tBS @ The Meat Locker, Montclair NJ 10/15/04

[Stephen Swann]

On Sat, Oct 16, 2004 at 11:00:00AM -0400, Stephen Swann wrote:
> The Brain Surgeons played live last night at the Meat
> Locker/Underground Eight in Montclair, NJ.
 [...]
> The new material is real "damn the torpedoes full speed
> ahead" type stuff, and Al intimated that the other new
> material (which they haven't debuted yet), which is even
> more intense.  The vibe of their live show now is less
> relaxed than it used to be, and with more restless, boiling
> energy.
>
> I think it's the best Brain Surgeons show I've seen.

As an addendum to the review, I thought I would add a couple
of notes...

[1] I never looked forward to the Born to be Wild cover at
BOC concerts.  That's because (1) I go to hear BOC's songs,
not Steppenwolf's, and (2) David Lee Roth is wild.  Ted
Nugent is *wild*.  BOC was born to be dark and mysterious
and slightly weird, I never thought of them as particularly
wild.  On the other hand, with the new Ross the Boss
influenced Brain Surgeons, you could believe that they're
wild - and they play a *really* kick-ass cover of that tune.
Instead of it being a slight let down from the rest of the
concert as I've always seen it before, it ended up being
kind of an unexpected high note.

[2] I think there's enough great Brain Surgeons material at
this point (and as I mentioned in the review, we haven't
even heard all the new stuff yet) that the BOC section of
the show should be chopped down to maybe 2 songs.  And given
the quality of the Brain Surgeons material that Al has been
turning out for years now, in my opinion the BOC songs are
no longer the highlight of the show, and they they should be
moved to the middle of the set, instead of the end.  Don't
get me wrong, I love those songs, but I've been listening to
them for decades, and hearing Al's recent work is just more
exciting.  The Brain Surgeons are too good to be acting like
a tribute band, even to Al's own amazing past.

[3] I think they should add a Manowar tune to the setlist.
Something completely over the top, like Sign of the Hammer,
or Blood of My Enemies, and that Al should move the comedy
drum solo into the middle of *that*.  I think the contrast
would be great.  I know Al would do it, too, if Ross will
let him.  ;-)

--
Steve Swann    | Speak to me in many voices, make
swann at cugc.org |     them all sound like one