The concert was scheduled to begin at 8pm, and with around 50 songs to get through, marking 50 years of the Beach Boys, it needed to start on time.
At 8.15pm a decision was taken that the latecomers had held things up long enough, and with the house lights still up the drummer started the intro to an appropriate opener, Do It Again.
The Beach Boys are still definitively the sound of summer.
The line-up which played the HKCEC last night includes all the surviving full members of the band from their 1960s heyday. Dennis and Carl Wilson died in 1983 and 1998 respectively.
Although not strictly chronological in presentation, the concert took in the best-known tunes from most eras of the band's career. It went from the early surf and hot rod anthems on to the more sophisticated music Brian Wilson later created in the studio, and which for years the band found it impossible to convincingly recreate on the road.
No longer. The combination of much advanced musical technology, and a band of highly competent back-up musicians, left the Beach Boys - with the exception of guitarist David Marks - with a light instrumental load to carry, and free to concentrate on the band's trademark close harmonies.
They had some help in that department too. All the players in the backing group also sing.