BRAIN: Review of Buffalo show...finally

[BOC/Hawkwind List]

Review of BRAIN SURGEONS show

TIME:   June 14, 1997
PLACE:  Star Bar, 414 Pearl St., Buffalo NY

My friend (and boss) Rick and I arrived in Buffalo at around 7:30 on
Saturday.  Rick lives in Cleveland and I live in Akron, but both our
folks live in Ashtabula (an hour east of Cleveland); so we left from
there- it took us about 2 hours.  Al had given me good directions so
we had no trouble finding the place. First thing we did was scope out
the venue. Intimate is the first word that comes to mind.  It was
small, dimly lit, with candles on all the tables.  The bar split the room
down the middle and ran along the left (from audience) side of the stage
and there was a raised section on the right at stage level towards the
back of the room. I love to see bands in small venues except I usually
only get this privelage with local Cleveland bands.  But to see one
of my favorite bands in a place like this was a rare experience- I was
really hyped up about it.  The band wasn't scheduled to go on until
11:00 though, so that left us over 3 hours to explore downtown
Buffalo.

We were hungry so we found a good place to eat; the Breckenridge Brewery.
Good food, good beer; a good start to the evening.  We had a couple
more beers at various other bars in the area and bought cigars from
a street vendor.  We got to the Star Bar at about 10:00.  Nobody was there
to take a cover charge yet so we walked right in and sat at a table right
in front of the stage, got a beer and smoked our cigars.  After a couple
minutes Billy and Dave came in. Rick was wearing his Brain Surgeons shirt
and I had my Nethawks shirt on so they nailed us as rabid fans right off the
bat and came over and said hey.  We bs'd with Billy for a while, he then
had to leave to take a shower before the gig (that's my story and I'm
sticking to it).  The band showed up at about 11:00 and started setting up.

As the band was finally getting ready to start (about 12:00 I think),
I felt just like I did the first time I saw BOC live back in '86.
The only thing bad about that show was that Al and Joe were missing.
I remember thinking back then how cool it would be to see
Al singing Cities and Dominance live- I never thought I'd live to see
the day. I was quickly proven wrong, 'cuz they opened with Cities. Al
did the first half in Spanish, then gave up and did the last half in
English. It was awesome. They did Dominance (definitely one of my favorite
BOC tunes) later in the set.  I'd seen BOC do it many times live (without Al)
but I'd never seen it done "right" 'til then.  Other than that, the two
sets they did kinda blended toggether in my mind; I was buzzing pretty hard
and just trying to enjoy the music, not remember the set list- so
please forgive if I missed anything or got anything wrong.  They did
a lot of stuff from Box Of Hammers- I seem to remember Locked Up, Donkey Show,
Date With My Guitar, Tender Was the Night and Overture- but they did
some more as well.  Some other BS tunes they did were Language of Love, Name
Your Monster, Soul Jive, Medusa and I Play the Drums.  Al's drum solo during
I Play the Drums was memorable to say the least.  At one point he got off his
stool and just started walking (and rolling) around the stage hitting anything
he saw (including Deb's beer) with his sticks- HIlarious!  Al definitely
showed his prowess as a percussionist there. As far as BOC tunes, they did
Cities On Flame, Dominance and Submission, Astronomy, Red and the Black,
Death Valley Nights (another one of my favorite tunes and one I'd been
waiting 10 years to see done live), Career of Evil and I am the one you
warned me of- I think that's all of 'em.  Deb's voice was right on and Billy,
Dave and Pete all really impressed me.  They all seemed really into what they
were doing and most importantly, they looked like they were having fun.
They played 'til about 3:00 ( ?? )- which is really cool since I'm used
to bars shutting down at 2 in Cleveland.

We got to mingle with the band between sets and after the show.  We both
got our pictures taken with Al (I also got some pictures of the band playing..
when they're developed, I'll put 'em online for everyone to see) , we
spoke with Deb after the show about the difficulties of putting a tour
together (and pleaded with her to come to Cleveland!), we got autographs,
and we also met many other BOC fans- all of whom were really cool (although
I can't remember anyone's name.. I'll blame it on the alcohol).

I think we finally got on the road back to Ohio at 4 or so- and after a
couple sleep breaks - got back home at 8 or 9 in the morning.  Rick and I
both agreed that this was one of the best shows we had ever seen- topping
any BOC show we'd seen thus far.  I can't wait to see them again.

Al, Deb, Billy, Pete and Dave- thanks for a great show.

ps - special thanks to Billy H. from myself and Rick ...
     he'll know what I'm talking about
pss- thanks to Astro for the neat stickers


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Ed Stenger                                      EMAIL: eds at amercyb.com
Assistant Director of Information Services      PHONE:   (216)498-5100
American Cybercasting Corporation (ACC)         FAX  :   (216)498-5101
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