I’m watching this Body Count live DVD, and the main thing I’ve gotta say is “holy shit.” I gotta say I’m impressed. I dug BC back in the day, even though half the people in rap and rock prolly wrote them off as a novelty act. But, man, Ice-T has a very legit, hardcore metal band to bust out songs with, despite the deaths of three of the original members. Apparently shortly after the first album, the original drummer, Beatmaster, died of leukemia. Mooseman, the original bassist, died in a drive-by. So there’s been some tragedy, which explains why the crew only dropped two more albums (which I never copped) after their debut.
Just as I’ve put on a bit of a paunch since my college days, so has Ice. And Ernie C (lead guitar) has a few wrinkles around the eyelids, but damn he can go ballistic on a guitar. If you don’t remember, or you never knew, BC had some jams, and I never realized how well it would translate to a live show. A song that sounds kinda goofy, if not a little catchy, like “Voodoo,” as a studio track, is a perfect rock song live. Simple with extremely heavy hooks, plenty of room to fuck around, and Ice-motherfucking-T belting out the lyrics like a chainsaw dipped in battery acid.
Man, you will not see Ernie motherfucking C. put up as some guitar god next to Randy Rhoads or Yngwie, but I am fucking impressed with his overall performance on this disc as well as his solo in “Evil Dick.” Unbelievable. I’m not saying God came down from heaven and anointed Ernie with the chalice of wisdom or any shit like that, but it’s nice. Very nice. And anybody who says otherwise is probably way smarter or way stupider than me, but I’ll throw a few bones on the latter. I just watched it again, and goddamm. Homey is holding his guitar upside down, balancing it like an umbrella on his hand, throwing it on the ground. All this and the thing’s still wailing and doing exactly what the fuck he wants it to; his picking is impeccable in its master crafstmanship.
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