That's what you say, it's far out, faroutski

UO at the Bottom Lounge 7-12...

It was an interesting show. What looked like a possible train wreck from the start, turned out to be a pretty darned good show...and definitely a great one for old school and/or hard corps fans. When I heard the opening riff of the first song, my jaw dropped. Faroutskie? Are you kidding me? With reviews coming in lately about them mostly playing Saturation and ETD, I was pleasantly surprised by the opening selection. However, it seemed bit sluggish and when Nash started to sing backup halfway through, he sounded awful. I'm not kidding, something was seriously wrong with his voice. To the point where I kept saying to myself, "shut your mouth, play Ed songs tonight." I don't know what it was, but it could have been just a cold. He was short on breath, a bit flat and over compensating to try and push through it. It was odd. Fortunately, as the night went on, he warmed up and show got a lot better. Ed was solid throughout. He was rocking hard.

Like I said, this was a great show for hard-corps and old school fans. In addition to "Faroutski," they reached back for "Vacation in Tokyo," "Crown of Laffs" and they played a portion of "Stull" in the middle of "The Break." In fact, as they're playing the Break, I'm fully expecting a wicked guitar solo to break out like that clip on YouTube and all of the sudden, they go into that part where the second solo is about to begin and I think, man that sounds like "Stull." Well, that's because it was. Anyway, hearing those old songs live, it's amazing how well they fit in with everything else. While you can hear growth and progression in UO's records, the early stuff just has a different sound to it. When they're live, that's stripped away and they blend really well.

In addition to older stuff, I was excited to hear "Heaven 90210" and "Need Some Air," which I hadn't heard post reunion to this point.

They played three new tunes: "Hollywood," "Gods Name" and "Niteliner." For me, each song was a little better than the one before. "Hollywood," you know from John's YouTube clip. Btw, Nash had to check with Ed before the song to make sure he had the right progression. "Gods Name" is a Nash track and has a Soul thing going on. It was very cool and definitely different than the other newer stuff that tends to rock harder. "Niteliner," which I thought Ed said was called "Night Rider," was awesome. It was totaly 70s classic rock, screamin' guitars with lyrics about a train (I think). It reminded me of that UO cover of Grand Funk's "Are you Ready." Overall, the three new tracks were very exciting and gave me hope a new record is on it's way....eventually.

Overall, I loved the show, even with Nash not being up to par. His voice warmed up and peaked about mid-way through the set. They sounded spectacular together on "Vacation in Tokyo." That was definitely a highlight Saturday night. Fortunately as the night went on, Nash's voice held up enough to get through the rest of the set. The show also seemed a bit short, but I was so happy with the song selections, it made up for it.

heres a live bootleg from the metro in June of '93...

Urge Overkill - Cabaret Metro 06-22-93