BOC - Baltic, CT gig last Saturday

[John A Swartz]

As posted to AOL:

From: BOCFAQMAN <BOCFAQMAN at aol.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 14:04:27 EST
To: jswartz at mitre.org
Mime-Version: 1.0
Subject: BOC in Baltic

My first BOC show in over 2 years (you guys just HAVE to get a little closer
to Boston!), and I do declare - it was good (but you all knew that already).

When I post reviews, they tend to get long-winded, but perhaps my lack of
sleep at the moment will keep this post to a respectable level.  But I'm
rambling already...

At 7:30, I kissed the wife and kids and began the 2-hour drive from Boston to
Baltic, CT - which I thought was shorter, and unfortunately found the roads a
bit slippery, but, as Dustin Hoffman said in 'Rain Man' - "I'm an excellent
driver..." ;-)

The Hillside Cafe, other than the fact that it's been recently rennovated (and
looks pretty good inside), is basically a dive in a rather out-of-the-way
place (reminds me a little of the 'hick town' - and I say that lovingly - that
I grew up in).  Quite a few cops around - guess they were expecting us rock
and roll geezers to get all liquored up and raise hell - they were right!

The opening band, Night Shift, got the crowd very suitably primed for BOC.
What was most cool was this wasn't a band playing a lot of originals, this was
a cover band playing lots of classic rock tunes from the 70s and 80s - stuff
like Skynyrd, 38 Special, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Molly Hatchet (and the good old
boys were rockin' in Heaven about all of those tunes, I can tell you!), and a
few others (including Krokus' "Screaming in the Night" - remember that tune?).
The band boasted of 2 rather fine guitarists - one on a Les Paul, and one on a
Strat - ah, the 70s...  :-)

During the opener's set, and between sets, I had the pleasure of meeting a few
onliners (Mark, Lisa, Ed - thanks again for getting me my ticket buddy!,
Imagine911, and Chariot - who got me a good spot on the floor just a few feet
from the front).  Kronos7 - I missed you - maybe next time...

BOC hit the stage, and... well, they were BOC - you all know how it was.
Nothing I can say hasn't been written here and elsewhere hundreds of times.
Quite simply, they were awesome - consumate professionals - and other than
Danny mouthing "I'm sooo tired" to a roadie during the show, one would never
have known it.  They delivered a killer set of old and new which I believe
went something like this (a few tunes might be out of order):

Before the Kiss
Cities on Flame
ETI
Harvest Moon
The Vigil
O.D. on Life
Buck's Boogie
Live for Me
Flaming Telapaths
See You in Black
Last Days of May
In Thee
Burnin' 4 U
Godzilla
Reaper
one encore - Dominance & Submission

A few other, somewhat random, observations:

I disagree "a little" with Mark on the sound - certainly for the place they
were playing, I think they did a good job with the sound, but there appeared
to have been some problems with Buck's guitar setup.  He was definitely not
high enough in the mix, at times being  almost dwarfed by Eric's, and
especially Allen's guitars (although their playing was top notch).  For one or
two songs, Buck was even playing what-I-thought was one of Eric's guitars (the
red one with the alien on it).  Also, the drums seemed a bit too loud in the
mix (esp. the snare drum).  Then again, I was only a few feet from the stage,
which isn't always the optimal place for sound.

Bobby is an animal!  This was the first time I'd seen him live and he was most
impressive.  His solo was impressive - his arms flying back and forth across
the kit from cymbal to cymbal.

Danny prowled the stage as the consumate "Monster Bassman" that he is -
although the size of the stage forced him to dodge bandmembers and mike stands
alike.  His solo was cool, although I for one think that Godzilla is really
too long to have both bass and drum solos back to back in it.  I think BOC
should consider moving either the bass or drum solo to a different song in the
set - how about a "speed bass" solo in the middle of "See You in Black"  :-)

The new material is sounding excellent, and appeared to be well-received
(true, most of the crowd doesn't yet know the words to these songs - unlike
the old stuff, which the crowd sang along with all night).  I hope BOC
continues to feature at least 3 songs, if not more, from the new album.

I was standing near the side door where the band came in to take the stage
(they "hid" behind the amps before doing the enocre since there was really no
place to go but out of the building once off the stage).  Buck's appearance
kind of cracked me up.  He entered carrying his guitar, wearing his black
suit, and had his glasses on -- looked a bit like a businessman!  Of course he
quickly became the guitar god we all know and love...kinda like Clark
Kent/Superman I guess...

A great show which just leaves me even more eager with anticipation for March
24th.  And I really hope it isn't 2 years before I see you guys live again...

John


PS:  The drive home?  A bit more difficult - but I was sober and had some
coffee on the road to stay awake.  Got back around 4.