The boy who lived

Brian Wilson concert at the Beacon Theatre tonight, honoring the 50th anniversary of Pet Sounds (which they played in full after the intermission).

He's almost like a stiff, old giant crustacean, seated at a piano at center stage with his white helmet hair, doing some of the singing (with varying degrees of enthusiasm) but never trying any of the high notes, which he can no longer reach (so they're done by Al Jardine's son, second from the right in the back).

While Brian is not needed on stage to create any part of the sound - they don't rely on his keyboards, and others could do all of his vocal lines, for the most part better (at this point he is only intermittently expressive or on the beat) - he is of course needed up there as the show's symbolic focal point.  By seeing him up there, we honor him for having written and arranged all that great music, for having suffered so much, and for having survived, and I think one reason for cheering is out of the hope that he'll enjoy feeling appreciated now.