BRAIN: Rocking Don Hill's 6/8/01

[Joseph Sardo]

Hey Jason

Saw neither hide nor hair of you and Jeff after
surgery. For those who stayed for the rest of the
bands, Al, Dave and Deb filled the time mostly by
talking to fans. As usual, they were accessible,
informative and gracious.

The bands to play post-op tBS were considerably better
then what we heard before (I even bought a CD from a
band called "Daddy", very gothic, in the spirit of
Black Sabbath in their infancy). Not my kind of thing,
but it sounded real good that night.

I've seen tBS 5 times now.  Expecting the worst
because of their self-description on their web site,
Don Hill's was by far tBS best venue I have witnessed.
 The lounge itself is comfortably large -
(large enough to walk around in without having to
climb over a chair or table), acoustically good (darn
better then where I’ve heard them before – this might
be just the right minimum size place for our surgeons
to operate), and the patrons and employees civil
(extremely civil for a Fri in NYC and I was well
maintained by the waitress who made sure I got their
tBS flier, a nice 18*24 suitable for framing).

I believe the band has gotten better.  I’ve seen them
as a trio all but once and I remember telling Al after
a show last year they were getting better.  Now they
are certainly tighter and more powerful than ever.
(Albert said they have been practicing more and
recording their practices) Their vocal harmonies (Al
and Dave) have improved.  Ms. D’s musicianship has
improved.  I don’t know enough about it to be a bass
critic, but Dave is certainly doing fine with that
horrid green bass guitar, suitable for painting (just
kidding, Dave).  But Dave loves to play his 6 string.
He has fun up there no matter, but didn’t you see his
eyes sparkle a bit (no, much) more when he played lead
guitar?  He was quite smooth, more comfortable and
animated playing it this last time out.  He’s been
practicing.

All you people out there are really going to enjoy
this tour.

Yes, Jason, they certainly have fun up there.  And it
radiates.

And the good news is that there just could be a return
to them thar Hill’s. Of course nothing is certain, but
after the summer tour something might happen at Don
Hill’s again.


Behave responsibly and vote republican.
Regards,
Joe Sardo
Volts to Ungodly Pigeons!!!

PS:
Are you staying in Syracuse during summer recess?



--- Jason Scruton <js3619 at ACMENET.NET> wrote:
> For me, at least, this show  was a long time coming
> -- last time I saw
> Albert B. and Co. was in Rochester NY 4 years ago,
> when Billy Hilfiger and
> Peter Bohevesky handled guitar duties and the band
> did an extended jam on
> "Name Your Monster." Great times.   I really didn't
> know what to expect of
> the band's live sound as a threepiece, and that's a
> good thing. At this
> show, I felt as if I was experiencing the band for
> the very first time, all
> the way back at the Rongovian Embassy in the fall of
> '94 when everyone was
> new to everyone else and "Mad Dude" was played
> twice.
>
> But at the wonderfully chock full-o-character
> bar/performance space of Don
> Hill's, the threepiece of Albert, Deborah and David
> marshalled a
> fmaliar,but phoenix-like NEW kind of Surgeonsound.
> The rhythm section,
> Albert+whoever was on Bass duty for a song, was
> completley in sync (of
> course, not the boy band! Shudder to think such a
> thought!) brazenly
> strident, marshalling both well known tBS tracks and
> new tunes in a
> strident, "we're here to kick out the jams,
> mf'ers!!", kind of way. The tunes?
> They played a tight set, consisting of:
>
> Last Angry Woman (Deborah vox & guitar, David bass)
> Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll (Deborah guitar,
> David bass, Albert vox)
> Time Will Take Care of You (same as Cities...
> Sinful Love (Deborah bass, David guitar, Albert vox)
> Room to Rage (same as Sinful Love)
> Medusa (Deborah guitar, David Bass)
> St. Vitus Dance (Deboarh bass, David guitar)
> Godzilla (Godjira drums, Debroah Guitar, David bass,
> 2 audience members vox)
>
> Obviously, the highlights of the set were the
> performances of Sinful Love
> and Room to Rage, which were used to advertise the
> upcoming Helen Wheels
> tribute CD (whose proceeds are all going to
> charity).  If you have not
> heard the MP 3 of "Sinful Love" availible (linked to
> on www.celsum.com) DO
> IT NOW. It has a completely different feel than what
> you're used to on
> BOC's Agents of Fortune. It's cool and loud and
> reckless. I loved it.
> Having heard Helen Wheels and the Skeleton Crew play
> twice, the excellent
> rendition of her barnburnin' Room to Rage was very
> touching and, above all,
> performed in  a Surgeonish way, but retaining all of
> the punk attitude  on
> heard on Archetype.  Their repect for Helen as a
> close friend and a musical
> talent brightly burns through the Surgeons'
> delivery.
>
> Godzilla, on the other hand, was the most familiar
> to me from my BOC
> collection, but in the hands of Deborah,Albert and
> Dave, the funk-ish drum
> pattern which marked the original is expanded upon
> and coupled with a good
> loud guitar. To boot, this re-arragnement included
> the use of back vocals
> to ill out the more familiar Donald Roeser note
> bends on the original(this
> is also true of St. Vitus Dance). Not one to let a
> possibility for audience
> rabble rousing pass by, the band extended the middle
> bit of the song (right
> after Albert did his warnings in Japanese) to allow
> for the left side of
> the stage shouting "god", the right "zilla", which
> soon broke into the
> mighty appearance of the drumming beast himself -
> repsplendent in strobe
> lights a and peerless kineticism on the skins.
> Almost as if on cue, as the
> verses rerturned to close out the song, massive
> tendrils of smoke from the
> bar occupants clouded the stage -- despite the
> "health benefits" of the
> smoke, the visual effect was rather cool --
> Greenwich Ave. really was on
> Flame. Indeed, this was THE band to do it.
>
> Deborah's guitar playing has shifted the weight of
> the material into a
> rougher, tougher terrain than the well honed,
> craftily bent notes of
> Bohevesky and Hilfiger. Live show chestnuts like
> Time Will take care of
> You, Medusa and St. Vitus Dance (the latter has
> always been one of my
> favorite tunes of theirs, and it still holds true
> after last night) had a
> more leering swagger and urgency which wasn't as
> apparent on the first
> threee CDs. Deborah's been able to hand the
> transition for vox to
> vocalist/guitar player incredibly well and she's
> improved gratly since
> joinin on Dominance and Submission in the olde days.
>  The same is true of
> Last Angry Woman... For all intents and purposes,
> this band was a new band
> which had been around since Eponymous -- but only
> now have the power trio
> really seemed to find a groove they havent been to.
>  One of the things
> I've alwys written about in the past when recounting
> tales of the Brain
> Surgeons, was that This Band Has Fun on stage, and
> again, it's almost a
> metaphysical certitude that hits you like a guitar
> solo and leaves you
> gasping for air (well, it left me gasping for air --
> when the urge to dance
> hits, you dance! others were so inclined to, and the
> band fed off the
> collective imitiations of whilring dervishes)--
> that's the best reason to
> do this crazy thing called rock and roll, isn't it?
>  Thanks once again for
> making rock and roll happen all over again, guys. It
> does the soul good.
>
> Look out summer tour locations -- you WILL be blown
> away.
>
> Black heart of soul,
> Jason
>
> PS: The Philadelpia date has been cancelled.


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35
a year!  http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/