The Beach Boys have been off the road for the past two months so frontman Mike Love can “recharge” following a series of unspecific health issues that forced them to postpone over 30 dates on their Pet Sounds 60th anniversary tour. They originally planned on returning to the stage September 24 at The Big E Arena in West Springfield, Massachusetts, before hitting Quakertown, Pennsylvania on September 25, and two shows in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on September 27.
Just one day before the tour was set to resume, though, they cancelled all four of these shows without explanation. The Univest Performance Center in Quakertown said the cancellation was due to “circumstances beyond [our] control.” Identical language was used by the Alabama Theater in North Myrtle Beach.
As of now, the Beach Boys are supposed to begin playing shows again on October 9 at the Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington, Illinois. A spokesperson for the Beach Boys didn’t respond to an immediate request for comment.
The Beach Boys played over 40 shows this year on a tour celebrating the 60th anniversary of Pet Sounds. But fans were alarmed by Love’s gaunt appearance and diminished singing voice. A series of shows were postponed in early June because Love was suffering from an unspecified illness. (Longtime member Bruce Johnston left the group early in the year.)
“Love looked sallow and enfeebled; legs stiff, arms flat by his side. When he opened his mouth to sing, his once resonant tenor was reduced to a whisper, all warbled, strange, and barely there, decimated by the encumbering decades,” Slate’s Luke Winkie wrote in a review of a May 30 gig in New Brunswick, New Jersey. “My friend shot me an ashen look, the same one I remember him giving me during the opening salvo of the doomed Joe Biden debate.”
The tour resumed June 14 in Chelsea, England, and continued through a July 18 gig in Valdosta, Georgia – including three nights at the Hollywood Bowl – even though Love was still struggling vocally. In late July, they pulled the plug on 30 shows they had booked through late September. “We’ve been having a blast out there, and to keep the good vibrations going strong, we’ll be taking a short break to recharge before getting back on the road in September,” Love said in a statement. “Thanks for your love — we can’t wait to see you back out there for a September to Remember.”
Unlike the heavy touring schedule the Beach Boys have stuck to over the past six decades, the plan for the remainder of this year was light. Four shows were booked between September 24 and 27, including two separate performances at the Alabama Theater, and then just four concerts in October, and two in November.
Al Jardine, meanwhile, continues to gig around the world with veteran members of Brian Wilson’s touring unit that he’s dubbed the Pet Sounds Band. Unlike the hits-heavy show favored by Love, they dig deeper into the catalog, with a special emphasis on the 1977 oddball LP The Beach Boys Love You.
