Boston Hires Singer from Home Depot

[winston]

Breaking News about Boston

"Boston is on tour this summer, a little more than a year after the suicide of lead singer Brad Delp. Filling that role will be Michael Sweet, from Stryper, and Tommy DeCarlo, from the Home Depot in Charlotte, North Carolina. DeCarlo is a Delp sound-a-like who sent M-P-3 recordings of him doing Boston songs to the band's leader, Tom Scholz. Scholz tells U-S-A Today, "During rehearsals, it can get downright eerie. I forget it's not Brad. It makes me feel like someone was at work up there." So the 43-year old DeCarlo is now in a band for the first time in his life and will be on stage when Boston start their tour on June 6th in Canada. DeCarlo is also slated to sing on Boston's next album, which will be out next year."

[whojamfan]

Glad to hear that Boston will continue on. Whether or not you like the band, Tom Scholz has the gift of harmonizing guitar solos that many rock/metal acts strive for, but come nowhere close. Even this new school of shreddar twin guitar music end up sounding more like a Japanese anime soundtrack than the masters like Tom and Brian May sound. It's just more proof that soul isn't found inside of a metronome, but from your heart.

[qwezirider]

I saw Boston this past weekend in Las Vegas. And while recordings of Tommy Decarlo have shown him to be eerily close to Brad Delp, he definitely fills his own space live. Yes, you can still hear bits and pieces of Delp, but he's not as "dead on" in live settings. And I thinks that's a good thing. Some of the reviews from this tour have pointed out his lack of stage experience, and that certainly shows compared to the rest of the band. Rather stiff at his mic, uses only a few moves (point at the audience, thumbs up, devil horns). But to his credit, he looks like the luckiest guy in the world up there, is having a darn fun time, and sings his *** off. I hope he's a permanent addition to the band, because he does manage to keep a familiar voicing in the songs while still being himself.

Michael Sweet, on the other hand, is an absolutely perfect and monster sized fit for the band. Both vocally and with his stage energy. Hell, anyone who can get Tom Scholz moving on stage like he seems to be able to do can't be all bad. I don't know what to say beyond he's just a perfect fit.

Vocally, this is one tight version of the band. Six voices all doing what they do best. There's so much versatility in the vocals to have not only six part harmony, but to build lines moving against each other in two different harmony groups. It's almost like watching a tennis match to figure out all night long who is singing what parts. Clearly no extra backing tracks being used by this band. You can pinpoint who is doing what at any moment.

Musically...hey, it's Boston. It lives up to expectations of what it should sound like. Nothing more, nothing less. There aren't any real surprises as things largely get played the way they were recorded. Tom has some liberties with leads, but not really anyone else. But it's still very good. I did get a kick out of the occasional human, non-rock star moments when someone might make a mistake from what was expected. The bassist, Kimberly Dahme, in particular. One moment, she stayed near the root of the chord rather than the movement that was on record and expected. It wasn't wrong notes rather than just no movement at all for a second or two. And the slight cringe look on her face was preceless as she mouthed "Sorry" over to Sholz' side of the stage. Guess rock stars are human too.

Worth the ticket if you're a fan.

[beatlefreak]

This will be what - Boston's sixth album in a little over thirty years?

[alanz]

Does he still have his Home Depot store manager-approved haircut?

[qwezirider]

Absolutely!

[alanz]

This will be what - Boston's sixth album in a little over thirty years?

I think in fact they have released a grand total of 5 albums since 1976.