tBS/BOC: Re: 80s Metal

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 10 Sep 2008, at 13:15 , Steve Swann wrote:
> For those of you who never got to see late period Brain Surgeons  
> with Ross on guitar, well...  I hate to rub in, but those were  
> MONSTER rock & roll shows.  Al finally had a guitar player for the  
> Surgeons who was a match for his songwriting powers*.  Holy mother  
> of god, that was some of the most kick ass live rock and roll I've  
> ever heard.
> * don't get me wrong, Pete and Billy were great, and Deb .  But  
> Ross had the colossal riffing powers necessary to really carry the  
> Surgeons' sound



Agree 100%.  I saw the initial touring incarnation and the final  
Rossified incarnation, and though I always enjoyed the shows ...  
well, the _Denial of Death_ lineup was *amazing*, as was the album.   
I think that album and those gigs stand up pretty well alongside  
anything else in the history of BOC and its occasional if mysterious  
side shoots.  When we talk about great and shining albums here, well,  
we have to remember that such albums are the definite minority in the  
world -- we just talk about those few more.  And few bands will ever  
make an album as good as _Denial of Death_.


On 10 Sep 2008, at 13:22 , Steve Swann wrote:
> It's actually been a good number of years at this point since I've  
> seen BOC play.  But if they come around again, I'd go see them just  
> to watch Buck play guitar.



Yeah, I was thinking something similar.  I've come to conceive of 2OC  
as essentially "The Buck Show" with a lot of old BOC tunes on which  
Eric happens to sing some numbers.  Heck, "Harvest Moon" is really an  
old number from Buck's "The Red & the Black" 80s power-pop-trio with  
Jon Rogers anyway, no?  But Buck remains a hell of a guitar player  
and it's worth going to see a hell of a guitar player.

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/