Music > Live Reviews

Blue Oyster Cult

The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA

24/02/19

After almost two months without going to a gig, I was more than ready to finally kick off 2019 with a visit to the LCR to see this legendary band that had begun their career 50 years ago. With their roots in the 60s counterculture scene, by the time their debut album came out in ’72 their sound had solidified into something quite unique. Heavy, but not metal, melodic, but not light their first five studio albums are pretty much faultless and well worth investigating if you only know them for ‘that’ song.

Before the fun began though we did what all rock ‘n’ roll rebels like to do before a gig – we politely queued for AGES to get inside. How tiresome. Doors at 7.30, support on at 7.45 meaning many people got to miss most of The Temperance Movement. Not an issue for me, I just knew they weren’t my kind of thing, and so they proved. Earnest, old fashioned, with the Glaswegian born singer putting on his best American accent, I wish these touring older rock bands challenged their audience a bit more by getting a younger, more exciting band to support. The crowd seemed to really like them it must be said, but I’d pretty much forgotten them before they even left the stage.
With just Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma remaining from the classic line up, I had exceedingly high hopes for Blue Oyster Cult. Beginning with Dr. Music and Before The Kiss, a Redcap it was a strong start, but there were also some pretty major sound issues affecting things. The sound was muddy and too quiet unfortunately, but gradually everything began to improve, and by the time we reached The Vigil the sound, although still not quite loud enough, was close to perfect. The crowd were really into it too – we may have stood fairly still during the songs, but it felt like we were all lost in the music, and the between song applause was loud. BOC aren’t really an in your face kind of band, they don’t really have a frontman, with Bloom & Dharma sharing lead vocals, and with zero stage presentation it really was the music that did the talking. It was a proper builder of a set, with each passing song the better everything became – Then Came The Last Days Of May was incredible, Godzilla was mighty and when the main set ended with their all-time classic song (Don’t Fear) The Reaper, dedicated to Peter Tork, I think we could have all gone home happy at that point.

We got more of course – Transmaniacon MC, Hot Rails To Hell and finally, brilliantly, Cities On Flame With Rock ‘n’ Roll. Close to two hours of expertly played music. Buck Dharma is as good a guitarist as you will ever see, even if his instrument of choice is the uniquely ugly Steinberger Cheeseburger. Secret weapon though was keyboardist & guitarist Richie Castellano, who was a joy to behold.
Blue Oyster Cult are one of those bands who I appreciate more and more with each passing year, and certainly a band I never thought would play live in Norwich. Yes, it took a while to get going and yes it was a bit more polite than I’d have liked, but with the two key members into their seventies and despite some first night technical gremlins, this was still a brilliant, classy and at times thrilling example of live music.