Chris & Maria's Blog

We drove to Asheville, NC,  on Friday (in a rental car with a 3-seater front seat which reminded me of the Weasley’s magically extended car) to go to see The Beach Boys play an outdoor concert at Biltmore. Apart from the children and teenagers who had obviously been dragged along by their parents, we were the youngest people there. Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and the rest were obviously well aware of their demographic ‘cos they made a few jokes about needing breaks and naps, however it was only a joke because they played through for nearly two hours. They mixed up the vocals with the rest of the band, who were all really talented, and performed some truly amazing, spot on four-, five- or maybe even more- part harmonies.

I was actually surprised to find a few songs I didn’t know (Chris was shocked that I’d never heard “Kokomo” or “Be True to your School”) but then I realised that all I really knew was Pet Sounds and the Greatest Hits. They certainly played all of those, and also a couple of covers (“California Dreamin'” was excellent!) and finished with “Fun Fun Fun” which had all the old-timers dancing. All in all it was excellent fun, and Biltmore is a gorgeous place for a concert; listening to live music outside while watching the sun set over the mountains is a  magical experience!

Yesterday we wandered around Asheville  – I liked it a lot but it was a bit too much on the hippie side of life for Chris – before heading home. Stopped at the Antique Tobacco Barn to look at all the amazing antique furniture (including a passable Mirror of Erised) that we would have in our house if we could. Chris took a few pictures here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 9:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.