BOC in San Diego

[Joseph Brooks]

Hi folks.. Here's my report on BOC last night at the 4th & B in San Diego,
CA.

There was a ho-hum opener called No Bargain which I could have easily done
without though the crowd seemed to enjoy them and I saw lots of folks
wearing their T-shirts (friends & relatives?). To me they were completely
derivative and boring.. Uh, they reminded me of Spinal Tap hehe...

Their set was mercifully short.. BOC came out.. seemed to take them awfully
long to get out there and get set up while the Intro music played.. EB
seemed sort of stiff and perhaps a little tired/bored... Buck was his usual
smiling self... and was playing as well as I've ever seen him. This is a
great venue with good sound too.  The highlights were Cities, Harvest Moon
and Buck's Boogie.. This Ain't the Summer of Love was fun.. I don't know if
it was Allen's fill in (Al?) or what but they sounded very fresh and tight..
more so than the last few times I've seen them. It looked to me that EB was
holding his guitar more than he was playing it but perhaps this is a good
thing? I haven't seen the tour list but is this getting towards the end of
tour? It seemed there was a lot of fooling around on stage, mostly between
Al, Miranda and the drummer.. (Sorry, though he's been with them for quite
some time now, I never can remember his name.. Bobbie something?)

All in all it was a good time, though the set seemed short. I was surprised
that they did do an encore since half the room bailed after Reaper.. But
they did.. (Jailbreak? Oh please.. I never did like Thin Lizzy...) One thing
I didn't like was the way they went through a big deal about asking what
song to play for the encore, then played Jailbreak, making me realize that
it was a all an act since the song was obviously in the set since I'd seen
the previous setlists. Eric asked, "What do you want to hear? Buck said,
"Here we are, arguing about what to play"... I heard all sorts of things
yelled out but you can bet that no one was shouting for Jailbreak.. (Me, I
was shouting for Harvester of Eyes.. :-) I don't know, the whole thing just
rang false with me...

Here's the set:

Burnin' for You
Cities on Flame
ETI
Harvest Moon
Buck's Boogie
Take Me Away
Flaming Telepaths
See you in Black
Astronomy
In Thee
This ain't the Summer of Love
Godzilla
Reaper

Encore:
Jail Break
Dominance & Submission