Concert

WBCN College Rave'99

BankBoston Pavilion

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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".