According to Variety, the Beach Boys played the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Sunday, after the cancellations that ate the summer, and drummer John Stamos posted a 1,200-word message about the night before the doors opened. Variety reports the official tour page now lists three dates, two of them in the past, with the last one at Walt Disney World on November 11.
The goodbye, if that is what it is, arrived as a Facebook post. One thousand two hundred words. "We don't know what the future holds. We have tonight." That is a tagline. Taglines are for products, and the product is a show that starts 30 minutes late, with a mic speech before the first song.
The night ran like a machine, because the machine is 7,422 shows deep. The closer was a Queen record over the speakers, and the exit was choreographed, arms raised, for the cameras. A touring habit that has run for 65 years does not stop. It just gets a soundtrack.
The tour page keeps the arithmetic simple. Three dates. Two already happened. One left, at a theme park built on other people's childhoods. The night can be a farewell or a set, but the website treats it as an asset: listed, dated, on sale.
YOUR TURN: Is a 1,200-word post a goodbye, or a press release?
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