BRIAN WILSON
House Of Blues
Chicago, Illinois
August 14, 2002

Recorded by Roy Martin at damn perfect center, at the edge of the
stage, a mere few feet in front of Brian Wilson, The Man himself.

Once again, I'm at the House Of Blues, Chicago where a General
Admission early-bird-gets-the-worm effort can yield a choice spot.
And, once again, I choose closeness to artist over closeness to the
house amps (where the sound quality would be best). To see Brian
right in front of me, I became firsthand witness to his rather awkward
stage presence (or lack of). You cannot but have sympathy for a guy
who is amazingly gifted and, at the same time, obviously scarred from
a combination of self-indulgent substance abuse followed by years of
inappropriate mental health care. Yet, he has a childlike, humble
nature about him. His attempt to get the audience to scream madly
before & after "You're So Good To Me" is hilarious. He has a blast
throughout the encore, the enthusiam captured in my recording.

Captured using a set of Sound Professional Premium Binaural mics -->
battery box with bass roll off utilized --> Sony MiniDisc Walkman
Model MZ-NF610. The equiptment were concealed in a zippered pouch
with the mics poking out of both sides. I was literally up against the stage
(which was 4' high) holding my zippered pouch at chest height, occassionally
placing it actually on the stage itself, for the whole evening. It was very
crowded, so my microphone technique wasn't as consistant as I prefer.
Sometimes you gotta do the best you can, given the circumstances.

I captured the show over three 74-minute blank MiniDiscs. At some
point, probably within a couple years of recording the show, disc one
went missing. And, so it remained - missing - for years. Many years.
In fact, I used to bemoan the heartbreak of losing this superb first
set. Finally, in February 2016, I accidentally found a box of my master
MiniDiscs in my basement inside an old cardboard box. Disc one of
this Brian Wilson show was hiding there all along. And, now I'm
very glad to bring it to you.

-------Roy [ http://db.etree.org/roymartin ]

August 2002 Capture:

Captured using a set of Sound Professional Premium Binaural mics -->
battery box with bass roll off utilized --> Sony MiniDisc Walkman
Model MZ-NF610.

February 2016 Mastering:

Playback in real time on a Sony MDS-JE510 (optical TOSlink output) -->
my computer's SoundBlaster Z soundcard (optical TOSlink input) -->
16-bit/44.1k WAV file (using Audacity) --> joins/edits/fades as
necessary (using Audacity) into a WAV file of two hours & thirteen mins -->
giant WAV split in appropriate places (using CD Wave Editor) ��-->
Sector Boundry Errors fixed (using Trader's Little Helper) --> rewritten
WAVs with '-fixed' in filenames --> FLAC Level 6 (using Trader's Little Helper).

No EQing done, so salt & pepper to taste. Being honest, the
capture isn't perfect but I'm picking up basically the output from Brian's
wedge amps/monitors and then the loud sounds from the amps on the
stage. The vocals sound a bit muffled but the percussion is captured
quite nicely. Listen during the 'Pet Sounds' for the tambourines, bells,
clip-clops, harmonicas.

Total Time: 132:47

01. You're Welcome
02. Wonderful > Cabinessence
03. California Girls
04. Meant For You
05. Friends
06. Dance Dance Dance
07. Sail On Sailor
08. Please Let Me Wonder
09. In My Room
10. Forever
11. Good Timin'
12. You're So Good To Me
13. The Night Was So Young
14. Busy Doin' Nothin'
15. Darlin'
16. Melt Away
17. Our Prayer
18. Heroes & Villians (In The Cantina)
19. Surf's Up
20. Marcella
21. Do It Again [intermission]
22. [start of 2nd set] band intros
23. Wouldn't It Be Nice
24. You Still Believe In Me
25. That's Not Me >
26. Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
27. I'm Waiting For The Day
28. Let's Go Away For Awhile
29. Sloop John B
30. God Only Knows
31. Hang Onto Your Ego
32. Here Today
33. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
34. Pet Sounds
35. Caroline, No
36. Good Vibrations
37. [encore] Surfer Girl
38. Help Me Ronda
39. I Get Around
40. Barbara Ann [Brian plays bass]
41. Surfin' USA
42. Fun Fun Fun
43. Love & Mercy


The performers:

Brian Wilson - vocals, keyboard, bass during encore
Jeffrey Foskett - vocals, guitars, percussion
Scott Bennett - vocals, keyboards, vibraphone, percussion
Taylor Mills - vocals, percussion, visual presence
Darian Sahanaja - vocals, keyboards, vibraphone
Bob Lizik - bass
Jim Hines - drums, vocals
Probyn Gregory - vocals, guitars, brass instruments
Paul Mertens - reed instruments, flutes, piccolo
Nick Walusko - vocals, guitars
Mike D'Amico - vocals, drums, percussion, guitar