I saw Blue Oyster Cult at RIBfest Kalamazoo on Friday night. BOC is a longtime favorite band and I have seen them many times over the years. This may not be the best time I have seen them, but it was a solid show to a packed audience of all ages. The band are getting old, but they still have a lot of fire pulling out the hits and selected albums cuts for a 2 hour show. Buck Dharma remains an underrated guitarist to my ears and Richie Castalano continues to be the band’s secret weapon. This was my first time seeing them with Kasim Sultan on bass and he was great as well, even pulling out a quick medley of famous riffs he has done with other people. Eric Bloom’s voice does not have the power that it once had, but he still sounded pretty good for the most part. His persona is not quite the badass that he used to be. More like a friendly old man these days. Buck is still buck and sounds like he always has. I thought the set list was enjoyable as they pulled out some rarities that I have not heard them do in a long time along with the hits. A very pleasant surprise was “Harvest Moon” from the “Heaven Forbid” album which is one of my all-time favorite BOC compositions. You could tell who the real hard core fans were in the audience by the recognition of this one. I certainly didn’t expect to hear “The Vigil” from the “Mirrors” album either, which was very cool. The crowd was a bit annoying at times as there were several around us that didn’t shut up through a good chunk of it, but I guess that is what you get at these festivals with a more casual audience. Anyway, I dug the whole thing. Here is the set list:
THE RED AND THE BLACK
GOLDEN AGE OF LEATHER
CAREER OF EVIL
BURNIN FOR YOU
HARVEST MOON
THEN CAME THE LAST DAYS OF MAY
THE VIGIL
ME 262
BUCK’S BOOGIE
GODZILLA
DON’T FEAR THE REAPER
ENCORE:
I LOVE THE NIGHT
HARVESTER OF EYES
CITIES ON FLAME
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