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What live bands had to do in 1981....

#21
By the time that tune was out, they had long since jumped the shark for me. I devoured the first three albums, was fanatical about them, and saw them live four times in that period. Then when On Your Feet Or On Your Knees came out, I realized it was a place holding live album, but the sets they used for it seemed lacking, it certainly didn’t contain the power that I had witnessed. After that, of course, Agents Of Fortune, “Reaper”, and all that. They finally got their payday, which I was happy for them, but at the same time they began to loose their edge. Occasionally stuff like “Godzilla” or “Joan Crawford” would turn up, sort of a return to form, but overall, I just didn’t care anymore. As far as NY bands went, I caught up with The Dictators(same management and producers), the Ramones and CBGB’s happened, and that whole thing was far more happening for me. This tune, when it popped up in the MTV era, just sounded formulaic.
 
#22
Southbound said:
I saw BOC a couple of times in the early 70's in Chicago. I admit that often at the Aragon in those days my perception was...ahem...distorted, and that may be carrying over to my memory 50 years on. But seems like I remember that at some point everybody, or nearly everybody, on stage was playing guitar (at the same time)...

Did that happen?
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Absolutely it did, right up until they fired drummer/singer Albert Bouchard, who was playing very erratically for a while. I saw him at peak erratic, and it was not pretty, unlike the previous three shows I saw where Al was killing it. Rick Downey, who was their lighting director, stepped in and played for them on the tour, and was a fantastic drummer but he didn’t play guitar, so they retired that bit.

That’s Rick in the video in the OP. And here’s the 5 guitars bit, circa 78-80.

 
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#23
JimmyM said:
That was the late great Allen Lanier, who mostly played keys but doubled on guitar and was pretty great at both. What he wasn’t great at was singing, but he helped thicken out the three guys who could sing with a vocoder. Only time I ever saw him near a mic and I saw them 4 times with him.
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I think Allen only sang lead on "True Confessions" which has this charming Keef -like quality and at the time (1974) unreleased "Mes Dames Sarat". There could be some more.
But the band had enough good singers, especially Eric Bloom. Roeser is an excellent singer too and I also like the Bouchard brothers. Every one wrote great songs too and in Roeser they had one of the best lead guitarists.
 
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#24
PhR75 said:
I think Allen only sang lead on "True Confessions" which has this charming Keef -like quality and at the time (1974) unreleased "Mes Dames Sarat". There could be some more.
But the band had enough good singers, especially Eric Bloom. Roeser is an excellent singer too and I also like the Bouchard brothers. Every one wrote great songs too and in Roeser they had one of the best lead guitarists.
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Roeser is still as amazing as ever, too. True Confessions is a good poppy rock song, and Allen’s good on it, but I think that he was right to give his songs to the others. In a band of equals, it wasn’t his voice but his skill at guitar and piano that made him equal.
 
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#25
Cadillac_Mike said:
I absolutely adore this song so looked it up live. Guitarist with a Les Paul goes up to a keyboard to play a synth pad WHILE harmonizing with said synth pad at the same time! That just killed me lmao, how many guitarists would do that now??

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Either it's the tape being old this has been taken from, or one of their guitars is slightly out of tune.

Also pretty sure that is a vocoder and not him singing harmony to the synth, but I could be wrong.

I do love their "Don't Fear the Reaper" song though.

But that there is a load of butt rock.
 
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#26
And now with only Bloom and Roeser left from the classic line up, some call them Two Oyster Cult.

Meanwhile the Bouchard brothers play in a band with original Alice Cooper Band bassist Dennis Dunaway called Blue Coupe.
 
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#27
darkwasthenight said:
It's a vocoder - looks like a Roland VP330 or a close relation. He's singing into it to modulate the synth pad with the sound of a human voice. As @JimmyM said it's a good way to fake up backing vocals if you've not got the strongest backing vox, or to plump up harmonies if you do have a couple of decent singers and want something to add a little bit of extra shine.
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That is pretty cool. Would it be possible to do that, live, in 2025 without 1000s of $$$ worth of keyboards? 😬
 
#29
I once saw a very elite wedding band which included a guy who multitasked to an amazing degree. There was one long, uptempo song where he raced around to various instruments. At the end, he had to shed one and basically dive to reach another one for just the last couple of beats. Then he dramatically made the baseball umpire "safe" sign, as if he'd barely slid into home plate before the tag. It was hilarious. He caught me laughing, and grinned. Great memory.
 
#31
Cadillac_Mike said:
Guitarist with a Les Paul goes up to a keyboard to play a synth pad WHILE harmonizing with said synth pad at the same time! That just killed me lmao, how many guitarists would do that now??
Click to expand...

I saw the Wood Brothers, who are a trio…guitar, bass, drums. In the middle of a song I hear a keyboard. Where’s the keybord player? I’m looking all over the stage and then realized it was the drummer playing keys with one hand!
 
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