Mission of Burma
La Zona Rosa, Thursday, March 18 There was a dividing line, about 40 feet from the stage, between the folks that had waited years to see these Boston art-rockers and those who looked like they were at a freak show. Guitarist Roger Miller was the mad professor, with his brown blazer, strawlike hair, and the rifle-range earmuffs he dons to insulate his ears from the tinnitus that caused the band’s initial breakup in 1983. For the same reason, there was a Plexiglas wall in front of drummer Peter Prescott, causing the bass drum to hit with a resounding thud. Given the circumstances, and that the band had only played a handful of shows since their 2001 reformation, it took a bit for MoB to get their sea legs. Sometime after the “Dada!” of “Max Ernst” blew into new material off the band’s triumphant return ONoffON, things began to fall into place. Mixing board/tape operator Bob Weston, filling in for original scientist Martin Swope, lathered twitterings and swooshes over the razor-sharp chord clusters laid down by Miller and bassist Clint Conley. The latter’s “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver” faded into “This Is Not a Photograph,” but just as impressive was the new material, and the unexpected cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine.” Music this challenging will never pack arenas, but it was wonderful to hear the “Fame and Fortune” that Miller ironically sang about two decades earlier finally bear real fruit for these New England dynamos.This article appears in March 26 • 2004.