"Godzilla" conquers Coquitlam at Blue Oyster Cult's command

Seventies hard-rockers Blue Oyster Cult hold a special place in my concert-going heart. The first big show I ever saw was them opening for T-Rex at the Pacific Coliseum around 1975. They actually blew Marc Bolan off the stage with their lasers and the finale with all five members on guitar; the pudgy Bolan seemed wasted and put on an awful show, didn't seem to care at all.

Then a year or so later I saw B.O.C. again, this time with an up-and-coming rock star named Bob Seger opening for them at the PNE Gardens. Let's just say that the dude from Detroit gave the New Yorkers from Long Island reason to kick it up a notch.

Last night's show at the Red Robinson Show Theatre wasn't as memorable as those previous ones, but definitely had its moments. The crowd was most appreciative of the riff-heavy monster hit from '77, "Godzilla", and of course lapped up the band's stirring ode to the afterlife, "(Don't Fear) the Reaper". Original guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser can still seriously scorch the frets on that tune's distinctive lead break.

One interesting aspect of the current lineup, which also sports original vocalist Eric Bloom, is the addition of bassist Rudy Sarzo, who you may recall from his '80s hair-metal days with Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, and Ozzy Osbourne. He still displays the showy enthusiasm of old, and his bass chops were strong on tracks like the super-funky "Shooting Shark", which was originally recorded in Vancouver with producer Bruce Fairbairn in the early '80s.

But the most impressive song of the night by far was "Then Came the Last Days of May", a haunting ballad from the group's self-titled debut album of '72 that tells of a desert drug deal gone wrong. Guitarist Richie Castellano, who joined the band along with drummer Jules Radino in 2004, stole the spotlight from Roeser on that one, manipulating his volume knob to great effect on a stunning lead solo, then kept it by singing lead on the intense encore, "Hot Rails to Hell".

Comments

2 Comments

Derek

Oct 26, 2009 at 9:53am

Hmmm. I thought the show was very sub-par and seeing as Eric Bloom was hardly playing guitar or singing throughout the evening, it seemed like Bí–C really had no right being on stage in front of paying fans.

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Ken Stowell

Mar 21, 2012 at 7:54pm

I remember that concert in Vancouver with B.O.C. opening for T. Rex, when the drummer hit his stix for the last time before he grabbed his guitar.... you couldn't really see him grab it because the lights went out and the spotlights were perfectly directed on the stix almost hitting the ceiling..... that was great, too bad Bolan wasn't at his best. All around it would have been better.

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