BMAs Live Up (Down?) To Advance Reviews

I was in holiday mode Saturday night but pretty confident that I wouldn't be missing much at the Boston Music Awards at the Orpheum, judging by advance reports. And it seems that was right, although fans enjoyed mini-sets by Bobby Brown with a Berklee ensemble and the reunited Extreme. The Globe was relatively kind, but the Herald and Bostonist beat on the awards show for absentee winners, sloppy tech work and apathetic presenters. Among the missing were act of the year winners Killswitch Engage and Hall of Fame inductees Buffalo Tom. Nobody mentions whether Augustana showed up to sing "Boston," which would be the coup de grace either way, come to think of it. ... Sounds like a lot more fun at Berklee's Christopher Guest tribute on Friday, where the closing rendition of Spinal Tap's "Big Bottom" featured "approximately 50 giddy bassists flooding the aisles" and Berklee President Roger H. Brown on drums. Wrote the Globe's Marc Hirsh: "Any man who can get the president of Berklee to pound out an ode to large posteriors surely deserves the title of 'doctor.'" Amen to that.