Setlist:
Dr. Music
That Was Me
Before The Kiss, A Redcap
Golden Age Of Leather
Burnin' For You
Harvest Moon
Box In My Head
ME 262
Then Came The Last Days Of May
Career Of Evil
Godzilla
Buck's Guitar Solo (Buck's Boogie?)
Don't Fear The Reaper
Encore
Tainted Blood
Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll
Opening act: Christopher Shayne
(Tami Minnick: Photo)
In my lifetime, I have seen Blue Oyster Cult four times at the EnergyHouse aka Five Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids and the 1979 show remains a ultimate classic. I got ears blown off, Albert Bouchard did the ultimate drum solo with Godzilla and the place was full of folks, beer was flowing and doobie smoke made everybody high. The 1981 show with Whitford/St. Holmes and Foghat was quite good, tho by that time Rick Downey replaced Bouchard on drums. Still impressive. By 1983, BOC was changing even more, electric drums (ick) and about four songs off the Revolution By Night (Feel The Thunder, Take Me Away, Shooting Shark and Shadow Of California were played, none at this concert). Cheap Trick opened. It was loud and still a good time.
Fast forward to 2021, the era of Covid and this concert felt more like a funeral gathering when we took our seats. Times have changed, Albert and Joe are gone, Alan Lanier died a few years ago. Richie Castellano replaced Lanier, Chuck Miranda replaced Joe Bouchard (or Kasim Sulton) and Jules Radino (present since 2004) plays drums. Eric Bloom and Donald Roesner (Buck Dharma) remain the two original members. BOC was originally slated to play in December of 2020 but that got bumped to Aug 13 of this year. The concert seating was six feet apart and there's wasn't much people at the front of the stage. One of my friends, Tami, got chased back to her seat when she started dancing up front. She never did know I was there. My best friend bought me the ticket as a Christmas/Birthday gift. I rewarded myself with a tour T Shirt for thirty five dollars, only to find that it had a tour inch hole in the shirt. And there was a reason why I never bought any concert shirts at the show.
Opening act was Christopher Shayne, a hard rocking band from Tempe Arizona, home of The Gin Blossoms. Christopher moves on to open for Molly Hatchet August 29, back in Tempe. Bass player Mark Blades, sported a foot long mohawk, but the band was tight and spot on, they did a creditable version of The Boys Are Back In Town. They played for about 35 minutes. Shayne mentioned that this band treked up here from the desert and took them 24 hours to get here. They must have been trucking, it took me two and half days to get from Phoenix to Cedar Rapids when I moved there in 86. For Southerwestern rock and roll, The Shayne Band has a bright future.
(Deb Swearingen: Photo)
The BOC boys popped up around 8 and played for about 74 minutes, leading off with a surprise, Dr. Music from the 1979 Mirrors album. They opened their 1979 set that same song. But this is not your Blue Oyster Cult from years before. BOC has now transformed into a casino type of band, playing a wide variety of their storied greatest hits, and they did play three songs off the new album The Symbol Remains. The songs that they didn't play were noted, Hot Rails To Hell, Dominance And Submission, Astronomy). And the biggest disappointment was no drum solo to Godzilla. Rudino must have a off night,, too many drum stick twirls caused a missed beat on Golden Age Of Leather and was off the beat on the jam part of Last Days Of May while Costellano soloed.
I think the crowd was around 750 to 1000 and it might have disappointed the BOC boys for I was surprised that after Roesner's guitar solo, they would launch into Don't Fear The Reaper, to which the crowd managed to get close to the stage and take pictures. But as the stagehands begin to round up the drum cases and guitars for the next stop, BOC did managed to return to the stage, letting Castellano sing Tainted Blood from the new album, to crowd indifference, it's not exactly a song you would want to play as an encore but at least BOC got it right and concluded the night with Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll, still a fixture in the set list and thank God for that. But sometimes bands do have off nights and Rudino was quite sloppy tonight. I know he'll rebound in the future next time they come our way again. BOC moves on the Orland Park Ill tomorrow and Beaver Dam Wisconsin at the Dodge County Fair August 21.
Hopefully the next time I buy a shirt at the concert, I hope there's not holes in it. I didn't spend 35 dollars on a holy shirt.
