Surgeons in Toronto & Buffalo

[Albert T Bouchard]

tBS had a cool trip to NXNE and Buffalo this weekend. Both shows had a
modest turnout although the Buffalo club was smaller so it seemed like
more. Another thing common to each show was the lack of publicity.

El Mocombo is a club in Chinatown in Toronto with not so many clubs close
by. We played upstairs so people couldn't see us from the street. The
upstairs isn't used that often anymore so there was some interest in this
famous stage. Many people there stayed for the whole night throughout the
sets by bands with diverse musical styles. I missed the first band but the
second was a kind of punky-heavy-grungy trio. They rocked hard with plenty
of screaming coming from the male lead singer. Buck Dharma fans probably
wouldn't have dug it because there was nary a lead guitar solo in their
whole set. Next up was us and we played a pretty good set at about 80%
aerobic threshold. A last minute change substituted Red and Black for the
opening tune in honor of the Canadian Mounties. The shortest D & S in
history ended the set because we went five minutes over (although nobody
minded) but the next act was grateful that we cut it when we did. They were
a pleasant but overwrought outfit with a distinct Smiths heritage. They had
a female drummer who rocked even though she had to borrow my drum key!
(green, green, green):-) There was another group who were sort of metallic
after that but we were loading out and most of the people left during their
set. We got a chance to hang with some Canadian fans after our show
although we saw people singing along and people with BOC t-shirts that
seemed to disappear after, whose identities remain a mystery. I've become
obsessed with getting people on our mail list.:-) Was that you Eric
Siegerman?

The Star Bar in Buffalo was a street level venue with a big picture window
in front and many happening clubs nearby. We were the only band and we
started at midnight. People would start to walk by and come in to see who
was the BOC cover band. Boy, were they surprised! By the time we finished
our last set at quarter to three the was club was nearly full. One of our
fans, NSS, who is also a fellow musician, sat in on Astronomy. Most of the
songs were on the 100% funky setting. Most of the band hung with the fans
for another couple hours soaking in the positive vibes. We all paid the
next day.;-)
Al