BSO first TV appearance

Has anyone even seen this? just got posted. Awesome. "Youre on to something" says Letterman

Cool! It also makes me wonder how many of the "original" line-up is still in the BSO. Looks like trombonist Robbie Hioki is the only one that's been in the band since the beginning, right....?

I must admit I'm a little disturbed by the sax man trying to act as band leader, while Brian seemed more than capable of the task himself!

Hey,
I remember having this on an old VHS tape with many other things. Yeah, just Robbie Hiokki is the longest standing member so far, but if I am correct, he didn't tape the first BSO album. I'm just talking off the top of my head, I might be wrong.

Awww, we miss you Bernie Dresel!!!

gretschoholic wrote:

I must admit I'm a little disturbed by the sax man trying to act as band leader, while Brian seemed more than capable of the task himself!

You mean the guy with the Steven Seagal hair?
Yeah me too. I mean they all know their stuff so just let go, lol!
I've seen Chuck Berry once perform Sweet Little 16 live and the bass player 'informed' the drummer at each and every break in the song.
I thought man cut it out!

BTW, Letterman says, We'll be back with more".
More of Setzer??

I remember coming home that night from a Bob Dylan concert - I think it was a few days after Richard Nixon died, and Dylan performed a scathing version of "Masters of War" - to dance on Nixon's grave, so to speak. I thought that was a chilling and iconic moment. As soon as I turned on the TV, I experienced another iconic moment. If only I had known The Brian was going to be on, I would have had my VCR ready. I don't recall Brian playing after the commercial, but did you hear the crowd roar when Dave mentioned the Stray Cats during the intro? That was too cool!

This was the first national TV appearance for the BSO. There were so many musicians involved between the 2 bands (Late Show's CBS Orchestra and the BSO) and the BSO's drummer wasn't even being used. That's a lot of moving parts. More than 20 pieces. It would seem that having the musical director of the BSO (which is not now nor has it ever been Brian - was it Bob Sandman back then?) make sure that ending came off as it should was a smart move. It was a very important moment in the history of the BSO and the potential success for that first album. Better safe than sorry. Maybe he was concerned Brian was too distracted with his wardrobe malfunction involving the sunglasses!

Speaking of the missing BSO drummer, was Bernie with them at this point? I realize it would be sloppy to have 2 drummers, and Antoine Fig is certainly a great musician, but I was wondering if Bernie had been a regular member of the BSO in its early touring days.

As far as Chuck Berry goes, he plays with a band of locals from wherever he travels. Sometimes, it's not even a band, but a collection of union musicians who have never or rarely ever played together. I have seen some bands backing Chuck that have no idea where the breaks are supposed to be. Hell, Chuck seldom remembers where they're supposed to be.

This is an awesome moment in Setzer history. I'm glad to see it back up on Youtube.

Sunglasses at Night-a-billy

Rickabilly wrote:

It would seem that having the musical director of the BSO (which is not now nor has it ever been Brian - was it Bob Sandman back then? ) make sure that ending came off as it should was a smart move. It was a very important moment in the history of the BSO and the potential success for that first album. Better safe than sorry. Maybe he was concerned Brian was too distracted with his wardrobe malfunction involving the sunglasses!

I think his name is Michael Acosta. And you're probably right that somebody needed to "conduct" the musicians at the endings etc. My point is, Brian's IN FRONT of all of them, they could just look for the guitar neck going down. I remember thinking the same the first time I saw the Montreal appearance, late one night on Norwegian TV (years before they edited and remixed it and released it as "One Rockin' Night"). Why not just look at Brian? 'Cos he and Michael(?) seemed to be doing the same arm movements at the endings...

Michael Acosta - that's the guy! Thanks for that.

I dunno why they did that, even in the early days. Maybe it's just habit from all the "guest artist" gigs they all play in various jobs during the 11 months a year they're not playing for Brian. The BSO was fairly new back then, and they might have had quite a few personnel changes from tour to tour. Maybe it's because Brian moves around a bit and there might be some point in the show, depending on the stage, where he might not be in somebody's sight line. From Woodstock to the Belly Up, you never know what you're going to encounter at each venue.

It was probably just Acosta's choice to do that. I definitely don't see Tim Messina "conducting" as much with the current line-up.

Leader of the Band-a-billy

Aye, Bernie Dresel was already there... in fact from the very beginning.

I think they didn't use Bernie for logical reasons: set up and down the drums, sound check... when the show band is already there and can play absolutely anything.

A different thing would have been if the band was called... Stray Cats, in which the drummer is an active member, part of the band... original former... you know what I mean?? Then, the drummer of the Stray Cats MUST play!

The BSO didn't use Bernie for another show in 1996, can't remember the TV show, one of those talk shows in the morning, and Max Weinberg (E Street Band) was part of the house band... quite curiously, Max Weinberg filmed Brian's clip "The Knife..." !!
And again, for logical reasons

Hey thats some really cool stuff you guys. thanks! I just cant help laughing when I see Michael Acosta on the DVDs. Only cause I see the guy get up at the end to bow, and hes a foot shorter than Brian, thats pretty short, and hes been smokin that cigar the whole entire show. What a badass. But, i do think its pretty cool that they had a guy to wrap up all those songs just incase there was ever a time where they wouldnt have ended together on cue.

wow that is really awesome..sorry I dont care who played what it was just really really
cool to see that performance in that everything was so stiff and the tension between
what brian was doing and the orchestra members trying to keep the groove and be cool.

man the more i listen to it... Man its so RAW! Also, the more Tavo keeps making his products, the more I can say "hey, that sounds like my guitar!" true tho

I think the Letterman show used to have some wierd thing where Paul and the band always played with the musical guest no matter what--I didn't really understand why. I remember the Cats doing "Gene and Eddie"" with yes--Paul and the band playing along with them. I think I will now go look that up on youtube!