BOC: Covers and The Big 3

[John A Swartz]

A few comments on the recent BOC threads regarding set choices...

1.  I agree that I could do without hearing "Don't Fear Godzilla Burnin'
the Reaper For You" at every BOC show, but I also doubt it's going to
happen - and that probably goes for "Cities on Flame" as well.  However,
judging from crowd reaction over the past 3 BOC shows I've been at, these
songs are still the ones that get the biggest crowd response.  I'd even
have to admit, as what I would call a "diehard" fan, that "Godzilla" and
"Cities" get ME as pumped as anything in the set - I mean, despite hearing
it time and time again, I just can't help singing along to the chorus of
"Godzilla" or shouting out "With Rock and Roll!" during "Cities" - and I
agree that these songs are overplayed!

2.  One thing that might spice up the sets if these songs have to be in the
set is to spread them out over the set - I mean, BOC has been ending their
shows with "Burnin' For You", followed by "Godzilla", followed by "Reaper"
for over 10 years now.  I think for awhile they were even doing "Cities on
Flame" right before the big 3!  They need to break up this ordering - and
maybe changing the arrangement of the songs themselves (we've talked in the
past about and acoustic "Reaper"...)

3.  I wouldn't mind hearing "Born to Be Wild" - other than occassionally,
BOC haven't had this in the set for 10 years, so I don't think it would
come off bad at all.  Actually, as far as covers go, I think BOC does
some great covers - last year I got to see them do "Slow Down" and it
was a real kick.  Sure, the band has plenty of material to draw upon to
replace a cover, but a good band doing a good song is always great to
hear.

4. Someone said that "Harvest Moon" and "See You In Black" are starting
to sound old -- well, HM has been done for about 4 years or so now with
some fair regularity (the song itself is closer to 10 years old, I do
believe), but SYIB has only been around for about a year and a half.
Perhaps since it's about the only new BOC material we've had to talk
about, it seems old?  Bolle tells me that SYIB is being "rested" by the
band for awhile these days, along with all other new tunes except HM,
presumably in anticipation of the long-awaited release?

5. The biggest problem I see is that the setlist problem really goes
way beyond the "big 3" - this band has kept it's setlists pretty static
since the seventies, and it has gotten to the point that in the nineties
I can go to a BOC show and predict the setlist down to the songs and order,
and be off by only a song or two - and all I have to do is list the setlist
from the previous year, and make 1 or 2 song changes.  Never mind the fact
that Burnin/Godzilla/Reaper (and Cities) have all been in the set since
they were released on a BOC record -- look at songs like "Stairway to the
Stars", "E.T.I.", "Before the Kiss", "Take Me Away", "Flaming Telepaths",
"ME-262", "Dominance and Submission", "The Red and the Black", and (dare
I say it?) "Buck's Boogie".  These songs have been beaten to death by
BOC, and while I love them all (and will enjoy them every time I hear BOC
play them), we all know that there is so much MORE to BOC than these set
standards.  It has nothing to do with "taking a chance" - BOC can easily
keep the big 3 in their sets.  They have plenty of other songs that could
just as easily be "rested" from the set to make way for either a new song
or something old and obscure from the catalog.

I'm rambling again . . .

John

PS (and off-topic):  Goin' to see KISS tonight in Boston - a brief review
will be posted by the end of the week (under OFF:).