(and why you should be there)

Friday, June 22 promises to be a night of fun, fun, fun on the Bangor Waterfront when The Beach Boys hit town for nearly three hours of hits and rarities - one of only 50 American dates scheduled for the band's 50th anniversary tour.

Nearly 20 years have passed since The Beach Boys have performed with their leader Brian Wilson - the man responsible for most of the band's mojo. For this tour Brian is back, and I was more than a little surprised when the news broke that he agreed to do it. Brian doesn't need the money, he doesn't need the aggravation (Mike Love) and it's been decades since he appeared completely at ease on stage. So why did he did agree to be part of a lengthy reunion tour in addition to creating and producing new material for the band's 29th studio album 'That's Why God Made The Radio?' My guess is that he wants closure to The Beach Boys' saga on his terms.

Not many bands survive to see a 50th anniversary tour, and the few who do have seen their share of weirdness. The Beach Boys are no exception. Under the smiles, striped shirts and Mike Love's ballcap lie decades of lawsuits, dysfunction and strange vibrations.

Over five decades, The Beach Boys have kept alive several communities of therapists and litigators. As recently as 2007, Brian Wilson prevailed in cousin Mike Love's ridiculous lawsuit over Brian's CD of re-recorded Beach Boys hits distributed free to the readership of a UK newspaper. What made Wilson's victory especially satisfying was Love's cockiness in the courtroom. According to Brian's wife Melinda, Mike Love turned to his cousin and said, 'You better start writing a real big hit because you're going to have to write me a real big check.' The judge decided otherwise.

The Wilson brothers had an absolute tool bag for a father. By all accounts, Murray Wilson worked overtime to make the lives of his boys a whirlwind of despair. Archival interviews with Brian, Carl and Dennis are filled with painful childhood tales of emotional and physical abuse many too graphic for The Maine Edge. Here's one we can share with you: Murray took perverse pleasure in scaring his sons by removing his glass eye and forcing them to look in the socket.