John Stamos makes it a full house by joining Beach Boys at LA Fleet Week performance
With the USS Iowa’s maritime museum providing a vast ash-colored backdrop Saturday night, Hawthorne-born surf-music legends The Beach Boys helmed by original member Mike Love delighted the crowd at San Pedro’s third LA Fleet Week celebration.
Joining them onstage: Honorary Beach Boy and Cypress native John Stamos. You can’t get any more Southern California than this.
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“We all remember what school we were going to when ‘Be True To Your School’ came out, and it became everyone’s fight song,” LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn said to the crowd before The Boys took the stage. “The Beach Boys wrote about California, and Southern California life.” Though the evening was steeped in such surfer-strutting fun, the Boys remembered the Fleet Week military mission by honoring men and women in uniform and urging the crowd to take a moment to pay their respects to “third-generation Navy man,” Sen. John McCain.
Related: A night of stars (like John Krasinski) and stripes as “Jack Ryan” debuts at Fleet Week
Earlier that morning, on the other side of the nation, Washington’s leaders gathered at the National Cathedral Saturday to say farewell to McCain, capping days of tributes to the war hero and two-time Republican presidential candidate who died last week of brain cancer at 81.
Stamos, former star of such TV hits as “Full House” and “ER,” took to the microphone to share one of the former U.S. senator’s most memorable quotes. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity to act despite our fears,” he quoted from McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner during the Vietnam War.
Video screens around the Iowa, also known as Battleship of Presidents or the Big Stick, displayed images of McCain while the crowd paused.
“That’s Fleet Week to me,” said Stamos. “I’m very humbled to be here.”
Stamos is an executive producer of the current Netflix kickstart of his old show, “Fuller House,” and intermittently returns onscreen as “Uncle Jesse” Katsopolis.
Stamos has oft mentioned that he saw the Beach Boys at age 15 and was transfixed. He has become an adjunct member of the band, performing with them frequently – including this year at the big national celebration in Washington DC, “A Capitol Fourth.” He’ll also join them at the Kern County Fair later this month.
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When the spotlight shifted back to music, those video screens turned their attention to the surf-music scene, beaming images of The Beach Boys’ highlights from their five decades together.
The band, founded in 1961 by original members Mike Love, his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson and pal Al Jardine – opened with old favorites “Do It Again,” “Surfin’ Safari,” “Catch A Wave,” “Little Honda,” and “Surfin’ USA.”
And they ripped through many more of their vast playlist, the crowd singing along with: “Surfer Girl,” “Getcha Back,” Don’t Worry Baby,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” “409,” “Shut Down,” “I Get Around,” “Be True To Your School,” “Belles of Paris,” “Darlin’,” “Kiss Me Baby,” “The Warmth of the Sun,” “Forever,” “God Only Knows,” “Pisces Brothers,” “Unleash the Love,” “Sail on Sailor,” “Sloop John B.,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “California Girls,” “Do You Wanna Dance,” “Rock and Roll Music,” “Help Me Rhonda,” “Barbara Ann,” “Good Vibrations,” “Kokomo,” “Summertime Blues,” and “Fun Fun Fun.”
At one point, the Boys asked the audience to take out their cellphones and turn on the flashlight feature. “”If you can’t find it,” joked Love, “ask someone younger than you.”
It was all Bic lighters back in the 1980s when audience member Monique Modica first saw the Boys at The Queen Mary when she was only 16 years old.
Modica was having a great time Saturday at her first Fleet Week. “My mom had a blast last year when she came with my daughter,” said Modica, who brought along her sister-in-law Sandra Chor. “And my boyfriend is military. He was army and did two tours.”
With multiple agencies on site – including officers from the LAPD, Los Angeles Port Police, a private security team and both American and Canadian Navy personnel – you didn’t have to look far to find someone clad in uniform to honor.
But you didn’t have to know anyone in the military to have a good time Saturday night in San Pedro.
““(Fleet Week) is big for San Pedro, it’s beautiful,” said Tony Accetta, whose cousin is Leonard Russo, lead guitarist of The Wing Tips, who warmed up the crowd along with Navy Band Southwest, One Ten South and Steve Morris.
More from the Fleet
Here are highlights from Fleet Week’s final two days:
Sunday, Sept. 2
- Public ship tours, indoor and outdoor exhibits, dining and music (8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.);
- 5-on-5 Basketball Tournament Day 2 (9 to 2 p.m. with championship game at noon and champions vs. celebrities 1 p.m.);
- Aerial demonstrations (between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.);
- Battleship Blast High School Robotics Competition (9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Stemp Expo Village);
- Brews, Blues & BBQ at the SS Lane Victory (3 to 7 p.m., 3600 Miner St.);
- Navy Band Southwest performance (4:30 p.m., Bob Hope USO Delta Air Lines Main Stage);
- Navy Film Festival with Navy Air Night (“Hell Divers” 5 p.m. and “Top Gun’ 8:15 p.m., Warner Grand Theatre);
- Live music with Soul Sacrifice, Rich Girl and Bay Side High Navy Band Southwest (4:30-9 p.m., Bob Hope USO stage); laser show (9:15 p.m.)
Monday, Sept. 3
- 10th Annual Conquer the Bridge 5.3-mile run-walk over the Vincent Thomas Bridge (7-10 a.m., Harbor Boulevard and Fifth Street;
- Victory breakfast 9-11 a.m. outside dining ten at main LA Fleet Week event site);
- Public ship tours, indoor and outdoor exhibits, dining and music (8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.);
- Battleship Blast High School Robotics Competition (9 a.m. to 4 p.m. STEM Expo Village);
- Aerial demonstrations (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.);
- Galley Wars culinary competition between the sea services (11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Bob Hope USO stage);
- Live music with Brent Payne and Faultlines (2-6 p.m., Bob Hope USO stage);
- Navy Film Festival with Navy Ships and Subs Night (“Mister Roberts” 5 p.m. and “Hunt for Red October” 8:15 p.m., Warner Grand Theatre).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.