Mike Brogan

What a great show. I must confess, even though I've always liked their stuff, I never loved it enough to actually buy any of their CD's. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have even known they were in town had I not got free tickets from a pub. After last night's show I'll definitely buy some of their CD's.

Show kicked off on a humorous note...before the band came out, some weirdo in a Hawaiian shirt jumped from the crowd onto the stage and stole a couple guitar picks. Security practically tackled him and then chased him backstage. Then a few minutes later a girl does the same thing. Once again security physically removes her. Five minutes later the same goofball comes running out from the back, I guess he escaped, but then he picks up a guitar and starts messing with it, the girl from earlier comes out and picks up the bass. Security was nowhere to be seen.
And then the punchline; the rest of Boston comes out and joins the interlopers to the strains of 'Rock and Roll Band'. Turns out said "weirdo" was actually Tom Scholz in disguise and the girl was Kimberley Dahme, Boston's bassist. I admit, they fooled me.

First couple of songs the sound was terrible. Just about everyone in the crowd was telling them to turn up. Eventually they worked out the problems and put on an awesome 2 and half hour show. Played all their hits and were tight as hell. Tom Scholz is a genius on both the guitar and the organ...and being a keyboard player I loved the pipe organ solo.

Anyway, if they come to your neck of the woods and you have even a passing interest in their songs, go see them, you won't regret it.

Paul_Medenwaldt

The closest they are coming to the cities is Mankato, so I won't be going. How was Brad's vocals?

I saw them about 5 years ago at the state fair and found that Brad really couldn't hit those high and long notes anymore. Alot of the songs were performed by Fran, who has a pretty good voice.

Any word on the reissue of Corporate America?

Paul

Jeff Ulmer

You lucky dog. I've seen Boston twice on the Third Stage tour - once at the front of the mosh pit in Tacoma, and a second time from row 2 on the floor of the coloseum in Vancouver, where I aslo got backstage to talk to the band.

The first and second albums are brilliant, classic Boston. From Third Stage on the magic is still there, but I don't like the production as much, mostly due to Tom's Rockmans and the drum sound. While Corporate America is okay, it has too many borrowed parts from earlier albums.

Still, Boston is easily one of my biggest personal influences.

imported_Brian L

Back in the day, I bought one of the first Rockman that came out of SRD from a music shop in central Massachusetts.

It sure was a one trick pony, but I kind of liked the trick at the time. I later sold it to a Polaroid engineer that worked in the group that Tom worked in before Boston took off, and he said "See Ya" to the corporate world.

So, in addition to Tom, Brad and Fran are still in the line up, eh? They are making a stop in Albuquerque later this summer, and I was tempted.

I guess it can't be Boston w/o Tom, but I was unsure who else was in there.

BGL

Colin Jacobson

Ah, the old "fake stage interloper" bit! Bowie and Madonna have both used dancers for that in the past. I wonder how many other acts have done similar gags? The Boston twist sounds fun - I've never heard it done with such prominent members...

Colin Jacobson
http://www.DVDMG.com

Jeff Ulmer

That's Fran Cosmo, not Sheehan.

Gwon Chang

Interesting.

I saw Boston a few years ago at the Gorge, touring behind Walk On, I think. Pretty solid show. I think Brad was singing then, too.

Bummer about how they kind of melted away. I just listened to Don't Look Back the other day; what a great record.

music
words

what star wars is to the fanboys, the fedora is to me.

Mike Brogan

The lineup was Tom Scholz, Brad Delp, Fran Cosmo, Gary Pihl, Kimberley Dahme, Anthony Cosmo (Fran's son), and Jeff Neal.

Delp's vocals were dead on for the most part and he was hitting the high notes consistently, but there were a couple occasions where Fran Cosmo "bailed" him out. Delp acknowledged this later when he was doing the introductions. They do trade off on songs but for the most part, they sang them together, harmonized and sounded really good.

I saw them at a place called the Scene Pavillion that's right on the river in downtown Cleveland. There's really not a bad seat in the house since it's pretty small venue. Plus it's always cool to see giant ore boats floating right behind the band as they sing "More Than a Feeling".

And the males in the crowd seemed to 'enjoy' the bass player,
Kimberley Dahme
actually she did a song by herself on acoustic and she had a really good voice.

imported_Dave Berthiaume

I saw them back in '79 at the Met Center in Bloomington, MN on the Don't Look Back tour. At the time, I was 17, and it was the best show I'd ever seen at that time. Due to the infrequency and quality of their subsequent work, I've lost interest over the years, but I still remember that show fondly, especially the FOUR encores!

To me, Boston will always be the original lineup. Fran Cosmo's voice is like nails on a chalkboard.

todbnla

Glad I read this, they are coming to my area but I was hesitant to plunk down $65 a ticket for a band that has not toured in quite a while. So they sounded as good as they did back in the day?

Regards,
Todd
My Blue-Ray & SD DVD's

Gwon Chang

Mike: did Kimberley Dahme rip it up the way Fran Sheehan used to? That dude was one bad mutha on the bass.

music
words

what star wars is to the fanboys, the fedora is to me.

Mike Brogan

Todd:
I'm kind of a Boston neophyte, so I can't really say how they sounded compared with their glory days. But they did put on a good show, and other than a few sound issues early on, they were great. Still, just on principle alone and with a few exceptions, I'd be hard pressed to pay $65 to see anyone. Don't they have cheaper tickets? Where I saw them they were selling from $35-$65. Also, check around some of the local bar in close proximity to the venue...maybe you'll get lucky like me and get some free tix. The place I got them from had a stack of at least 500 passes sitting on the bar, and no one was taking them. I had 3 unused ones myself.
People don't know what their missing.

Gwon Chang:

Honestly, her bass playing didn't stand out until the last few encores. She was definitley competent but I wouldn't say she was shredding the 4 string in any way. I've never seen Fran Sheenan play (wow, they've had 2 Frans in the band) so I can't compare.