Beach Boys, Owensboro Symphony to headline Beaver Dam Amphitheater

Aug. 11—The audience at Beaver Dam Amphitheater will be soaking up good vibrations this weekend as the Grammy-nominated group The Beach Boys will join forces with the Owensboro Symphony for a joint concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12.

Formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961 by then-teenaged brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine — The Beach Boys' first album, "Surfin' Safari," was released in 1962 through Capitol Records.

It became a top 50 success on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart — peaking at number 32 — and included the band's first top 20 Billboard hit, the title track, which was released alongside the hot rod tune "409."

Since then, The Beach Boys have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and have achieved 36 U.S. top 40 hits, including No. 1 songs "Good Vibrations," "Help Me, Rhonda," "I Get Around" and "Kokomo."

They've also performed at Live Aid, multiple Farm Aids, the Statue of Liberty's 100th anniversary salute, the Super Bowl and the White House, among other venues and music events.

Additional accolades for the group over its six-decade career includes being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and receiving the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2001.

Rolling Stone ranked The Beach Boys' 1966 record "Pet Sounds" at No. 2 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time," while ranking the group No. 12 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time."

This will mark The Beach Boys' second time at the Beaver Dam venue. The band first performed there in 2021. This will mark the symphony's facility debut.

Love, who has been with The Beach Boys since the group's formation, is happy to be heading back to perform in Kentucky.

"It's part of American history, part of American culture and it's out in nature," Love laughed, "and summertime is the best time for The Beach Boys' touring, and our music is so compatible for all kinds of generations."

Love enjoys the fact that "entire families can show up" and enjoy the show — "from the grandparents on down to children."

"It's very inspiring to me as a writer and performer, in one who has been doing it for six decades, that so many people (and) so many age groups ... just respond so beautifully to our music," he said. "It's fun for us."

Love said music has always been a family tradition that eventually became a profession — something that he doesn't take for granted.

"... It was 1963 when we first stepped foot on stage at the Hollywood Bowl," he said, "but (this year) on July 2, 3 and 4 — we did three nights of the Hollywood Bowl, sold out with fireworks and the Hollywood Bowl orchestra.

"That, to me, is like a miracle and it's a blessing all rolled into one. In the fact that (so) many people in our hometown in Los Angeles can come out and enjoy our music as we do performing, it's kind of miraculous."