Guest writer and former Peoria resident, John Amberg, shares about his first concert experience when he saw The Beach Boys at the Glen Oak Amphitheater in 1976.

It must be said straight off: I got my love of music from my mother.  My musical tastes were influenced and shaped by my four older sisters.  They had an amazing collection of 45s and LPs; I was constantly borrowing them (and of course, by “borrowing” I mean “stealing”).  Oh sure, I went through my Archies phase, my Osmond Brothers phase (come on, “One Bad Apple” has one bad ass hook), but my sisters’ tastes won the day.  The Beatles. Motown.  Dan Fogelberg.  Commander Cody.  I don’t recall if they had any Beach Boys albums (maybe Endless Summer), but I heard them enough on WIRL and WLS to become a fan.

So when it was announced that The Beach Boys would play the Glen Oak Ampitheatre in the summer of 1976, I begged my parents to let me go.  My mom loved most kinds of music and fairly tolerated the stuff her kids liked.  But my dad hated rock and roll until the day he died.  To this day I can imagine him in Heaven, listening to Kay Kayser and shaking his head at the crap the kids listen to today.  But he relented and me and my friends got tickets.  Wow. The Beach Boys!  My very first concert!

As an extra added attraction, it was announced that the opening act would be Billy Joel. Imagine! The Piano Man himself on the same bill as The Beach Boys.  It was too good to be true.  And, literally, it was.  Billy dropped off the tour and the Bellamy Brothers (remember “Let Your Love Grow”? That was them) were added to the show.  At the last minute, for reasons that remain too vague to remember, they didn’t show.  In their place was a great local band called The New Watermelon Rhythm Section.  They fared far better as the opener than many other groups did on the concert stages of my hometown (we could be a rough crowd, I guess).  They finished as the sun was going down, and after an agonizingly long time (at least to me), The Beach Boys took the stage.

Now, the 1976 tour in support of their album 15 Big Ones was supposed to mark the return of Brian Wilson, the band’s founder and famously iconoclastic and fragile genius.  Brian had endured nervous breakdowns, drug addiction, and numerous other demons.  But when the band assembled onstage, no Brian.  At one point, a fan yelled out, “Where’s Brian?” “He’s at home,” lead singer Mike Love replied. 

Despite his absence, it was the classic 70’s-era Beach Boys line-up: Mike Love, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston, plus touring members Billy Hinsche (who tragically passed away recently), Ed Carter, and Ron Altbach.

The Beach Boys looked and sounded exactly like I pictured them.  They didn’t waste time, opening with one of their all-time great songs “California Girls.”  Amid the hits were sprinkled some songs that I would soon understand to be “deep tracks.”  They did “Sail On Sailor” and the “California Saga.”  They sprinkled in a few songs from the new album (“Susie Cincinnati,” “It’s OK,”).  Dennis Wilson even came out from behind the drums to croon “You Are So Beautiful.”  When they closed with “Fun Fun Fun,” I didn’t want them to stop.  One more encore! Please!

This being my first concert experience, I was overwhelmed by the size of the crowd, the stage set up, the lights, the persistent aroma of (no fooling my 17 year old senses) weed.  I experienced for the first time the thrill of anticipation when the show begins, the crowd’s buzzing that erupts into cheering, the lights coming on and the band hitting the stage.  I knew I had found something I wanted to experience again and again.

SETLIST
California Girls
Darlin’
Susie Cincinnati
Little Deuce Coup
Catch A Wave
I Get Around
Palisades Park
It’s Ok
God Only Knows
A Casual Look
Surfer Girl
Heroes and Villains
Sail On, Sailor
California Saga: California
Be True To Your School
Surfin’ USA
In My Room
Back Home
Sloop John B
Wouldn’t It Be Nice
Good Vibrations

Encores:
You Are So Beautiful
Rock And Roll Music
Barbara Ann
Fun Fun Fun

We have yet to find any footage of that show, but here is a video of The Beach Boys from that same year.