BOC: at Utica, but why should we care?

[Bolts of Ungodly Vision]

Well, they were there.
the set)in marginalyl chonological order) was:
Burning for you
Bucks Boogie
ETI
Perfect Water
Harvester of Eyes
Dance on Stilts
Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll
Flaming Telepaths
Then Came the Last Days of May
Godzilla
Dont Fear the Reaper
--
The Red and the Black

Some dude, mentioned in a previous email about the show, guested with the
band from the jam band moe.
Now, I hate moe. because they wrote thwir bandname/logo all over the radio
station broadcast booth in Potsdam w/indeilbe ink marker.

I tried not to let that stop my enjoyment of the show, BUT

The sound, with the addition of the Moe. dude on LDoM, Godzilla, Reaper
(chord comping and soloing at the end) and tR&thB, was both murky and way
too trebly because the jammin' guy liked his notes near and beyond the 12th
fret.


BOC's style is not one where song's structure is conducive to meandering
solos. They do have plenty o spots for guitar solos, but jesus...
There was 6string wankery in the Crate amps this night.

They should retire ALL the songs that were on the live DVD. A good
challenge i think.
But besides this,
LDom was far far too long, it was even longer than the recent live album
version with the addition of the moe dude "trading licks" -- I felt he was
an underwhelming guitar player and didn't contribute anything but ear
damaging feedback.  my opinion of him was not helped by the fans to my
right who kept shouting the guys name between songs until he was actually
on stage.
Godzilla, which he guested on, too, lost alllll momentum with solos by the
rhythm section which dont keep the song itself going.  Esp. the drumsolo.
He isnt keeping time as he plays. boy he loves his doublebass pedal (too
much).

And Eric intro'd Cities the same way he does on the live disc. wince. But,
to his credit, he vocal performance was decent. ... not a lot of
"hahahahah" in Flaming Telepaths.

Danny bass solo had its moments.
Rodninelli has made songs which were peppy (cities, godzilla) into plodding.
Buck was, well, Buck, and he did show some good original takes on Burning
for you's guitar solos. and Dance on Stilts is a good number. Perfect water
was good, but too loud fro the kind of song it is.

The lack of a lot of songs in the set which havent been done to death + the
solo extravaganzas made it a fairly exxhausting and attention waning night
simpy said:

For the first time EVER, I was BORED at a BOC show.

BOC should NOT have opening acts, either.  The world does not need to hear
more nu-metal+'funky 4/4 drum beat" with "angstfiled" lyrics + lame guitar
effects on the solo (not every guitar solo needs a wah, fellas).
Thing is you couldnt boo that opening act off the stage, because they
couldnt set up their gear ON the stage,.... they were set up on the floor
of the club (whose name is not rock androll preserve. its Amnesia now.
bloody heck)

Oh, interseting thing, allen had a PIANO solo at the end section of
tRandtB, but if you could hear it you'd have to have good ears. the guitars
on stage swamped the 88s.


So that's what I thought. Enjoy. or not.
Jason