Venue: The Astoria, London               Date: Friday 17th May 2002

Set list:  Burning For You, OD'd on Life Itself, ETI, Pocket, The Vigil, Harvester of Eyes, Cities on Flames with Rock and Roll, Buck's Boogie, Perfect Water, Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl), Golden Age of Leather, Then Came the Last Days of May, Godzilla, (Don't Fear) The Reaper.
Encore: Dominance and Submission.

The last time I saw Blue Oyster Cult live was during the 'Mirrors' tour as a penniless student. Having previously seen them a couple of times in the mid 70s I'd rather deserted them in favour of fashionable acts like Journey, Styx, Kansas and Van Halen and it was with a certain sense of nostalgia that I had watched them at the Manchester Apollo - I remembered being totally blown away by the band; and particularly by the guitar playing of Donald "Buck" Dharma.  Another twenty years or so have passed, and once again it was time for a little nostalgia...

Though the band reformed some time ago and have been gigging around the USA for the last couple of years, it is some time since their last European visit and I was even more surprised to see them playing only a string of dates around the UK. There was a keen sense of anticipation amongst the crowd at a respectably full (yet not sold-out) Astoria.  I missed the support act, Carl Palmer and his band, due to work commitments but thankfully arrived in time to see the whole of BOC's set.

There was no fancy stage-set, just a rack of keyboards to the left of the stage, which were used by both Eric Bloom and Alan Lanier, two of the three members of the "classic" lineup, who still play with the band. Along with the legendary Donald Dharma, they are currently assisted by Bobby Rondinelli on drums and Danny Miramola on bass.

They entered to big cheers, but the opening numbers 'Burning For You' and 'OD'd on Life Itself' were rather slow and lifeless - one felt that the crowd needed something a little more lively to get them moving.  The excellent 'ETI' from the classic 'Agents Of Fortune' album was an improvement, with Eric Bloom putting his guitar to one side to sing the lead vocals on this one as well as playing some keyboards. There were huge cheers from the crowd as Buck let himself go during the guitar solo - this was more like it!

They then played the only song to feature from their latest album 'The Curse of the Hidden Mirror'. With Buck on lead vocals and lead guitar, 'Pocket' was a sort of mellow, unmemorable AOR tune; added to which Alan's guitar solo at the end seemed to go a little astray, leaving me rather disinclined to investigate the disk any further.

By now the crowd were getting impatient to hear something a little more aggressive and began to scream out song titles.  Eric Bloom replied, coolly, "We'll get to those, we'll get to those. Don't worry".  They continued on with 'The Vigil' from the 'Mirrors' album featuring Buck on lead vocals, with Eric on keys and this was certainly one of the better tunes they played.  The crowd responded warmly as the band played 'Harvester of Eyes' and then 'Cities on Flames with Rock and Roll', during which Buck played an extended solo while the spotlights shone on him alone. All the same, the songs sounded a little too laid-back and there was a certain lack of aggression to the songs.

'Buck's Boogie', his traditional solo spot was more upbeat, but the following couple of tunes just continued the laid back, mellow AOR feel. It was more like The Eagles than the rebellious Blue Oyster Cult, and even 'The Golden Age of Leather' failed to engage me. With the clock edging towards 10pm, Eric invited us to "go back to the first album" for the excellent 'Then Came the Last Days of May' and, at last, the band began to sound like the Blue Oyster Cult of my youth...

As the familiar riff of 'Godzilla' rang out, the crowd responded with the biggest cheers of the evening. It was the heaviest thing they had played and the crowd clearly loved it, if only they'd played it a little earlier in the set.  It was an extended version that allowed for a bass solo from Danny Miramola and a drum solo from Bobby Rondinelli, neither of which were musically spectacular. Then a finale of the classic '(Don't Fear) The Reaper', which also needed no introduction. It made a fine, spirited end to what had been a predominantly mellow set and the crowd jumped around and sang along enthusiastically.

The band returned for the inevitable encore. They chose to play 'Dominance and Submission' where I'd been hoping for a rerun of the classic 'Born to be Wild' - but then, it is no longer the 70s and the band have obviously moved on.  It was well played, but the crowd reaction was far less enthusiastic than it had been for the previous couple of tunes.

Though they had played well, I was slightly disappointed with the set list that they chose - other dates on the tour seemed to get a better deal.  Certainly the music was good, but the fire that was present in the performances of theirs which I witnessed in my youth, didn't seem to be burning quite as fiercely.  Of course there was no 'Born to be Wild', but equally they didn't play my all-time favourite BOC tune 'Astronomy'. Nevertheless, it was brave of them to visit the UK for an entire week and to play a series of dates without any real extensive advertising.  One can hope that they were pleased with the turnout and that they'll pay us a visit again in the future.

Charlie