FREE Friday Night Bands on the Beach

[Drunk Monk]

I have this weird memory of you gleefully impressed that they went by SWU throughout the show and never once mentioned that they were BOC. I also remember that there were shirts for sale - a dead frog, belly up with the BOC symbol stabbed into its gut. Now that was a cool shirt.

When do you think that was? I'm thinking it was in the mid 80s, during our Denny's years.

[Drunk Monk]

I realized that if I went, I would just be thinking about how jealous I was of tg and his recent travels to Sco'land.

Decided to watch samurai movies instead.

[thatguy]

Talked to some friends that went to the second performance and they said it was meh.

Bummer.

The next day, they headed south and played their 30th anniversary show. Hope it was better for them...

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Berlin. For free. In walking distance. I cannot refuse her.

[Drunk Monk]

That was awesome! Two nights of live music on the beach in a row! I'm luvin the Cruz!

More to come.

[Drunk Monk]

My family is at Tassarjara Zendo, so I indulged in some front-of-stage, which at the Boardwalk is a sandy pit where Cruzians take off their shoes and dance. Now, I've never seen Berlin before, or at least I don't remember, and was not really a fan. I just remember their pop stuff and Terri as a Rock starlet, just like all of us who were alive when Top Gun premiered.

Berlin on the beach. For free, a short stumble from home. This was a great show.

Berlin is now a 4-piece, but the drummer is inconsequential (Terri even forgot to introduce him for set 1) and the guitarist is competent but not stellar. The keyboardist is very strong and has updated Berlin's sound with some dubstep underpinnings (love when they drop the bass). It was really all about him and Terri. Terri is much more mature - she's stayed sincere to her age (no plastic or cocaine nose jobs like Stevie) and still has great legs. Here, look:




Terri's voice is deeper with much less range, but she's genuine for the most part, save a few Vegas-loung act comments like "maybe you'll remember this one". She tells stories about her daughter and has that savvy of any longstanding rocker chick who has survived superstardom. Of course, Berlin does a 'greatest hits' show, but they have a new CD coming Sep 17 (seriously!) and dropped a few new tunes. One of which, the title track Animal, was pretty good, a rocking sexy song with an EDM sound. There was also The Way, which was terrible, like a Christian rock ballad. Acts do two one-hour sets at the Boardwalk so they tend to be redundant as everyone wants to hear the hits. Masquerade and Sex (I'm a) where surprises as I didn't quite remember those. Metro was grooving in the sand pit. For No More Words, Terri danced with the ASL interpreter. For Take My Breath Away, Terri walked out on the beach and sang directly to the audience. She closed with a cover of the Airplane's Somebody to Love.

Between sets I walked to the end of the pier to chat with my old pals, the wharf seals. When I was dropping out of Grad school, I used to walk out there and watch them for hours. I bought a can of Heineken - my second can of beer this year (honestly, I cannot remember when the last time I drank beer from a can before this year). Did you know Heineken cans have this textured no-slip grip surface now? I guess if you a so blitzed that you can't hold your Heine... It was terrible and I should really continue my avoidance of canned beer. I watched a seal fight, which was really just an alpha male bark off, but nature alphamale fights are as good as swordfights any day. In fact, they are the same.

My camera battery ran out on the wharf, which is too bad because Terri came out in the 2nd set dressed like a villainess - knee-high black boots, black high slit leather skirt, silver sequined bodice, and a black cape. And she made it work.

I will miss next week's boardwalk show as I have an appointment with a river. But the following week, it's WAR!

[El Dingo]

So would you say the keyboardist was second to Nunn?

I prefer cans these days. In fact I popped into The 21st Amendment pub before last nights game. They offer several of their microbrews in cans only, with a long list of why cans are better than bottles on the label.

I think if cans were more popular it would be safer to walk on the beach barefoot.

[Drunk Monk]

We only caught the first set. War has enough of a repertoire that they could actually deliver two sets. At least that's what we assume happened as they didn't play Lowrider or Why Can't We Be Friends? in set 1. They did play the two tunes I wanted to hear: Spill the Wine and Cisco Kid. Luv that bassline in Cisco Kid. There's only one surviving member of the original band, but they sound pretty good on the beach for free.

Every band that plays the boardwalk says something to the effect of 'Here's one you'll remember...'

[Drunk Monk]

Blue Oyster Cult Co-Founder Allen Lanier Dead at 67
Guitarist-keyboardist also contributed to Patti Smith, Clash records

By David Browne
August 15, 2013 5:05 PM ET

Allen Lanier — a co-founder member of Blue Öyster Cult who also contributed to vital punk records by Patti Smith and the Clash — died on August 14th. Lanier, who was 67, succumbed to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, generally the result of smoking. "It wasn't a big surprise," says BOC guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser of Lanier's longtime smoking habit. "But it feels like the circle is broken."

Along with Roeser, drummer Albert Bouchard, singer Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Winters, Lanier, who played guitar and keyboards, started the group first called Soft White Underbelly in 1967. At the time, Lanier, who'd attended film school, was working at a film company. After Braunstein left, it was Lanier who suggested the lead-singer slot be filled by singer-guitarist Eric Bloom. After signing with Columbia Records, BOC gradually became a seminal band of the Seventies, and Lanier can be heard on BOC classics like "Cities on Flames with Rock and Roll," "Career of Evil," "(Don't Fear) the Reaper," and "Burnin' for You." He also wrote two songs, "Tenderloin" and "True Confessions," on the band's biggest album, 1976's Agents of Fortune.

Although Roeser describes his late bandmate as "almost violently enthusiastic," Lanier tended to be low-key, more a behind-the-scenes player than scene-stealer. "Sometimes his songs and lyrics were under-represented in the band, but he always had notebooks filed with stuff. I'd say, 'Allen, we have to record some of this.' I've never been to his apartment, put it that way."

Beyond Blue Öyster Cult, Lanier made his presence known in Seventies rock & roll in other ways. After being introduced to Patti Smith by Cult manager Sandy Pearlman, he and Smith became musical collaborators and then lovers. Lanier co-wrote and played guitar on Smith's "Elegie," from Horses, and also contributed material and keyboard parts to Radio Ethiopia and Easter. The horse pin seen on Smith's jacket on the cover of Horses was a gift from Lanier.

In her memoir Just Kids, Smith described Lanier as a "soft-spoken and encouraging" man whose constant touring with the Cult — with all its attendant temptations — eventually broke them up. As Smith wrote, "Ultimately it destroyed our relationship, but not the respect I had for him, nor the gratitude I felt for the good he had done." Roeser agrees with Smith's assessment of the roots of their breakup: "I think that's true. He took it hard on a lot of levels, personally and with his pride."

Whether it was a result of his relationship with Smith or not, Lanier became keenly interested in the burgeoning punk scene in New York at the time. When Pearlman produced the Clash's second album, 1978's Give 'Em Enough Rope, Lanier played an uncredited piano part on "Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad." Lanier also recorded with poet-singer Jim Carroll and Iggy Pop.

Lanier left Blue Öyster Cult in 1985, only to return two years later; he continued recording and touring with the band until 2006, when he retired. Last November, he rejoined his band mates (who have carried on the band without him) for a one-shot reunion show in New York. "Within 10 or 15 minutes of playing together at rehearsals, it clicked again," says Roeser. "It was riding like a bicycle. We'll miss him."

Read more: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/blue-oyster-cult-co-founder-allen-lanier-dead-at-67-20130815#ixzz2c5RUvTdw">http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... z2c5RUvTdw</a><!-- m -->

[Drunk Monk]

Re: DM must go

I don't think he has a choice.

I *did* go. Just a few years later.