The show opened with The Brain Police, a hardcore trio that started out their set with a line-up of two bass-players and a drummer. The novelty and their huge grinding sound kept the interest level high during the first half of the set, but when the vocal ist swapped his bass for a more standard guitar, the music quickly devolved into fairly standard hardcore fare and audience members began slipping away to wait for the main attraction to show.
Finally, after a brief pause between sets, the lights went down and the stage began to fill with smoke. The audience began to cheer as the members of Big Catholic Guilt strode into view. Tim Osborne took up his customary place within his cage of drum and sample triggers, and M. Crass and Perry James took their places at the bass and drums, respectively. Sam, shaven scalp gleaming beneath the lights, grasped the microphone and greeted the crowd before launching into the opening song.
The crowd stayed fairly calm during the opening few songs. After Sam asked if "you guys are ever gonna warm up," and the band played a couple of old favorites, a pit formed toward the front of the stage. The energy level rose and soon half the audience w as happily moshing away. By the closing song, "Tom," practically everyone there was moving.
After playing an encore of "I Spit On Your Grave," as they left the stage for the last time, Sam said "Thanks! This is the third time we've played here, and it's always a gas!" The audience, exhausted, stood and clapped for a second return, but the lights came back up and the show was ended.
For the third time, BCG have played WPI, although this was the smallest audience they've had here. The show was not well-publicized, which undoubtedly contributed to this. This time, though, there were no smoke alarms, and, since there weren't enough peop le there to crowdsurf, Sam was not dropped on anything hot or pointy. Still, even without these entertaining attractions, and even with the change in personnel, Big Catholic Guilt gave a hell of a show.