BRAIN. Brain Surgeon's Gig at Mamakin (Review)

[John A Swartz]

I'll post my own lengthy review shortly (either later today or Friday),
but I'll comment on and echo a few of Rich's comments:

>The Club:

Yeah, the club is pretty good.  Unfortunately, the person "in charge"
that night was apparently unaware how long the Brain Surgeons' were
supposed to play, and the gig got cut short by about 3 songs.  This was
a shame as we missed Al's drum solo in "I Play The Drums", not to mention
one of the Surgeons' best tunes, "Time Will Take Care of You".

>The Sound:
---------
Apparently the band had a rough time getting up North due to the bad weather,
so there was no sound check. Considering that, the sound was great! The
bass was perhaps a little low in the mix, but I'm a bassist so I'm biased.
Vocals were loud and clear.


Yep, the sound was great - even better than their last gig there (which
left my ears ringing for 2 days).  As a bassist as well, I'm also biased
towards strong bass.

>The Gig:
-------
With the weather hassles, this could have been a flat gig, but it wasn't.
The band was really energetic and loose. Al and Deb in particular were
very animated.


No question, Al and Deb are two professionals who take their work
seriously, and deliver a great performance.

>One thing that impressed me was that Deb's
voice sounds as good live as it does in the studio.

"You're mine for the taking!" during "Career of Evil" sent chills
down my spine . . .

>Sisters of the Precious Blood

Nope, they didn't do this one.  But they did do "My Civilization" and
"Medusa" from "Trepanation", along with the others you mention.

>Top-Secret-BOC-Tune that Al sang. Don't know if this is still a surprise or
not so I won't let the cat out of the bag!


I don't think this is top-secret anymore.  I didn't mention it after the
last Boston gig because they didn't play it.  However, this show was
now probably the 3rd or 4th time they've done it.  If you don't know
what it is, you'll see it in my review.

John