OFF: Bevis Frond live review

[Brian Halligan]

The Bevis Frond
September 17
Bug Jar
Rochester, NY

Set list in almost correct order:
Hole Song No. 2
????? (Rocked, of course)
Stoned Train Driver
Leave a Light On (more groove than on the record)
Virus (kicking! Someone in the audience said "That was really good.")
London Stone
He'd Be a Diamond
God Speed You to Earth (excellent + extended mellow guitar intro because
Ade's bass quit for a minute)
Stain on the Sun
Well Out of It

Encores:
Temple Falls
Lights Are Changing

Small stage, maybe 50 people in attendance (the show started after
midnight).  All 50 were rowdy and appreciative to the Nth degree though.
The sound was crisp and the guitar got steadily louder through the first 3
songs because people in the audience kept telling Nick to turn it up. ;-)
The drummer used to play for the Silver Apples (I think) and was very good.
Nick said he only had 2 days to rehearse with them before the tour, but you
would hardly know it except that you could see Ade and Nick giving him
enterance cues sometimes.  Ade was dead-on when his bass was working....
Highlights for me were Virus, God Speed You to Earth (which translated well
live, believe it or not), and Well Out of It, which just kicks major ass
all over the place.  The only downer is that the groove in Stoned Train
Driver was too slow and stilted.  There wasn't the rhythm it had at the
Syracuse show last year with Andy Ward on drums.  Another highlight of the
show was that during Well Out of It, Nick jumped down off the stage and
played *right in front of me* for about 30 seconds. (I could have plucked
the strings without fully extending my arm.) Then he wandered around the
front row wailing away.  I was surprised nobody touched the guitar or
otherwise screwed-up his playing.

After Well Out of It everyone was going nuts, so they played an encore
(Nick said it was a song they had forgotten to play and he and Ade and the
drummer all accused each other).  That was Temple Falls.  They played it at
almost twice the speed of the album cut- frantic and heavy.  And when the
crowd cheered even louder after that, they decided to play one more (Lights
Are Changing).  The band seemed to really enjoy the gig tremendously.

After the show I picked up the Country Joe/BF live CD.  It's good.  Not as
rockin' as I hope the BF live CD will be, but definately fun.

Here's the story behind the Vavona Burr album title:
There is a wood veneer factory in London that has a large sign with the
"Veneer of the Week" up on it, and one time when Nick was driving by it was
Vavona Burr.  Hense the album title.  The next week there was an even
better one, (can't remember- started with a B and sounded weird) that he
thought would make an even better album title, but it was too late.

Another bit of interesting information: When I got to talk to Nick before
the show he said he was upset with Flydaddy (it seemed mostly due to the
fact that they're touring without being able to push their new live album
because of delays from Flydaddy).  So apparently he's looking for a new
record company in the US.

Brian
obCD> New River Head
(That thing that looks like a rock in the water is actually Nick "drowning.")