BOC: Big Hair Night At Letchworth Pines

[Brian Halligan]

Last night I drove out to the middle of nowhere to see BOC and their
openers Firehouse and the Trolls.  Little did I know that somewhere on
lonely route 19A, I entered the Twilight Zone....

The strangeness began when out of a parking lot of hundreds of cars, I
found myself parked next to a guy named Dave from the AOL board. I'd
met him at a Brain Surgeons gig last summer.  He told me that he had
seen BOC very recently, so I asked him semi-jokingly, "Any big changes
to the set list?"  And he replied enthusiastically, "Yes!"  Of course,
I wanted it to be a surprise, so I didn't ask exactly what those new
tunes might be.

The strangeness continued as I must have passed though some kind of
time warp at the front door.  Ten years had suddenly pealed away and
there I was in 1989.  Big hair was everywhere.  Budweisers in cans
were plentiful.  Hootin' and hollerin' was comensing.  I soon
discovered that these throwback fans in their Tesla T-shirts were here
for a Firehouse show...plain and simple.

I managed to catch the last of the Trolls set.  "Dirty Deeds" and
another classic rock staple whose name is on the tip of my tongue.  It
must not have been that great if I can't recall it.  Then the crowd
pushed and shoved its way to catch a glimpse of their ticket back to
Jr. High School, Firehouse.

Firehouse was professional.  That's all I can really say.  I got the
feeling that if I had seen their previous show or their next show, it
would have been the same.  Never the less, the crowd was in their
fist-pumping glory.

I expected a lot of the crowd to leave before BOC hit the stage, but
there was still a very healthy mob of BOC fans, and the BOC curious.
A man saw my Cult T-shirt and asked me what the opener was going to
be.  (He had two beers riding on it with his buddies.)  I guaranteed
that it would be "Burnin' For You."  Oh well....

The night's stangeness reached its peak with BOC's setlist:
Stairway To the Stars
Before the Kiss
Harvester Of Eyes
Cities On Flame
Harvest Moon
Career Of Evil
Buck's Boogie
Unknown Tongue
See You In Black
Astronomy
Burnin' For You
Godzilla
Reaper

Encore:
Golden Age Of Leather
Dominance & Submission

It took the band a couple songs to get their energy up.  (The fact
that the keys were too loud and Buck was too quiet didn't help.)
After "Kiss" the levels were straightened out and the sound was
excellent.  I could hear Eric clearly for once, and the keys and
guitar mixed well- especially on "Buck's Boogie."  "Career" was a
shocker and it was definately heavier than on the record.  "Unknown"
was a real treat.  I love the spooky keyboard break.  The crowd began
calling for Godzilla, however.  One person even had little plastic
Zilla-God they waved in front of the band.  "Astronomy" was introduced
as being a tune that Metallica covered.  It sounded very close to the
version on "Cult Classic," only a little more reved up because of the
live setting.

I think having the big 3 back together at the end is a mistake.
Because the radio fans need to hear something familiar to keep their
attention.  They seemed a little out of it for the songs they'd never
heard, especially "Unknown."  Anyway, after a short period of
"BOC...BOC" chants, the band blew me away with a kicking "GAOL."
Danny's back-up vocals are really helping BOC get some serious
harmonies going.  "Dominance" got the crowd pumped one last time, and
that's when I finally started to lose my voice.  You know what part
I'm talking about. ;-)

So, 4:40 of music in a ten year time warp in the town that time
forgot.  It was strange, but I'm ready to see BOC again soon in Olean,
NY.  I think I can handle the big hair.

Brian



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