BOC - 1/25/96 in Santa Cruz

[Brenda Holloway]

This was my fourth time seeing BOC and my third at the Catalyst in Santa
Cruz. The first time I saw them was at Doc Rickett's in Monterey around
'92 or so -- and that was the absolute best show ever, with the long
Godzilla and Take Me Away intros. The last two times at the Catalyst
were unmemorable, but last night they played to a mostly young crowd
that knew their stuff. That's odd, since I grew up with them but these
kids couldn't have. Still, people were yelling for Astronomy and Buck's
Boogie, but they didn't play either...

The Milk Duds opened, a three-man band with the lead guitarist doing
vocals and pretty much everything else.

BOC came on around 9:30 and played for about two hours. The lights
dimmed; the sound system struck up Vangelis' "Theme from Bladerunner" as
usual, and then they came out.

Eric still has cropped hair, and Buck looked remarkably thin (and Alan
still looked wasted) as they started in with "Stairway to the Stars" and
"Dr. Music", their usual openers. I was dancing next to the sound board,
and the technician had the set on index cards; looked fairly standard.

They went in to "OD'd On Life Itself" from 'Tyranny and Mutation'
followed by "E.T.I."

Eric announced a new song from their upcoming 1996 album (I've been
waiting for this new album since '92; it's always just about to come
out), but it was just "Harvest Moon" again. They usually play some songs
from "Bad Channels", but not tonight.

Anyway, on to "Before The Kiss, A Redcap", then another 'new' song, "I'd
Like To See You In Black". Alan sat back down at the keyboards, having
been up with guitar for most of the set so far, and I knew it was either
going to be "Flaming Telepaths" or "Joan Crawford". It was Joan,
followed by Telepaths, actually...

Eric introduced "Cities On Flame" and the band swung in to the best
"Cities" I've ever seen them do live. Buck was just enjoying himself too
much on the stage, dragging out the starts and false stops and solos and
pulling people to their feet. The friend I brought looked like she was
enjoying herself for the first time.

Buck followed this up with a rather muddy "Last Days of May", 'based on
a true story', but you couldn't hear much of it in the lyrics.

Eric announced that Alan would be playing guitar "on a stool!" for the
next song, "In Thee", and after a few guitar problems he started in (if
they're going to do songs from Mirrors with Alan, why not do "Lonely
Teardrops" with that neat Clavinet intro? Oh well...)

After was "Lips In The Hills" from 'Cultosaurus Erectus', the only song
they played from that album (they didn't play anything from 'Imaginos',
either -- is that because Al Bouchard isn't with them anymore?)

Then came a string of their hits - "Burnin' for You" (which I thought
they'd follow with "Still Burnin'" from something Eric said, but it
didn't happen), then of course...

"What could that be? It's destroyed San Jose! What is it? Is it Rhodan?
Is it Mothra? It's... it's GODZILLA!" (cue roar) Nice solos from the
rhythm section (I can never remember their names!) but nothing like the
one I heard back in '92 (love to get a tape of that show!)

Then came "Don't Fear the Reaper", which ended the set.

They came back with "Dominance and Submission", with the crowd filling
as on "Live '76", but without the 'weed & speed limit' speech, and they
ended the night with "The Red and The Black".

'Twas a good night, but I wanted to hear "M.E. 262", "Astronomy",
"Veteran of the Psychic Wars", "Astronomy", "Take Me Away", and maybe a
little "Astronomy" to cap it off. I would have liked "Still Burnin'"
again, too, but... hey, maybe they'll actually come out with their new
album this year...

I bought a shirt. $20. They had the new "Workshop of Telescopes" shirts,
but the one I bought has Godzilla destroying a theatre that says
"Tonight! Puppet Show and Blue =D6yster Cult" on the marque=E9. Screaming
people. Back side has Godzilla and The Reaper going at it. It's great.

I saw a guy there with a "Blue Oyster Cult Online" shirt with the Reaper
at a monitor with the sign of Cronos on it. I haven't been on the boc-l
list for a couple of years - did they finally get together and make that
shirt? Or is this something else? There was a guy at a table for the
"BOC Fan Club" with an AOL address, but he wasn't there afterward...

Waiting for them to come back again, whether to the Catalyst or, as Eric
predicted, the Oakland Coliseum..

Brenda


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[]]]]]]]] Brenda Holloway       brendah at mbay.net [[[[[[[[]
[[ ]]]]]]  Sony New Technologies, Monterey, CA   [[[[[[ ]]
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