Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: December 4, 2020
Album length: 62:04 min
Genre: Heavy Metal / Heavy Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
And here’s yet another live album from our well-known, wicked heavy rock’n’roll uncles Blue Öyster Cult! It’s those last days of July 2016, and the band has pulled into Seebronn, Germany, to play on the second day of the Rock Of Ages festival. Earlier on the bill were Lucifer’s Friend, then Treat, former MMEB vocalist Chris Thompson with his backing band, the iconic Ken Hensley (ex-Uriah Heep) with his own band, and British art rockers Magnum. After them came Avantasia. So, a pretty packed lineup.
Let’s focus on the solid hour of material on the live release “Live at Rock Of Ages festival 2016”. Interestingly, neither the DVD nor the Blu-ray includes the opener This Ain’t The Summer Of Love, while the LP and CD versions kick off with that “Agents of Fortune” classic. Maybe the camera crew wasn’t in the right place at the right time and the first song just “got away” from them. When Richie Castellano joined in 2007, the quintet gained an incredible musical acrobat with a superb technical polish. Nothing gets past him, on guitar or keyboards. The songs the band has played with Castellano in the lineup over the last decade have changed their look as a result. The delivery is updated and tailored. In terms of the sheer theater of the performance, it’s seriously expanded. In a setting like this, Buck Dharma can loosen up even more, since Castellano backs him up with his guitar wizardry like a rock-solid brace. So in this latest era, Blue Öyster Cult have become “technically corrected and upgraded” too.
The second track, Golden Age of Leather, has that famous multi-voice a cappella intro, which the band has reshaped theatrically this time around, singing the main line: “Raise your can of beer on high”, which fits perfectly into the atmosphere of a German festival propped up by the smell of beer sausages. Bloom and Dharma remain the band’s vocalists, keeping that gleam of special charisma and musical uniqueness that sets this band apart. Great vocalists, both of them. Together they also keep all of Blue Öyster Cult’s performance credibility intact into their golden years. Bloom stays venomously sharp-tongued whenever he takes the verses. Stern, icy-faced. Buck Dharma, unlike Eric Bloom, smiles the whole time and brings far more approachability and warmth to the stage. After a bashful intro “hiding” behind the keyboards (This Ain’t the Summer of Love), Richie Castellano literally exploded in the last third of the show. Especially in his guitar solo spot in Then Came The Last Days of May. The only song taken from the band’s debut album features an extended instrumental middle section, which Castellano enters first with his masterful playing, followed by the one and only Buck Dharma. The solo duel between the two guitarists is one of the highlights of this live document. Before that, Dharma gets a serious solo warm-up with his famous instrumental Buck’s Boogie, which still burns in the repertoire. Then come Burnin’ For You and Harvest Moon. Both crawl right under your skin. The latter in particular is considered one of Buck Dharma’s favorites. The set closes with two monstrous classics from the iron-clad repertoire: the theatrically rowdy Godzilla, and the folk-anthem-level, must-play classic the whole world knows, (Don’t Fear) The Reaper.
Still, Blue Öyster Cult ended up owing us a bit through all this. They had an hour and twenty minutes available, yet played an hour-long set. For all the professionalism the big gentlemen of rock’n’roll serve up, you can’t shake the feeling that the band could have given more and played at least two, if not three, more songs. That way this live memento would have burned even brighter. Then again, that point outweighs everything else. Blue Öyster Cult keep digging and plowing onward with their unholy rock’n’roll edge and defiance. Over a 50-year career, you almost run out of words to capture the big charm and character of the two leading figures, Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom, who never get tired and keep “thundering” on unstoppably. Until time stops for them, it won’t stop for Blue Öyster Cult either.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
CD:
01. This Ain’t The Summer Of Love
02. Golden Age Of Leather
03. Burnin’ For You
04. Od’d On Life Itself
05. Harvest Moon
06. Me 262
07. Buck’s Boogie
08. Lips In The Hills
09. Then Came The Last Days Of May
10. Godzilla
11. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper
DVD/Blu-ray:
01. Golden Age Of Leather
02. Burnin’ For You
03. Od’d On Life Itself
04. Harvest Moon
05. Me 262
06. Buck’s Boogie
07. Lips In The Hills
08. Then Came The Last Days Of May
09. Godzilla
10. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper
Blu-ray also includes:
1. This Ain’t The Summer Of Love (bonus audio – stereo and surround mix)
Lineup:
Eric Bloom – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser – guitar, vocals
Richie Castellano – keyboards, guitar, backing vocals
Kasim Sulton – bass guitar, backing vocals
Jules Radino – drums, percussion
