CONCERT REVIEW
B.O.C. = D.O.A.
by Seth Rogovoy(PITTSFIELD, Mass., Feb. 22, 1997) -- In school they teach that the dinosaurs are all extinct, but anyone who was at the Studio on Friday night knows that at least one relic from the Jurassic Age has avoided that nasty fate.
Survival of the fittest is apparently not the rule of the rock jungle, judging by Blue Oyster Cult's show at the Studio. While for a brief period in the '70s the group may have enjoyed a glimmer of mainstream success, and while its early flirtation with evil imagery and themes may have prefigured much of the death-rock to follow, the group will no doubt go down in history as a novelty with two radio hits, a couple of cult classics, and otherwise little to recommend itself.
More than one concertgoer was heard to ask how many of the musicians on stage were original members of Blue Oyster Cult. The ironic thing is that, unlike other bands of its vintage that boast only one or two founding members, today's BOC includes the complete front-line of the original band. That those in attendance on Friday night were moved to wonder who these guys were was an eloquent testimony to their facelessness and lack of charisma. For other than a few glistening guitar solos by the neatly-coiffed, dimunitive Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, the band showed no evidence of ever having commanded the stages of stadiums and arenas. Lead singer Eric Bloom was a dweebish presence, asking the crowd's indulgence while the band tried out new songs, and introducing others with gripping lines like, "The next song starts with Buck Dharma playing the guitar." Huh.
It is telling that the band's two most popular songs, "Burnin' For You" and "Don't Fear the Reaper," are the least typical of its fare, which mostly tends toward indistinguished stomp-rock ("Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll," "Godzilla") and the sort of metal-boogie that ZZ Top took to a whole different plane ("E.T.I.," "Buck's Boogie").
"Burnin' For You," the band's poppiest tune and one that seems to have sprung full-blown from the catalog of Journey or Foreigner, got off to a sprightly, galloping start, but then stumbled to its conclusion. By the time the group got around to "Don't Fear the Reaper" -- modeled after the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" with a bit of Bob Dylan's `All Along the Watchtower" thrown in at the end -- their voices were shot and whatever mystery the song once boasted was lost in the muddled mix.
The Capitol Region's Lughead warmed up the crowd with its own, melodic brand of Pearl Jam/Nirvana-derived grunge-rock.
[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Feb. 24, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
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