BOC: SLC 1/22/97

[Brad M. Lauchnor]

I got to meet a fellow list member, Brad Dahl, last night at the BOC show.
Great guy, sweet wife (Shelly). We had a good time at the show.

Brad D. will have to give you the set list. He wrote it down and my
memory isn't that good.

To start out I will say that I have given 3OC lots of grief lately. I want
everyone to understand that it is out of frustration. And I am still
frustrated. And it is going to show in this post.

The show started with the standard opening of "Stairway to the Stars"
with Eric IMHO having some troubles with the vocals. Throughout the
show Eric seemed to be the emcee and not the lead vocalist. At times he
sounded as though he was recovering from laryngitis, maybe he is. Buck
took the lead vocals for the rest of the show, I think Eric shared them on
ETI.

New songs played were "Harvest Moon" and "Live in Me". Both sound
like good tunes but the sound system and my location to the right of the
stage prevented me from hearing the lyrics clearly.

They played "The Last Days of May" and made my day. A favorite that I
had never heard live.  We also got "The Vigil" and "In Thee" from Mirrors.
Both done well. These are great tunes live. Another was "Shooting
Shark", which I have always liked and I thought it sounded great.

At one point the mics stopped working and the decision was made to
play "Bucks Boogie". WOW, it was great. And the crowd was in to it.
A "staged" mic problem? I hope not, but it doesn't matter...

Eric said that the new album would be out "sometime this spring".

The show was about 1.5 hours with the BIG 3 coming last. Burnin',
Godzilla, Reaper. No encore. A bit short compared to the last time I saw
them (1/27/95). BTW Eric called them "the Big 3". When people were
screaming for them he said that they would get to the big 3 but that they
wanted to play some things that they don't play as often because they
want to keep the set list fresh. I'm paraphrasing a bit but it sounds like
he's been on this list listening to the complaints <shrug>?

The frustration: at one point Buck was so pissed with the bars
equipment that he gave one of the techs a "this is a fu*king piece of sh*t"
while trying to adjust his sound with the foot switches on the floor. He
was not happy with his sound most of the night and continued to mess
with it almost all night. I don't blame these guys for wanting to do these
types of shows. I guess that I just get frustrated seeing a guy like Buck
have to screw with equipment and get frustrated as hell in this average
joint in Salt Lake. Can this really be fun for them? I hope so. And the peak
of my frustration: I want these guys to be inspired and motivated. I want
to see them do their creative best. I know I have no right to DEMAND it
but I guess I will always HOPE for it. The analogy of children was used
before. If you are always negative they turn out messed up. But I also
think that (as a parent) you want your children to be successful and
accomplish all that they can. When they don't it can be frustrating and
maddening. Its the same way with BOC. I want to see and hear their
best. But as a parent you also have to learn to live with your children's
decisions because they need to be themselves, not what you want them
to be. I only hope that the members of BOC are happy...

Brad D. make sure to post your review. And don't forget to mention the
drummers little notebook. And the Danny Miranda/Blonde Babe episode, it
was a great laugh.

Brad L.   blauchno at deq.state.ut.us