Bone Bash this year on August 2nd was quite a different experience from the last. The line up changed last minute, from Steppenwolf to Don Felder. I may have eaten something that disagreed with me because I had a rumbling stomach. We got caught in traffic and got there at the end of Don Felder's set. We literally could hear "Hotel California" as we drove in. Little did we know, but this concert we'd also deal with a huge douche bag in the audience.
Even when I feel like crap, its hard to not try to make the best of it at a good rock show. The Doobie Brother's hit the stage and like clockwork the doobies were lit in the audience. Good ol' Bay Area. They opened with "Jesus is just alright" which makes me automatically think of martyrs dancing around mockingly in Bill Maher's "Religulous". You gotta admit, this song delivers a killer beat. By the way they had two full drum sets with two drummers. Their show reminded me of how much soul this band really has. They also performed "Listen to the music", "Blackwater" and their saxophone player brought it hard. I started to giggle when I though of Michael McDonald being in this band and his silly (tee hee) music. Then I realized just how many members were in this band, and has been in this band. Here was there touring line up for the show. Many, many, doobies were had. Go figure.
Just as my high was starting to kick in, the stage literally turned into the dashboard of an alien spaceship. This pleased me like you don't even know. They played "Smokin" which couldn't have been better. Holy shit, this band reminded of what it means to rock. They were taking me away into their rocknroll-verse from the inside of a space ship (even their website is like that). Buttons and nobs lit up like a ship console, and the moving screen has traveling fast through space. To top it all off was killer organ playing with all these different camera angles on his spot. Woa dude, let me tell you...that was rockin'.
Before I could fully enjoy my interstellar journey, I noticed a man in front of us bothering another women. This same guy drunkenly told us he knew the band and got these 4 seats to himself. These two blond women came to take their seats and he like some monkey child started to put his hands on her. He played it off like he's just kidding, or trying to give a hi five. I'd been watching this guy, so I wasn't buying it. He KEPT doing it, to the point where the women started to hit him back. However, she'd give him a hit and back off and ignore him. Then he began to whistle at her, not a cat call but one of those annoying "HEY" whistles. That's when I was about to yell at this dude, when my friend stopped me and smartly called security. The guy got the hint and sheepishly bailed on his row of seats. Finally, we could enjoy the show. This guy was awful.
They played "Peace of Mind", "Rock and roll band", "Amanda", and before long "More than a feeling" where all the lighters errr...smart phones came out to glow. My only complaint is that I apparently didn't have enough weed to enjoy those long indulgent solos. I feel guilty for saying that, but really long solos are not my cup of tea, I noticed too that about half the members looked like "new blood." Boston, like the Doobies has had a lot of different members. The lead singer Tommy DeCarlo is new blood who was discovered after he posted videos of him singing Boston songs on Youtube. Wow!
Sadly the original lead singer of Boston Brad Delp is dead. I can be an old fogie for only being 29 (I'm an old soul) and usually when it comes to things I do not like change. The new members in the band brought it...all the way to outer space and then back to San Jose. Which they kept calling "San Francisco" even their tour shirts said "San Francisco." Behind the drum set was a gong with the word "Boston" on it. Towards the end of the night Tommy DeCarlo went at it with a mallet and satisfied my "Hey is that a gong? When are they going to hit it!?" urges.
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