BRAIN: Brain Surgeons NYC, Knitting Factory, 8/25

[Stephen Swann]

So, the Brain Surgeons rocked out once again this past
friday night.  I forgot to steal a setlist, so I'll
make some generalizations and say that it was mostly
new material, I think they must have played maybe 5 or
6 songs from Denial of Death, with a couple older ones
like Gun included, and finished off with a set of BOC
classics.

The band was in fine form, unfortunately the sound in
the Knitting factory wasn't all it could have been.
You know when you have trouble hearing Ross' guitar
that something is a little off.  And Deb's vocals are
chronically mixed too low live (I enjoyed watching her
signalling the soundman to boost her, masking the the
"up, up" gesture as emotive singing.) ;-)

She was still mixed too low, even after calling for
the boost, though.  This despite Al wearing a "Don't
piss off the sound man" t-shirt, perhaps a reference
to the Pyramid Club show back in the 90's.  ;-)

But quibbles about the mix aside, the show was great.
The new tunes seem popular with the crowd, I saw a lot
of people who clearly aren't old guard BOC fans rocking
out and headbanging to the new stuff just as much as
the classics.  After one particularly rousing finale, a
guy with a loud Brooklyn(?) accent bellowed out, "Not
bad for a buncha young kids!!" which really cracked the
house up.

Btw, I really dig Ross' ability to shred.  But you
know, he also plays a really mean goddamn melodic lead
when he feels like it.  And frankly I'm starting to
think that for some of the songs, that has more impact
than the shreds.  A fucking heretic, I know.  I was
born under a bad star.  But anyway, just a side-note
there, in case Mr. The Boss reads this.  ;-) I also
loved the dramatic mid-tempo guitar work that he
inserted into the instrumental section of Cities: when
done properly, the sound of power chords left to hang
in the air for a while is powerful stuff...

Also, I want to hear BSNYC do Blood of My Enemies. ;-)

Steve