BOC: Palo Alto, CA 2/4/98

[Chris Baker]

(posted to AOL)

Some miscellany re: Wednesday's Palo Alto show at the Edge:

Before the Kiss, a Redcap
Cities On Flame
E.T.I.
Harvest Moon
Buck’s Boogie
OD’d On Life Itself
The Vigil
Live For Me
Flaming Telepaths
I’d Like to See You in Black
Then Came the Last Days of May
In Thee
Burnin’ for You
Godzilla
(Don’t Fear) the Reaper

The Golden Age of Leather
Dominance and Submission

I stood on the main floor about halfway back, in line with BD’s position; from
there the sound was much better overall than at the Slim’s show in SF last
week.  Again, things seemed to get louder closer to the show’s end, although
I’m never sure whether this is actually happening or if it is an auditory
phenomenon.  The band’s opening with "Before the Kiss…" was unexpected, and
judging from the somewhat tentative crowd response I had the sense a bunch of
people weren’t familiar with it.  This is odd, given that it seems to have
figured prominently in a lot of shows of the last few years.  Bolle noted
recently that shakeups in the setlist are always welcome and I agree
completely, no matter what the reason for particular omissions.  However the
sound was also a little muddy at this point, and the vocals inaudible at the
song’s beginning, which might have made it difficult for people to get their
bearings at first.

After the steadily escalating response to solid versions of CoF and ETI,
Harvest Moon once again sucker-punched the crowd with the mid-song changeup.
People really got into Allen’s solo, which was very good and also leapt out of
the mix more than Buck’s.  As with Slim’s, Eric’s introduction of the song
doesn’t seem to elicit much recognition, but the song is extremely well
received.

"The Vigil" didn’t have the "Come to us" refrain that had been used at the SF
show.

For FT and "…See You in Black" Buck switched guitars to what I thought was a
Les Paul, but which Bolle informed me later was a detuned Epiphone.  Oddly, FT
had the clearest BD guitar sound of the night, I felt, really distinct, and
the midsong solo was gorgeous.  As Xddb mentioned it was nice to have the
strobes back at the end, always very effective with the band pumping up the
pressure and the lead lines ricocheting through the room.

The increased clarity of BD’s guitar seemed to carry over to the switch back
to the Steinberger, so maybe it was unrelated to the instrument…it was "Last
Days of May", so it couldn’t have happened at a better time.  Another
knockout.

While Allen was seated at the front of the stage waiting for BD to join him
for "In Thee", someone in one of the first rows called out "Allen!" and he
yelled back "What?"  Then, with mock ferocity "What??  WHAT???".  He seemed to
be having a good time, and didn’t let the California ban on smoking in bars
stop him.

Danny was into it as always; always a pleasure to watch him laying it down.
And Bobby R. is one hard hitter; his solo went over very well.

--What’s up with the Edge personnel asking people walking up to the show where
they parked, and telling them they’ve got to go move their cars into the Edge
lot?  And some people doing it?  I’m talking about people who are legally
parked!  They claim that their neighbors insist on this, and I guess they’ve
got the right to request whatever they want, but it’s nonsense.  Same goes for
the no in-and-out policy:  undoubtedly the wealthy residents of Palo Alto
don’t want people stepping out and wandering around getting high in front of
their boutiques, but it doesn’t jibe with the new non-smoking laws.

--Vicious Rumors opened; they do what they do real well but this particular
branch of hard rock/metal/whatever doesn't do much for me.  Not a whole lot
of, uh, modulation.  Five-drum lineup at one point though, I had a fleeting
wild thought that they were only doing it because of who they were opening
for.

--Ran into Sandy Pearlman in the audience, I'd never seen him before (or if I
had I hadn't know it; I'd only seen one picture of him and it was a couple of
decades ago).

-Chris Baker