BRAIN: Will we be smashing with bolts of ungodly vision?

[Steve Swann]

Man, I couldn't even keep track of how many bands and musicians took
the stage last night???  Al, can you post the setlist and maybe the
list of bands?  I couldn't even begin to remember it all.

The Bouchard brothers were on stage all night, anchoring every one of
the bands.  Joe did probably 80% of the singing, the biggest
exceptions being that Al sang his songs (Cities, D&S, etc), Les Vegas
sang the Underbelly set, and Dennis fronted for a couple.

I didn't know Les Vegas before this gig, but he immediately got me on
his side by saying, "I just recently was introduced to this song by
Joe, but now it's like my favorite song ever..."  He was talking about
Astronomy (my favorite song ever) so that was a pretty cheap way to
recruit me as a fan.  ;-)  He's a great singer and frontman, too - he
took a song that neither I, nor I bet half the people present last
night, had ever heard before (Dark Age) and *brought down the fucking
house with it*.  To make a crowd of hardcore old school fans who came
to hear their favorite classics go berserk over a song they've never
heard before is an accomplishment, lemme tellya...

There were a huge number of musicians present:
On drums:
Al - the one and only
On bass:
Dennis Dunaway, man-o-man does that guy rock out on bass.  (In an
aside where I couldn't tell whether he was joking or not, Joe credited
Dennis teaching him how to play bass, and after that maybe I was just
imagining the similarities in their styles... ;-)
David Hirschberg, who I was happy to see back on stage - I haven't
seen him since the last (hopefully not final??) Brain Surgeons show
Andy Hilfiger, who onstage looked eerily like his late and
much-lamented brother Billy - and who also gets huge credit as the
organizer of the event
On guitar:
Joe, who started out with a 12-string acoustic and I guess must have
seen worried faces in the crowd or something, because he paused
between songs to promise "Don't worry, we'll be rocking tonight"  ;-)
and YES THEY DID
??? Romero, I didn't catch his first name, a young fella I didn't
recognize.  Knows his BOC licks, though.
Les Vegas, on electric-acoustic while singing
Andy Hilfiger, who jumped on stage with a guitar for like one song -
if *I* had organized an event like that, I'D DO IT TOO  ;-)
I missed the name of the guy who was playing with Joe during the
electric-acoustic set at the beginning, for which I apologize, and I
think I missed at least one other guitar player along the way as well,
at one point there were like 5 or 6 people on stage and I didn't
recognize all of them.

Highlight of the evening for me:
They played Nosferatu!!!  If I had thought to send in a request
beforehand, that would have been it it.

They did tons of old classics from BOC, Soft White Underbelly,
X-Brothers, various old and new Bouchard solo and collaborative
projects, and some of Dennis' material from his Alice Cooper days.  It
was great, with one of the most wild, amped-up crowds I've ever been
in.  Some of them had come across the country for this and the BOC fan
show tonight, and everybody was making the most of it.  I hope the
bands had as much fun as we all did - thanks to all the musicians for
putting on such a great, fan-oriented show, and to Andy Hilfiger again
for making it happen.  You guys were all great.

Steve

On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 7:36 PM, Albert Bouchard <albert at cellsum.com> wrote:
> Things are getting better already. Joe and I are doing a Blue
> Coupe/Underbelly plus guests show in NYC at Le Royale on Saturday Nov 15th
> (the day before the 2OC "fans only" show in Hoboken). A couple rare gems
> will be guaranteed.
> Al
>
> On Nov 4, 2008, at 11:02 AM, blackblade wrote:
>
>> "Saving my patience 'till the fourth of November. I'll give you
>> a present you will always remember..."
>>
>> Here's to the
>> next U.S. president helping us avoid "destruction, oblivion,
>> holocaust."
>>
>> Brian
>>
>