BOC @ JAXX/NIGHT OF THE HUGE GUITARIST

[John A Swartz]

> As for Lips yeah that was really a
suprise.  Don't know what made them decide to do it but it was definitely
spur of the moment.  Eric had to reference the lyrics from the monitor in
front of him.

Well, couldn't have been TOO spur of the moment if they had the lyrics
there!  Actually, according the the review at Cyberbaron's web page, the
band had gotten lots of on-line requests to do this one so they added it
to the set.

>How about a big BOC-L push for bringing back the Subhuman?

Don't know if Bloom will listen to alot input from BOC-L  ;-)
Seriously though, there are ALOT of old BOC tunes that I wouldn't mind
seeing BOC do live - some that probably may not have ever been done
live.  The band has such a rich catalog of material that they could
perform if they decided to work it up - not to mention that there's a
fair amount of new stuff (or at least unreleased) that could be performed.

>Yeah I know but ME262 is very nostalgic for me

Gee, one of the knocks about BOC is their focus on the nostalgic and
here you go getting all nostalgic here -- ain't you the guy that wanted
them to do different stuff, maybe even in the "alternative" vein?  ;-)

>Godzilla really didn't
get a major reaction out of the crowd.  Probably way too many BOC veteran
fans who have had their fill of the song.

Well, every BOC show I've been at (including one this year, and one last
year), 'Zilla gets a MAJOR reaction from the crowd -- quite frankly,
when I saw 'em last year, the band could've just played and let the
audience sing the song, 'cuz I think they drowned out the band anyway.
And, as predictable as it is, and as much as I personally want other
material from the band, I was swept up in the moment and singing right
along, pumping my fist in the air - the whole 9 yards.

Nope, I think you'd find more fans in the crowd disappointed not to hear
"The Big 3" than you might think.  Hell, I even heard at a recent Brain
Surgeons' show folks in the crowd yelling for "Godzilla".  Now, that's
pretty dumb when I think about it, and probably most folks on BOC-L
would never do something like that, but not all rock fans are computer
geeks like me with contacts to all these sources of information (including
members of the bands).  I hope that statement didn't come off sounding
"snobbish" - quite frankly I consider myself very fortunate to have been
able to come into contact with so many cool people both on-line and in
person -- but I can't expect everyone who shows up to a show to have
been as fortunate.

> Seriously, they really should take one last shot at putting these on disc
even if they have to do it themselves.

Well, I hope it isn't a "last shot", but I know what you mean.  I do
think, however, that something will happen (hey, perhaps if things go
well for Sony on the nostalgia bit, they'll work something out for the
new stuff) - presumably alot of the music is recorded, and I think that
it will come out in some form next year.  I don't have any "insider
information" - I just have a hunch.

>BTW which version do you prefer John, I vote for Al.

Well, I've grown very accustomed to Eric's version of "Cities on Flame"
since by the time I first saw BOC live, Albert was out of the band (which
is too bad, 'cuz I probably had one shot to see them on the "Black and
Blue" tour, but couldn't go).  But I do like Albert's vocals on the song
as well, and his "multi-cultural" version is great.  The versions I've
heard of both Joe and Buck singing this song were on tape and not live,
so perhaps I would be more enthusiastic about them if I saw them live.
Neither was bad, but seemed to lack the proper energy.  The thing
about "Cities on Flame" that Albert so necessarily provided for me,
however, was the DRUMS - the whole real hook of that song for me was
always that "Bum bum ba BUM" on the bass drum in-between the guitar
lines.  Last time I saw BOC live (the day after I got to see the Brain
Surgeons do it), I was disappointed to see that Chuck Burgi had completely
eliminated that bit from the song.  Albert may not be known these days
as one of the top drummers in rock, but his sense of rhythm always has
impressed me -- often subtle, but rich in variety and complexity, and
always blending nicely with what the song demands.

John