The Eleven – Stoke – 18/08/22
I have had the pleasure of interviewing both Albert and Joe Bouchard many times over the years, both for Stoakes Media and Radio TFSC. Joe has appeared as part of the Stoakes Media advent calendar and only last week we premiered Al’s new single from Re Imaginos 2 – Shadows of California.
I was really looking forward to seeing the Bouchard Brothers in action and after a brilliant opening set from Cold Weather Company; Al, Joe and Joan Levy Hepburn entered the stage!
This promised to be a great night of acoustic music, despite Al sporting a lovely PRS electric baritone and Joan’s strat, it was set to be a stripped back (almost acoustic) night of Blue Oyster Cult classics and various tracks from the brothers solo albums!
Kicking off with ‘Cities on Flame’, the Bouchard’s and Joan grabbed the crowd with the first chord and didn’t let us go all night! Cue a fantastic night of music! ‘Burning for You’ followed and was a real crowd pleaser! I absolutely loved the harmonies, I was hooked!
After a great opening selection, we were treated to a track from Joe’s latest solo album ‘American Rocker’. ‘My Way is the Highway’ really sounded great acoustically, and the blend of Joan, Al and Joe’s vocals was stunning! They really do harmonise great. Again, I’m a sucker for a good harmony. ‘Shadows of California’ followed and after Joe gave Stoakes Media a shoutout for premiering the track, the trio launched into the song! I love the tone of Al’s baritone guitar, and again the vocals are hauntingly good!
It’s amazing when you think of the huge volume of work that the Bouchard brothers have amassed over the years, and the large number of platinum albums they have achieved, a fact that Joe mentioned once or twice throughout the night! ‘And here’s another one from another platinum album…’ It really is a truly stunning body of work!
I loved hearing the songs from Al’s Re Imaginos live, ‘Black Telescope’ and ‘Imaginos’ – they’re a great re imagining of the BOC originals with a much darker twist. Imaginos was supposed to be an Al Bouchard solo album until BOC claimed it as their own, so it was a treat to hear the songs as they were initially intended!
The sheer quality of musicianship on stage was staggering! And the energy was great. Al hasn’t lost his rockstar swagger and Joe was a great master of ceremonies! I have to mention Joan too, who is an absolutely fantastic guitarist.
Midway through the set, during Al’s solo in ‘Red and The Black’, Al breaks a guitar string. I was very impressed that he managed to continue his solo on five strings, but as the song ended; cue the hilarious farce of watching Al try to change his string under pressure. The pressure was relieved somewhat when someone in the crowd shouts out ‘Do something from Strange Legends’ – what followed was a quick impromptu trip to Joe’s Strange Legends album, Joe and Joan played ‘She’s a Legend’ whilst Al sorted his string out! With the pressure off, mid way through the song he was sorted and re-joined for the remainder of the song, later admitting that it was the first time he’d ever had to change a string in front of an audience!
The set continued, we were treated to a fantastic rendition of ‘Astronomy’ before the brothers started to wrap things up! Joe announced there was an early curfew, but that they would play as many songs as they could in the remaining 20 minutes, they’d even play them double time ‘just like the old days’!
‘You (Like Vampires)‘ and ‘Career of Evil’ – both tracks that Al wrote with Patti Smith followed and both had the crowd bouncing and then the inevitable happened, the band announced they were to play their final song. They invited the support band up to join them and launched into ‘Don’t fear the Reaper’ – considerably lacking in Cowbell!! Another crowd favourite! Following calls for more, the band played one final song, a short rendition of Godzilla before finally bringing the night to a close!
What an absolutely incredible night, I loved every second. Mighty fine musicians and top quality people, the Bouchard Brothers are a band that if you haven’t seen live, you really should. You won’t regret it! I can’t wait to see them again.
