Press >> Real Roots Cafe
Concert-Review Bocephus King & The Band Of Doom
Q-Bus, Leiden January 27th, 2004
A breathtaking rollercoaster ride
It's fun to see once again a stage full of instruments in these times of
small budgets! Canadian Bocephus King and his five-piece band begin the
Dutch leg of their tour in Leiden and can't wish for a better start of
course. I've heard a lot of good things about Bocephus already. By the way,
that is a nickname from his days in the songfactory of Nashville, which
stuck with him. In my big drawer full of tapes I have a radio-session from
2000, that was the first thing. Then I visited Vancouver in 2002, a brother
of singer-songwriter Michael Friedman has an awesome music store in that
city (Not Just Another Music Shop) and there the talents of Bocephus were
emphatically pointed out to me. Too bad there was not enough time to get in
contact with him, but when you have patience long enough, anything finally
happens, right?
Bocephus King climbs on stage at ten minutes to ten, neatly dressed in a
dark grey suit, red shirt with tie even AND he wears a grey hat, cool! He
addresses us as "Q-Bussers" in his greeting. There should have been more
Q-Bussers really, the premature snow-alerts even kept a number of regulars
home. Then we're taken on a breathtaking rollercoaster ride...
Rootsrock is played, rock with too many different influences to be mentioned
here, melting together in a special own sound. Long songs, the experimental
soundscapes are somewhat alienating, improvisation takes up a big place, the
musicians look at each other: your little solo, then my little solo.
Bocephus himself plays a fast looking, flashy red/white electric guitar and
he sings with heart and soul, he gestures and jumps and then again spits the
words into his microphone. His band consists of eager twentysomething
musicians, an exotic looking girl plays keyboards, she also takes care of
tapeloops etcetera. There is a tight drummer and a bassist who also dragged
a shiny stand-up bass with him. The guitarplayer does it with slide too,
sings along and changes his instrument every now and then for a lapsteel.
Extra compliments towards Jesse, the young man who stands focussed on
playing fiddle and mandolin but has the most ungrateful task, as in spite of
the good sound (all channels are in use!) he gets drowned sometimes when
three electric guitars go full-force.
In contrast with being so talkative during radio-appearances Bocephus barely
speaks here, the songs aren't being named, he is just too busy playing, we
get almost no time to clap. Somebody asks me if I know all those songs. No,
I don't, even "Lullaby Blues" and "Goodnight Forever Montgomery Clift",
little prize-animals from the new album sound different again now! The
songs, performed intensely, have almost no choruses, Bocephus doesn't
articulate very clearly, together with the loud, fast playing it doesn't
benefit the audibility, but we still have CD's for that... Extensive
imaginitive lyrics are to be found in the booklet of "All Children Believe
In Heaven" and then you'll see the real dirty downtown area of Hollywood
vividly before your eyes!
In the meantime Bocephus is getting rid of his jacket plus tie and again
pulls his hat deeper over his forehead. Overwhelming show. Encore. "Let's
rock!", somebody calls from the audience, "What we gonna do?", somebody asks
on the stage. A second encore of course, but first a well-meant "Happy
Birthday" is sung for promoter Robbie Klanderman. His request puts everybody
to hard work again in a fast piece with surf-influences. Half past eleven, I
even have time left for the compliments & autographs-ritual, our Canadian is
super-nice too... I was never able to see Warren Zevon live, if Tom Waits
plays tickets are non-affordable, so: Bocephus King forever!!
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