Blue Cheer roll call

[chaz]

So is anyone going to this?  Looking forward to seeing Dead Meadow as well.  
 
 Me and my snotty little friends used to play the shit out of Vincebus Eruptum way back when.  I'll be attending with a few old old friends unseen for quite some time.

[snailhook]

absolutely...i was gonna book this show at the rock and roll hotel before we figured it wasn't gonna be open in time. blue cheer kicked so much ass in december, i can't see this being a disappointment.

[BookerT]

i shall be there. i really, really need to remember my earplugs for this one. those fitty cent gobs of styrofoam they sell in the red room are terrible.

[ggw]

Unfortunately, I reinjured my back this week, so I'm missing SY tonight and Blue Cheer/Dead Meadow tomorrow.  Tremendously disappointed to be missing out on tomorrow night's show.  Enjoy.

[chaz]

Ouch.  Nothing too serious I hope.  I've been laid out with back problems a few times before...not fun.  Feel  better.

[nkotb]

So how was this show?  I wasn't to make it as I was heading out of town.  Coincidentally, being out of town has caused me to miss the last 6 or 7 Dead Meadow shows.

[snailhook]

absolutely awesome. all three bands slayed, and blue cheer with paul whaley were in top form. best dinosaur band around, bar none.

[BookerT]

it was a fun night. the most audio/video tapers i've ever seen at the black cat, by far. blue cheer was really good, i gotta say i was somewhat surprised. i kind of felt like it was going to be "say i saw 'em" show, but "parchment farm," "summertime blues," "out of focus" did, in fact, slay. it was sorta weird how much the room cleared out during blue cheer's set, tho. i guess at that point people might've just had their fill of heavy rock. but there were definitely twice as many people watching dead meadow as there were watching blue cheer.
 
 one question: why do rock legends who made their name in the '60s dress like it's the mid-'80s?

[chaz]

Originally posted by BookerT:
 
 
 one question: why do rock legends who made their name in the '60s dress like it's the mid-'80s?

Frankly I thought the guitar player not only looked like he was from the mid 80's, but sounded it as well.  I dunno...I was pretty unimpressed by this show.  I thought "Just a little bit" was great, but most of the basic blues numbers fell pretty flat for me.  On songs like that there's so much room for a guitar player to stretch out and I really didn't care for the guitar player at all.  Too many effects...never really got a very natural overdriven sound.  Delay, wah wah...whatever.  I didn't think this show was anything special.  And I really wanted to like it.  Good to hang with some old friends though.

[snailhook]

interesting...it sounds like we saw different guitarists. even though i would have loved to have seen leigh stephens, i think duck mcdonald does a totally competent job. i don't think he noodles or shreds too much, and the only annoying stuff is the hendrix comping during some songs ("third stone from the sun" and "voodoo chile"). duck doesn't overdo the delay and uses the wah very tastefully. dickie sounds great both on vocals and bass, and paul whaley still has a totally distinctive sound on drums; i liken him to a sophisticated caveman.
 
 as far as dinosaur bands go, i rank them up there with the love and pretty things reunions. i saw budgie in 2004 and mountain in 2005; the former was marred by an over-the-top shredding no-name guitarist who wasn't tony bourge, and the latter was marred by leslie west tastelessly shredding and corky laing hamming it up instead of playing the drums the way they should be played. blue cheer avoid that sort of hackneyed showmanship and get right down to business.
 
 i will agree that a couple of the slow blues numbers weren't all that great, but shit like "doctor please", "second time around", and "out of focus" just killed it.