My first call to Jason Brewer, lead singer of The Explorers Club, went to his answering machine. Which, by the way, is a few bars of “Good Vibrations” followed by Brewer’s urging to leave some similarly good vibes after the tone. And this sums up the band pretty well. Unlike your run-of-the-mill Beach Boys approximators content to nick a harmony line or two and sing about girls, The Explorers Club play dense, nostalgic pop songs overflowing with the lush orchestration and flowery details that made Brian Wilson and company one of the most-loved groups of all-time.

It’s not easy music to replicate live, and it took Brewer and his six bandmates (five of whom sing) at least one song to get in the groove and feel out the (lack of) space upstairs at DC9. But the set was arranged pretty nicely in that regard. They opened with the slower-but-not-slow “Do You Love Me”, which led into the Spectorian tom beats of “Forever” (both off their debut long-player Freedom Wind). By the time they absolutely nailed that tune’s a cappella breakdown, you sensed the band was really feeling it. The rest of the short, 40-minute set was like thumbing through your dad’s old 45s, and not just the Beach Boys either. Brewer knows his stuff, pulling from ’60s lesser lights like the Grass Roots, the Flying Machine, and Tommy James and the Shondells as much as he does the Mamas and the Papas and Buffalo Springfield. It’s a fun game of spot-the-influence, but it mattered a lot less live when the band hit their stride on “Last Kiss”, an immaculately arranged tune with pounding drums, clever little percussion touches, and bright, big harmonies. A spirited but funny cover of “Johnny B. Goode” completed the set and kind of cemented their image: it’s not just nostalgia — there’s a real revival going on here.

After the jump, an interview with lead singer Jason Brewer.