BOC: Blue Oyster Cult at the Astoria

[Jon Jarrett]

On Sat, 7 Jun 2003, Richard Lockwood wrote:

> Just got back to Northamptonshire after meeting up with Chris Warburton and
> Helen and then going to the Astoria to see the greatest band in the world,
> ever.  I do, of course, refer to the mighty Blue Oyster Cult.
>
> Hmm...
>
> They're my favourite band ever, so I hate to write this...
>
> For all you BOC fans, you know that track that Bonnie Tyler covered?
>
> Hmm..  That's right...  "Goin' through the motions"
>
> Great song isn't it?  Off "Spectres" I believe.
>
> WHY THE HELL DIDN'T THEY PLAY IT?  TONIGHT, THEY MAY AS WELL HAVE DONE.
>
> They played all the songs you'd like them to do - the big three, Harvester,
> Career of Evil, Joan Crawford (Alan looked like he was playing in a pub in
> East London somewhere), and encored with Astronomy.
>
> Well, whoopee ****ing do.  They were just going through the motions tonight.

        <snip>

> Richard's verdict?  One out of five.  V. poor.  And I'll go to bed crying,
> because they're the greatest band in the world and they can do so much
> better than that.  :-(

        I wrote a piece for the defence not long after Rich posted this,
but when I had a poke around last night I find that, as far as I can tell,
I never actually posted it. If I actually did and just can't find it, the
new server isn't being very friendly to me, do forgive the repeat
post. Here, anyway, it is:

        "I never really expected to be seeing BÖC so comparatively
regularly a few years ago, and perhaps I'm getting blasé about it. Perhaps
they are too, however. It wasn't the best gig I've seen them play by a
long way. Nonetheless, all initial indications were good: Allen looked
healthier than I've ever seen him (though he starts from a long way behind
most people here), Eric seemed happy and generally everything was as it
should be.

        "And OK, they opened with `Dr Music', but I *like* `Dr
Music'. That said, the band were sounding a little bit too soft and jolly,
in the kind of _Curse of the Hidden Mirror_ vein, to be entirely
convincing when singing about BDSM, but never mind, they did it well I
thought. And they followed it up with a very decent `E. T. I.' with a twin
lead spot from Buck and Allen, which I don't remember them doing last time
I saw this number. It's never quite the same in the UK timeframe, there's
this to be said for it; presumably in the US these changes take their time
to happen.

        "Anyway, then came `Dance on Stilts', which was about as good as
it could be, I suppose, but difficult to get excited about. It began to
pall rather. `Harvester of Eyes'--great, I thought, obediently bounced,
and wondered what would be next. `Burning For You', OK, whatever, let's
get it out of the way. `Career of Evil', wow, never seen this before,
what's next... And at some point in there it struck me that I really
wasn't enjoying what they were playing. There was nothing very much going
on, and I was waiting for each song to be over so I could find out what
they'd do next, but the actual doing was leaving me more or less
unaffected. Going Through the Motions, I don't know if that's fair; but I
did think they were playing it safe, for some reason.

        "Another thing: by now it was becoming clear that Eric was not at
his best. He was singing much quieter than Buck, and though the odd real
Eric yell came out he seemed to be pacing himself very carefully, and it
didn't half tell on `Harvester of Eyes' and `Career of Evil'. Later on he
did let rip in a few places but it seemed very much as if he was holding
off so as to be able to do that. A shame, and I hope his voice isn't going
again as it was so great to have it back.

        "Anyway, not really an all-star performance as yet, though Danny
was making lots of contact with the crowd and generally playing up to the
moment, and Bobby also doing well and doing the stunt drummer bit where
you stand at the end of the song and everything. There was a short pause,
and I like to think that the chatter on stage was something like `we're
dyin' on our feet here! Gotta cut loose a bit, take a few risks!' because
that's what seemed to happen. Wisely, they let Allen take the crowd with a
long extended intro into `Joan Crawford', unmistakable from the first
flurry of course but he kept us hanging for what seemed like a while
before finally letting the band dive into the song. Eric still restrained
but pacing himself better. I thought this was absolutely great. And the
`Buck's Boogie' that followed it, while not the best I've seen, was also
to-the-wall, Buck seemed to shake loose of the rhythm section a time or
two and the whole thing tended towards being almost too loose, especially
for a band this practised, but they never fell apart and it was much
better than the safe-mode BÖC we'd had before. And then, what I never
expected to be saying, a really tremendous `Shooting Shark'. Danny
released the hidden funk in this song and it tore along, and Buck topped
it with a solo that nearly brought tears to the eyes. I shall look on this
song a good deal more fondly now, just for having heard what's actually in
there done so well.

        And we only got `Divine Wind' after that, didn't we, which doesn't
even need Eric at full volume, only full menace, and that he did. It never
gets less topical this song, does it? There was, I'm glad to say, no
attempt to point this out, but I thought it anyway. `Lips in the Hills'
was next, and this did lose something for Eric not being at full pelt, but
he did let the crucial notes have their full force in most places. And
it's my favourite BÖC song so I was happy.

        Things had clearly been going on for a while, though I hadn't
really noticed, because it was `Godzilla' already. Eric led into it not
with the normal `something comin' up the Thames now!' bit but with a kind
of aside monologue about the other monsters in the Godzilla
cycle: `Mothra, giant butterfly! Flies around looking pretty, kicks
*everybody's* ass. And Gamera! Huge flying turtle who shoots flame out of
his butt, it's the best.

        `BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE KING OF THE MONSTERS! So tell me who the
f*** is it?' Huge roar from crowd, and off we go.

        "As for the actual song, well, it's a solo vehicle now isn't it
and not much more, though the actual song part was fine. Danny's solo
wasn't actually all that; it was sort of four extended breaks that petered
out, one of which was quite surprising but for all that not really `a bass
solo'. Bobby gets marks for the drums though. I remember the first time I
saw him playing with BOC here, he got a rousing chorus of the ancient
tribal chant `Who ate all the pies?' and was thoroughly disregarded for
the course of his solo. This time he turned out a short sharp run on the
drums, finished it up neatly and stood, holding a cymbal, head on one
side, as if he was daring the crowd to try it again, measuring the
audience reaction and finally deciding it was worth some more. Then he
turned out two more soloes, and he has got better you know, he really
has. Must be having to live up to such excellent bandmates :-) But it was
good. All the same, they needn't really bother with coming back into the
song for the one remaining bit, they might as well finish with the solos.

        "I don't remember being impressed much by the ineluctable
`Reaper', perhaps it too was none too startling. I was still quite
impressed by Bobby's taking over the crowd like that. I did notice the
small solo piece Buck led into it with, because I didn't know what it
was; he played it almost all by himself, with the ghost of a piano
accompaniment by Allen, it was quite sweet.

        "Encore, quite quickly, was `Astronomy', which was well, more or
less as it is on _Long Day's Night_ really, hardly bad and always great to
hear it (especially if like me the only band you've heard do it up till
now was Bouchard Dunaway Smith) but it didn't set me on fire; `Black
Blade' however followed and that was great. Eric had saved himself for it,
it almost seemed, and there was nothing missing at all, except that we
couldn't really hear the voice-of-the-sword recording over all that noise
the band were making :-) So I went home happy, anyway, and the recent
convert we brought along also thought she'd done well.

        "I can definitely see where Rich was coming from with his
criticisms; I thought they definitely lost the touch for a few songs and
then pulled together, or rather loosened up, and as a result it was
probably the most variable and at times uncoordinated, at other times
uninspiring, set I've seen them do. But the good bits were just as good as
one might have hoped, and the bad bits were basically what I think is
wrong with _Curse of the Hidden Mirror_ with less of Eric's singing. I
hope he gets it back together. Buck, also, didn't completely dazzle me as
much as I have been used to. Danny was fabulous, except when he had the
stage to himself; Allen was on tremendous form on all instruments, and
Bobby was startlingly impressive. Unfortunately it's Buck and Eric one
needs to have on form... But at times they were, and I'd still rather see
BOC than any other band going except *possibly* Farflung. And I had to
choose between them and Litmus (as did Litmus's drummer I gather) so
you can see the strength of my faith!"

        Maybe not that much of a defence but I wrote it anyway, yours,
                                                                       Jon

ObCD: The Bevis Frond - _Valedictory Songs_
--
          "If you are rich, throw away your documents.
        If you are poor, do so also." (Egyptian proverb)
               Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College