ended with "Good Vibrations."

The whole thing ended at 9am. I had a good experience, even with the early show up time and all the waiting around in between. I'll most likely go back in two weeks to catch LMFAO and dance it up in the early morning. Hope you can make it to one of the Good Morning America performances coming up! 

The Beach Boys are playing two concerts in the New York area to promote the new album "That's Why God Made The Radio." Go catch them on Sunday, June 24th at the Nikon Theater in Jones Beach or Wednesday, June 27th at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel Township, New Jersey.  

--Cliff Chien aka The Cliffer