Live Review: Blue Öyster Cult, Manchester, 22 July 2006

This is the fifth time I've seen the mighty BÖC. Last time they played the tiny Live Cafe in Peter Street; this time it was the slightly larger Academy 3, which they at least managed to sell out.

Unfortunately the sell-out crowd didn't quite get the full Öyster experience, for Allen Lanier was missing. I don't recall any reason being given for Allen's absence; I wonder if the eldrich reanimation ritual that Eric and Buck have to perform before every gig failed. More seriously, I hope whatever's wrong with Allen isn't too serious, and he'll soon be back.

It says something about the ability of the rest of the band that they still managed to pull off a decent gig as a four-piece. Sure, there were some holes in the sound on a few songs, where Allen's keyboard or rhythm guitar were missing from the mix. I'm think they also rearranged the set a bit, dropping some numbers that they really couldn't do justice to without Allen's playing. The new rhythm section impressed, especially bassist Richie Castellano, who managed a bass solo that wasn't boring. He even sang lead vocals on "Hot Rails to Hell".

There were a lot of songs I've never seen them play live before, like "This Ain't the Summer of Love", "I Love the Night", and oldies like "Seven Screaming Dizbusters", "Harvester of Eyes", and "Hot Rails to Hell". Nice to hear them play "Harvest Moon" from their late 90s comeback album "Heaven Forbid". Still no Astronomy. Now long will I have to wait to see this song performed live?

One think I really noticed this time was the physical resemblance between Buck Dharma and Ken Hite. Has anyone ever seen the two of them together?

Overall, good but not great. I've seen far better shows from the Öyster boys, but there were extenuating circumstances.

Posted by TimHall at July 23, 2006 06:47 PM

Comments

Sweet! I have yet to see 'em at all, but I figure they've gotta do shows here in Vegas. No Astronomy, whereas I assume you had to sit through Don't Fear the Reaper yet again? :/ Great to hear they've got Harvest Moon in the set, though.

--T.J.

Posted by: T.J. Swoboda on July 25, 2006 12:22 AM

According to postings on BOC-L, they played "See You In Black" the following night.

I did get to hear "Reaper" yet again, although I missed part of Godzilla thanks a combination of beer and finite bladder capacity :(

Posted by: Tim Hall on July 25, 2006 07:21 PM


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