Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: June 12, 2020
Production: Blue Öyster Cult
Running time: 63.05 min
Genre: Heavy Metal / Hard Rock
Rating: 8.5/10
Blue Öyster Cult, the undisputed agents in black, a band with iconic status in the rock universe and in many ways a legendary outfit whose innovation had a profound impact on the development of heavy rock throughout the seventies, and on heavy metal after that, are coming back this year with a new studio album after 19 long dry years. Details are still thin for now, but the album is definitely supposed to land this year. The band has been under the wing of Frontiers Music Srl. for the past two years, and the label has made sure this year that people are talking about this legendary group again. For all they’ve created, they’ve never gotten the recognition they deserve, but just like their name says, they remain one of the true cult bands of rock ‘n’ roll.
This is already the third in a series of new live documents put out this year by the label I just mentioned. Like »40Th Anniversary – Agents Of Fortune – Live 2016«, it runs just over an hour and comes from a gig at a small venue, in front of a hand-picked crowd of 200 lucky people who found their way to New York’s iHeartRadio Theater way back on December 17, 2012. The band put the show on to celebrate the release, at the time, of a special box set of all their albums released on Columbia Records, called “The Columbia Albums Collection”.
The event was shot with multiple cameras and was also broadcast live on TV. Thanks to Frontiers Music Srl., it’s now available as a CD/DVD, on Blu-ray and as a vinyl album. The extra DVD adds interviews with the band members on top of the concert. By that point the band had settled into a stable lineup led by the two commanders: vocalist and rhythm guitarist Eric Bloom, and vocalist and lead/rhythm guitarist Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser. The rest of the crew is rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Richie Castellano, bassist Kasim Sulton and drummer Jules Radino. Blue Oyster Cult kept this lineup stable for a long stretch, right up until last year, when Danny Miranda returned to the band and replaced Kasim Sulton.
So what is there to say about yet another brand-new Blue Öyster Cult live document? Going by the setlist of the two-CD live release that came out in March, »Hard Rock Live Cleveland 2014«, »iHeart Radio Theater N. Y. C. 2012« doesn’t bring any big surprises. What we have here is basically a try-out of the live material. A kind of rehearsal, to see how it all works before the band heads out on a more serious tour of the US. In a set limited to an hour, compared to what they played at the Cleveland show, the only surprise is the opener, the »Spectres« (1977) classic R U Ready 2 Rock. Over a solid hour, the band delivers a proper club gig, charged with all the voltage you could ask for, with excellent chemistry between the players, including tight execution of the multi-vocal harmonies, and let’s not even waste words on the already proverbial finesse of Roeser’s guitar work. As for the vocals, both Bloom and Roeser hit a respectable level of quality that holds up well against the passing of time. Only This Ain’t the Summer Of Love hints, especially in the verses, that it’s a song that Bloom’s vocal range no longer suits the way it used to in his later years. The vocal gets thinner and at times almost a bit too ‘sunk’ among the other building blocks of the live sound.
This live document is another must-have for the collection of every die-hard fan of the band, and there are certainly plenty of them. It’s not exactly a surprise, and some of the band’s other live achievements and official releases are far more interesting, like the Cleveland show from 2014 mentioned above, but the essence and charisma of »iHeart Radio Theater N. Y. C. 2012« earn it a special place. So having it in your Blue Öyster Cult collection is definitely more than welcome.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. R U Ready 2 Rock
2. Golden Age Of Leather
3. Burnin’ For You
4. This Ain’t The Summer Of Love
5. Shooting Shark
6. Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll
7. Career Of Evil
8. The Vigil
9. Black Blade
10. Godzilla
11. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper
Lineup:
Eric Bloom – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser – vocals, guitar
Richie Castellano – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Kasim Sulton – bass guitar, backing vocals
Jules Radino – drums, percussion
