BOC:Astoria

[Chris Baker]

Nick E. wrote:

> aside from the ones already on tape/record/CD, what covers have people seen
BOC do?

In late ‘73/early ‘74 I saw the band twice perform "It’s Not Easy", which
apparently was something of a staple of the early days.  I suspect that they
did not continue doing this for much longer after this.  I always viewed this
cover of the Stones’ song from Aftermath (with its multiple drummers) as
something of a precursor to the five guitars, which emerged with ME 262.

I did see one night where they did both, however the situation was a little
unusual.  There were two shows, but the turnout was not great, probably due to
the snowstorm that was going on.  Eric Bloom announced from stage towards the
end of the first set that the theater would not be cleared, everyone could
keep their seats, and the band would try to play a lot of different stuff in
the second set.  This was cool, although (for me) largely due to the set
additions.  I had a ticket for the second show only, but had arrived early
during the opening act of the first show and a sympathetic cop (true), hearing
that I’d just arrived by bus and train and was going to be outside for upwards
of three hours, told the people at the door to let me in.

"It’s Not Easy" was wild, I can remember Bloom and Buck, guitars off, facing
each other across Albert’s drum kit, holding crossed drumsticks up in front of
their faces, walking slowly towards each other to meet at the drums as they
clicked the sticks together in rhythm with what Albert was playing…then
kaboom, orgasmus rhythmus.

Another one of the dozens of reasons this show sticks in my mind is that it
was the last one I ever attended at which marijuana was actually shared…I mean
pipes just showing up from down the row and then disappearing on down into the
darkeness, an amazing amount of dope and a stoned/stunned audience howling and
half-poleaxed with disbelief as the band kept kicking the intensity up another
notch, and another, and another, louder than howling Jesus and people’s
ribcages vibrating like tuning forks under the sonic onslaught… Fortunately
the proximity of these drugs didn’t interfere with my cool appraisal of the
performance.

Perhaps Albert could shed some light on whether in fact this song was phased
out as a result of the five guitars’ arrival, or whether it had just been done
enough.

This song resurfaced on the (80?) Old Waldorf live broadcast from San
Francisco, with a classic fucked-up false start.

-Chris Baker