Some Other Enchanted Evening
Blue Öyster Cult (with Jared James Nichols) – 02 ABC, Glasgow, 29th June 2017
Blue Öyster Cult (with Jared James Nichols) – 02 ABC, Glasgow, 29th June 2017
Over the last couple of decades in the UK it's been a case of for Blue Öyster Cult read Blue Öyster Club, one of many big name rock bands with a serious pedigree and stellar back catalogue that became a club or small theatre sized touring outfit in the face of changing musical times and ticket buying fashions, along with new material that only a diminished (but still as passionate) fan-base were buying into.
In Scotland, BÖC shows at The Ferry ("the gig on the river") in 2006 and 2008 were a club sized case in point – you were never getting someone the size of Godzilla in there, but you could certainly hear him when the Spectres of a once giant band were in town.
Now however, on the back of the resurgence in, and demand for, classic rock, "classic album" styled shows such as the Agents of Fortune 40th anniversary gigs in 2016 and a band who knows its live success is based on the Greatest Hits side of the vinyl, it was a packed 02 ABC in Glasgow city centre that welcomed the band on their 45th anniversary "Playing all the hits and Cult classics" tour that had played across Europe, the Stone Free festival in London and to a quartet of major UK cities.
Unfortunately it was a packed 02 ABC in Glasgow city centre on a Thursday evening, the one night of the week the venue hosts JellyBaby, a students’ nightclub event that kicks off at 11pm.
The results of which meant while every other headliner show on the tour got two hours of bang for their Buck Dharma, Glasgow got the short end of Jules Radino’s drum stick and a curfew restricted ninety-minutes.
Before Blue Öyster Cult’s hour-and-a-half the crowd were treated to thirty minutes of high-intensity blues rock from Jared James Nichols.
It's a testament to the Wisconsin born singer and guitarist's stage presence, musical muscle and bristling energy of his power trio – Nichols, Denis Holm (bass), Erik Sandin (drums) – that his set was not just well received but well attended by a still arriving crowd who were there to see 45 years of BÖC and not necessarily a full-on, meaty half hour of blues rock.
In Scotland, BÖC shows at The Ferry ("the gig on the river") in 2006 and 2008 were a club sized case in point – you were never getting someone the size of Godzilla in there, but you could certainly hear him when the Spectres of a once giant band were in town.
Now however, on the back of the resurgence in, and demand for, classic rock, "classic album" styled shows such as the Agents of Fortune 40th anniversary gigs in 2016 and a band who knows its live success is based on the Greatest Hits side of the vinyl, it was a packed 02 ABC in Glasgow city centre that welcomed the band on their 45th anniversary "Playing all the hits and Cult classics" tour that had played across Europe, the Stone Free festival in London and to a quartet of major UK cities.
Unfortunately it was a packed 02 ABC in Glasgow city centre on a Thursday evening, the one night of the week the venue hosts JellyBaby, a students’ nightclub event that kicks off at 11pm.
The results of which meant while every other headliner show on the tour got two hours of bang for their Buck Dharma, Glasgow got the short end of Jules Radino’s drum stick and a curfew restricted ninety-minutes.
Before Blue Öyster Cult’s hour-and-a-half the crowd were treated to thirty minutes of high-intensity blues rock from Jared James Nichols.
It's a testament to the Wisconsin born singer and guitarist's stage presence, musical muscle and bristling energy of his power trio – Nichols, Denis Holm (bass), Erik Sandin (drums) – that his set was not just well received but well attended by a still arriving crowd who were there to see 45 years of BÖC and not necessarily a full-on, meaty half hour of blues rock.
While the six-song set was primarily based around Jared James Nichols' acclaimed debut Old Glory and the Wild Revival, including a blistering rendition of album opening number 'Playin' For Keeps' and the "boogie like we're down on the farm!" (to use Nichols' own introduction) of 'Can You Feel It,' a taster of what's to come on album number two, Black Magic, was featured by way of new single, the short, sharp and feisty 'Last Chance.'
A truly raucous rendition of Mountain’s 'Mississippi Queen' was extremely well received, and brought the short set to a close.
Given the curfew issue and cut set Blue Öyster Cult still played a bit of a blinder even if not perfectly pitched (in both senses), courtesy of a few guitar and vocal flubs and what seemed like an on-the-fly set restructure once they got past the first two songs, taking us back to where it all began with the 1972 self-titled debut album’s opening number 'Transmanaicon MC' before delivering a full-voiced and outstanding rendition of the Spectres classic 'Golden Age of Leather.'
To be fair the band – the Two Öyster ever-presents Eric Bloom (vocals, guitars, keys) and Donald Buck Dharma Roeser (vocals, guitars), thirteen year BÖC veterans Richie Castellano (keys, guitars, vocals) and Jules Radino (drums) and bassist Danny Miranda (returning to BÖC duty for 2017 due to Kasim Sulton’s touring commitments with Todd Rundgren) – tried to pack as much as they could into their shortened stay by rattling through the set and curtailing the lengthier introductions and crowd interaction.
The outcome was a set only four songs or so short of the full show, although that’s hard to quantify given the band carry around thirty songs in their 2017 live repertoire, playing between eighteen and twenty-two each night.
The downside however was the rushed pace meant some extended instrumental moments were clearly shortened by a few bars and numbers such as the mighty 'Vigil' from Mirrors (a highlight at Nottingham the night before) were posted missing, as were Richie Castellano’s vocal spots at the microphone, Screams and Hot Rails to Hell (both featured at Nottingham).
Castellano more than made up for it however by delivering a scintillating, rapid-fire solo on 'Then Came the Last Days of May' (matching Buck Dharma’s own fleet-fingered work on the second, closing solo) and playing the famous piano intro and outro of 'Joan Crawford' note perfectly – to the degree that I fully expected to see the flick of a dying cigarette spin from his fingers and on to the stage at song’s end, as famously delivered by Allen Lanier back in the day.
(The late BÖC musician was also remembered in tribute via the performance of his Agents of Fortune pop 'n' roll composition 'True Confessions,' sung by Buck Dharma).
The mention of the Nottingham gig the night before gives rise to the point that the Rock City venue, rammed to close to full capacity, got half-an-hour more of BÖC than Glasgow did, for the reasons already given.
I can’t summarise how good the Nottingham show was but I have a friend and reviewing colleague who can…
A truly raucous rendition of Mountain’s 'Mississippi Queen' was extremely well received, and brought the short set to a close.
Given the curfew issue and cut set Blue Öyster Cult still played a bit of a blinder even if not perfectly pitched (in both senses), courtesy of a few guitar and vocal flubs and what seemed like an on-the-fly set restructure once they got past the first two songs, taking us back to where it all began with the 1972 self-titled debut album’s opening number 'Transmanaicon MC' before delivering a full-voiced and outstanding rendition of the Spectres classic 'Golden Age of Leather.'
To be fair the band – the Two Öyster ever-presents Eric Bloom (vocals, guitars, keys) and Donald Buck Dharma Roeser (vocals, guitars), thirteen year BÖC veterans Richie Castellano (keys, guitars, vocals) and Jules Radino (drums) and bassist Danny Miranda (returning to BÖC duty for 2017 due to Kasim Sulton’s touring commitments with Todd Rundgren) – tried to pack as much as they could into their shortened stay by rattling through the set and curtailing the lengthier introductions and crowd interaction.
The outcome was a set only four songs or so short of the full show, although that’s hard to quantify given the band carry around thirty songs in their 2017 live repertoire, playing between eighteen and twenty-two each night.
The downside however was the rushed pace meant some extended instrumental moments were clearly shortened by a few bars and numbers such as the mighty 'Vigil' from Mirrors (a highlight at Nottingham the night before) were posted missing, as were Richie Castellano’s vocal spots at the microphone, Screams and Hot Rails to Hell (both featured at Nottingham).
Castellano more than made up for it however by delivering a scintillating, rapid-fire solo on 'Then Came the Last Days of May' (matching Buck Dharma’s own fleet-fingered work on the second, closing solo) and playing the famous piano intro and outro of 'Joan Crawford' note perfectly – to the degree that I fully expected to see the flick of a dying cigarette spin from his fingers and on to the stage at song’s end, as famously delivered by Allen Lanier back in the day.
(The late BÖC musician was also remembered in tribute via the performance of his Agents of Fortune pop 'n' roll composition 'True Confessions,' sung by Buck Dharma).
The mention of the Nottingham gig the night before gives rise to the point that the Rock City venue, rammed to close to full capacity, got half-an-hour more of BÖC than Glasgow did, for the reasons already given.
I can’t summarise how good the Nottingham show was but I have a friend and reviewing colleague who can…
The Rock City show was played in front of a healthy Wednesday night audience of more than fourteen hundred, who witnessed a superb two-hour set.
As with most of the dates on this tour the show opened with 'Transmanaicon MC' but then jumped from album to album (unlike the Manchester show three days earlier and the Stone Free festival set the band elected not to play the first album in its entirety).
This allowed for a greater catalogue spread and the inclusion of stand-out songs from their many other releases, including five monsters (but not the actual one) in a row – 'Burning For You,' 'Harvester of Eyes,' 'Shooting Shark,' 'The Vigil' and 'Lips In The Hills.'
The real monster song, 'Godzilla,' and '(Don’t Fear) The Reaper' closed out the main set while encore numbers 'Dominance and Submission' and 'Hot Rails To Hell' completed the show.
Credit to the rhythm section of Danny Miranda and Jules Radino who put in stellar performances but special praise for Eric Bloom, who lasted the set-length and vocal pace admirably, despite his 72 years.
The one significant highlight where Glasgow won out was a spellbinding performance of the rarely played 'Astronomy,' the first number of the two-song encore.
'Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll,' Buck Dharma firing on all six-strings, brought the show to a close.
Some other enchanted evening, four decades ago, Glasgow's famous but now long-gone Apollo theatre played host to an unforgettable Blue Öyster Cult lights, lasers 'n' Spectres show.
Forty years on however the lights are out earlier for curfews, the lasers feature at nightclub events and the Spectres are now ghosts of performances past – but performances the band do their damnedest to replicate.
Which makes it all the more annoying it was only for ninety minutes.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Photo credits:
Blue Öyster Cult (and Nottingham summary): Ian McCulloch
Jared James Nichols: David Jamieson
Ross Muir's "Apollo Memories" retrospective review of Blue Oyster Cult at the Glasgow Apollo in 1978 can be read by clicking here
As with most of the dates on this tour the show opened with 'Transmanaicon MC' but then jumped from album to album (unlike the Manchester show three days earlier and the Stone Free festival set the band elected not to play the first album in its entirety).
This allowed for a greater catalogue spread and the inclusion of stand-out songs from their many other releases, including five monsters (but not the actual one) in a row – 'Burning For You,' 'Harvester of Eyes,' 'Shooting Shark,' 'The Vigil' and 'Lips In The Hills.'
The real monster song, 'Godzilla,' and '(Don’t Fear) The Reaper' closed out the main set while encore numbers 'Dominance and Submission' and 'Hot Rails To Hell' completed the show.
Credit to the rhythm section of Danny Miranda and Jules Radino who put in stellar performances but special praise for Eric Bloom, who lasted the set-length and vocal pace admirably, despite his 72 years.
The one significant highlight where Glasgow won out was a spellbinding performance of the rarely played 'Astronomy,' the first number of the two-song encore.
'Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll,' Buck Dharma firing on all six-strings, brought the show to a close.
Some other enchanted evening, four decades ago, Glasgow's famous but now long-gone Apollo theatre played host to an unforgettable Blue Öyster Cult lights, lasers 'n' Spectres show.
Forty years on however the lights are out earlier for curfews, the lasers feature at nightclub events and the Spectres are now ghosts of performances past – but performances the band do their damnedest to replicate.
Which makes it all the more annoying it was only for ninety minutes.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Photo credits:
Blue Öyster Cult (and Nottingham summary): Ian McCulloch
Jared James Nichols: David Jamieson
Ross Muir's "Apollo Memories" retrospective review of Blue Oyster Cult at the Glasgow Apollo in 1978 can be read by clicking here