Saw Blue Oyster Cult Friday Night

[SteveSly]

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

[mozo-pg]

Man, you are so lucky with your concert schedule. I'd love to see BOC. Glad you enjoyed the show. Sounds like a blast.

[trurl]

That's a solid setlist. Would lke to have E.T.I. in there, but I guess they're sick of that one *lol*

[SteveSly]

Man, you are so lucky with your concert schedule. I'd love to see BOC. Glad you enjoyed the show. Sounds like a blast.

This has been a really good summer for concerts around here. Considering that I don't live in a big city it is pretty amazing the amount of shows we get in the Southwest Michigan area.

[Jimmy Giant]

BOC, always a favorite of mine. Great set list. Harvest Moon is also a favorite.
I don't like the way they speed up I Love The Night live though. That's one song that needs the lax beat that drives it for it's effect. Not the best song for a rock crowd but another of my favorites.
I don't think they're coming anywhere near me last I checked

[rapidfirerob]

Saw them in San Francisco a few months back. Always great! No Harvest Moon unfortunately. I've been a big fan since the first album, saw them in
74 with KISS opening. Buck is a rock god! Allen Lanier is greatly missed. Richie Castelano is indeed a huge plus for the band. I dig Kasim Sultan in the band
as well. On tour forever!

[SteveSly]

BOC, always a favorite of mine. Great set list. Harvest Moon is also a favorite.
I don't like the way they speed up I Love The Night live though. That's one song that needs the lax beat that drives it for it's effect. Not the best song for a rock crowd but another of my favorites.
I don't think they're coming anywhere near me last I checked

I did not really notice "I Love The Night" being sped up, but it has been a while since I listened to the studio version. I was just floored that they were doing it.

[oilersfan]

Saw them Sunday night do a truncated opening set. Not the best show I've ever seen them have but I never miss an opportunity to see these guys when they're in my area.

[progeezer]

I've been somewhat of a fan (enough to buy the' best of" album) ever since I first heard COFWRNR.

In yet another "rock n' roll karma" moment, this past Friday night while you were seeing them, I was singing "Reaper" with a live band karaoke show to a full club.

To my mind, "Reaper" may have the widest dichotomy between the beauty of its melody and the content of the lyrics of any rock song.

[SteveSly]

Some pretty good video from the show has been posted on Youtube;

[SteveSly]

I've been somewhat of a fan (enough to buy the' best of" album) ever since I first heard COFWRNR.

In yet another "rock n' roll karma" moment, this past Friday night while you were seeing them, I was singing "Reaper" with a live band karaoke show to a full club.

To my mind, "Reaper" may have the widest dichotomy between the beauty of its melody and the content of the lyrics of any rock song.

Agreed.

[Dan Marsh]

Always have enjoyed BOC live.

Saw them in Atlantic City last year and seeing them later this year at the Scottish Rite Auditorium with Vanilla Fudge.

[Vic2012]

Saw them a couple times around ten years ago, once at Gulfstream Park (the horse racing track) and one time at a small club in Ft.Lauderdale. I've never been a fan particularly, but they're legendary and seemed to tour Florida a lot, so I checked them out. Buck really impressed me. I see he still plays that headless guitar. Great tone, and control. I only have one album by them (not counting a hits comp.) that I just grabbed randomly, "Curse Of The Hidden Mirror" which I really dig. It's a damn fine, rocking album. A shame that it just seemed to fall through the cracks and nothing was ever heard of it. It's never mentioned in BOC threads (not counting the times I bring it up).

[gryphs also]

Buck Dharma!!!! End of discussion.

[Rune Blackwings]

Always have enjoyed BOC live.

Saw them in Atlantic City last year and seeing them later this year at the Scottish Rite Auditorium with Vanilla Fudge.

Got that show lined up too. I have seen them three times and have a set list signed by Alan Lanier (kinda scribbled due to how I was holding it), Donald Roesner and Eric Bloom.

[Joe F.]

Some good songs in the setlist, but was it really 2 hours? That looks to be 80 minutes at best (and yes I know that they stretch out some songs live).

I've seen them 15+ times between '79-'06, but the more recent setlists (last 8 years or so) seem to be getting shorter. It's one of the reasons I stopped going to see them.

[Bbernardini]

Huh. I just watched a video of the Kasim Sulton intro thing you talked about, and he didn't even play on the original recordings of two of the three tunes they mention.

[Adm.Kirk]

They played The Vigil! One of my favorite BOC tunes.

Bill

[SteveSly]

Some good songs in the setlist, but was it really 2 hours? That looks to be 80 minutes at best (and yes I know that they stretch out some songs live).

I've seen them 15+ times between '79-'06, but the more recent setlists (last 8 years or so) seem to be getting shorter. It's one of the reasons I stopped going to see them.

They were scheduled to play from 9PM to 10:30PM. They came on a little after 9PM and did not go off until 11PM. At these festivals typically they are only allowed 1 encore, but after they came back on after their main set Eric said something to the effect of "we've been told we have some extra time" and they played 3 more songs which was unusual. The set list might be missing a song or two as well. I looked it up on setlist FM and whoever had posted the set list had not included The Vigil which they definitely played. I think they may have played one or two more as well, but can't remember for sure. Several of the songs were Really stretched out, especially “Buck’s Boogie” and “Then Came The Last Days Of May” which my guess would be were both 10 minutes or more. “Godzilla” was probably about 7 or 8 minutes and the Kasim Sultan solo thing they did is not listed in the set list. It might have been slightly under 2 hours as I am not positive exactly what time they came on, but it was not much after the scheduled 9PM start time.

[SteveSly]

Saw them a couple times around ten years ago, once at Gulfstream Park (the horse racing track) and one time at a small club in Ft.Lauderdale. I've never been a fan particularly, but they're legendary and seemed to tour Florida a lot, so I checked them out. Buck really impressed me. I see he still plays that headless guitar. Great tone, and control. I only have one album by them (not counting a hits comp.) that I just grabbed randomly, "Curse Of The Hidden Mirror" which I really dig. It's a damn fine, rocking album. A shame that it just seemed to fall through the cracks and nothing was ever heard of it. It's never mentioned in BOC threads (not counting the times I bring it up).

Of the two latter day albums I think “Heaven Forbid” is a much stronger album than “Curse Of The Hidden Mirror”. “Curse” has some good stuff on it, but I think it is just kind of an average BOC release.

[SteveSly]

Huh. I just watched a video of the Kasim Sulton intro thing you talked about, and he didn't even play on the original recordings of two of the three tunes they mention.

I was kind of wondering about that myself, but was not sure that I remembered it right nor not.

[trurl]

Y'know, when it comes to the Mirrors album the one song I'd wish they'd go back to playing is the title cut. I love that song, especially live!

[Jimmy Giant]

In Thee was good too. I think The Vigil was probably the best song on that album. Then there was also The Great Sun Jester.

I saw BOC play I Love The Night a couple times in the past and that's when I heard them play it rushed. Maybe they slowed it back down now.

And Richie is such an awesome addition. The twin guitars of him and Buck really gave these guys a second breath.

[SteveSly]

Y'know, when it comes to the Mirrors album the one song I'd wish they'd go back to playing is the title cut. I love that song, especially live!

Mirrors was actually the first album that I got into them. I had heard “Reaper” and “Godzilla” of course, but “Mirrors” came out just as I was graduating from high school and that fall I was living in a dorm and several people owned it, so I got to hear it a lot. I agree that title track is a great little tune. Now that I am thinking about it I am going to have that chorus of “pretty girls, can’t look away” going through my head the rest of the night.

[SteveSly]

In Thee was good too. I think The Vigil was probably the best song on that album. Then there was also The Great Sun Jester.

I saw BOC play I Love The Night a couple times in the past and that's when I heard them play it rushed. Maybe they slowed it back down now.

And Richie is such an awesome addition. The twin guitars of him and Buck really gave these guys a second breath.

“In Thee” was such a simple little song, but a great one. One of Alan Lanier’s shining moments.

Regarding Richie agreed. One other thing I really noticed on Friday was his keyboard playing. He was doing some really cool stuff on some of the songs.