Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson plays greatest hits at Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Sept. 29
From a press release:
It was announced today that legendary singer, songwriter, producer, and Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson will perform his greatest hits live at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 9 p.m. with fellow ex-Beach Boys Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin.
Tickets, which are $59.50, $69.50, $79.50, and $99.50, plus applicable fees, go on sale this Friday, June 28 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased at sandseventcenter.com, the Event Center box office (77 Sands Blvd., Bethlehem), ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, or by phone at 800-745-3000. A pre-sale for members of the venue’s Music Insiders Club will take place on Thursday, June 27 from 10 a.m.-10 p.m.
He is one of popular music’s most deeply revered figures, the main creative force behind some of the most cherished recordings in rock history. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to call Brian Wilson one of the most influential composers of the last century.
Following his acclaimed Pet Sounds 50th Anniversary World Tour, Wilson continues to deliver songs from the iconic Beach Boys album “Pet Sounds” album as well as top hits and fan favorites spanning his 50+ year career with The Beach Boys and as a solo artist. Universally hailed as a writer of one of the greatest American songbooks, “Pet Sounds” has reigned atop countless critic and fan polls and has maintained its timeless rank as one of popular music’s most-cited influences.
In 1965, with The Beach Boys out on tour, Wilson began session work on some of the most deeply personal recordings of his career. Inspired by The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul,” he challenged himself to create an immaculate musical masterpiece. A vast departure from the bands’ then commercial sound, the resulting “concept album” “Pet Sounds” achieved great critical success, helping usher in a new musical landscape.
Wilson began his career as a teenaged founding member of The Beach Boys, who signed with Capitol Records in July 1962 and released their first album, “Surfin’ Safari,” that same year. The band’s initial surf rock focus was soon broadened to include other themes. Wilson’s innovative vocal and instrumental arrangements for major hits, including “I Get Around,” “California Girls,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows,” and the No. 1 smash “Good Vibrations,” made The Beach Boys America’s preeminent band of the 1960s.
Wilson has also achieved great solo success with 11 of his own albums released to date, including his acclaimed 2004 completion of an album he first began recording in the ‘60s, “Brian Wilson Presents… Smile.” The album earned Wilson his first Grammy for a recording, which was followed by his second Grammy win for producing The Beach Boys’ acclaimed 2011 release “The Smile Sessions.” With his own band, Wilson has performed major, sold-out tours in recent years, and with The Beach Boys, he celebrated the iconic band’s 50th anniversary in 2012 with a major international tour and acclaimed studio album “That’s Why God Made the Radio.”
In 2015, Wilson released his latest solo album, “No Pier Pressure” (Capitol), and was the subject of the critically acclaimed, award-winning biopic “Love & Mercy” (Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate). Directed by Bill Pohlad and starring John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti, “Love & Mercy” presents an unconventional portrait of the music legend. Set against the era-defining catalog of the music, the film intimately examines the personal voyage and ultimate salvation of the icon whose success came at extraordinary personal cost. The culmination of these projects produced Wilson’s first Golden Globe nomination for “Best Original Song (Motion Picture)” for his song “One Kind of Love” featured in the film.
Brian Wilson is a Kennedy Center Honors recipient, a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, and a U.K. Music Hall of Fame inductee. As a member of The Beach Boys, Wilson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and honored with the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
See NEPA Scene’s review and photos of Wilson’s 2017 performance at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre here.
Photo by Jason Riedmiller Photography/NEPA Scene
