Good, Bad and Ugly at WBCN

Concert

WBCN College Rave'99

BankBoston Pavilion

September 26

WBCN College Rave'99

BankBoston Pavilion

September 26

September is a month of change in Boston. Leaves change colors, the Red Sox choke, and teenagers from across the nation and the world descend upon the Commonwealth in search of higher education, becoming an economic force to be reckoned with. No one is more aware of this than local radio stations, which go to great lengths to seduce this mass of purchasing power. Few are guiltier of such shameless snakecharming than 104.1 WBCN, the "Rock Revolution", who sponsored the College Rave '99 at the BankBoston Pavilion on Sunday. With a college ID and ten dollars, you could be subjected to relentless banners and a loosely amalgamated show featuring four bands that share only the common threads of BCN air time and coincidentally synchronized Boston tour dates.

Buckcherry, who opened the show, was utterly horrible. I'm normally inclined to be more verbose, but I've never been so disappointed before. The band played a strong and entertaining set at Woodstock '99, but something went very wrong for College Rave. In between songs, lead singer Joshua Todd talked about little else other than doing lines. When Todd was not mumbling, he often sang way off key, and the guitar, bass and drums were rarely in time with one another. The crowd only responded mildly to the radio hits "Lit-Up" and "For the Movies" and spent the rest of the set awaiting the next performer.

After a short wait, G Love and Special Sauce took the stage. Another Woodstock '99 alum, G Love benefited immensely from the relatively smaller venue, since his best shows are in intimate venues where sixteen-year-old girls can issue their screams in adoration of his smooth operations. Most of the songs were from his most recent album, Philadelphonic, but the emotional high point of the set occurred when G Love crooned "Baby's Got Sauce".

The emergence of the Ben Folds Five kicked off the best performance of the evening. Much like their recent release The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, Sunday night's performance was straight-faced, emotional and talented. Almost the entire set was taken from the new album, as Ben Folds impressively rocked out on the piano for "Narcolepsy," "Don't Change Your Plans" and "Army". But Folds was not going to leave without showing the brilliant irreverent side he has been known for, and finished the set with "Song for the Dumped," featuring the eternal lyric "Give me my money back, you bitch!".

Last but, thanks to Buckcherry, not least was 311. The band's name, police code for indecent exposure, becomes more relevant with each progressive year, as their rehashed material becomes increasingly distasteful. Far from their "grassroots" of energetic short sets in sweaty small venues, 311 performed in a large outdoor half-shell for almost two hours. At first, the crowd was psyched and ready to groove, but 311 lost their attention by reserving all of their radio hits for the final twenty minutes. Almost the entire set was devoted to tracks off their upcoming album, Soundsystem, and only the recently released single "Come Original" evoked any response, and only a minimal one at that. The pit was thrashing at first, but after an hour died down to an exhausted gasp. SA Martinez and Nick Hexum bounced around the stage in a vain attempt at reviving the energy, but finally relinquished to the bored faces by playing their hits--including "Down"--and exiting the building. The only time the show truly got "all mixed up" was afterwards during my battle with the escaping throngs for a seat on the shuttle back to South Station.