Last night’s scarce outing by Soft White Underbelly at the Islington Assembly Hall left many aghast at how Blue Öyster Cult could possibly top that performance which saw the band mining their vaults including a rarer than hens teeth rendition of the pre-BÖC Stalk Forrest Group cut “Arthur Comics” making only its sixth appearance in almost 60 years.
Tonight’s show saw BÖC move three or so miles across London to the prestigious Palladium. This stunning theatre, which dates back to the early 20th century and has been the home for many years to the Royal Variety Performance as well as host to the long running TV show Sunday Night at The Palladium, is a thing of architectural beauty both inside and out. It’s quite fitting therefore for the regal Blue Öyster Cult to step onto this illustrious stage for what may well be their last ever UK appearance.
As in true BÖC fashion, each show they perform is an event with a different setlist from one night to another and as this second night was in the same city the song selection was radically different to the previous night kicking off with the lively “Dr Music” before heading into “Before The Kiss, A Redcap” and the Patti Smith co-written “Career Of Evil”, which sounded particularly sinister tonight.
Seeing Buck Dharma step out armed with his vintage Balestra Vulcan guitar that he favoured in the ’70s, was a special moment for longtime fans. In fact, it may be way back then that he last played it on stage. The Vulcan remained with Buck for the first few songs before he reverted to his favoured Steinberger Cheeseberger guitar.
With Eric Bloom delivering a heavy duty “That Was Me” from their latest The Symbol Remains opus before Buck Dharma stepped up for the first of the three automatic songs in the set, the Pop laced “Burnin’ For You”.
The twisted “Cagey Cretins” made a second appearance in two days and was quickly followed by the lush grandiosity of “Shooting Shark” driven by Danny Miranda’s bubbling bass and Jules Radino’s hypnotic beats.
Richie Castellano stepped up for a heavy duty “Hot Rails To Hell” before Dharma pulled the wonderful “Dancin’ In The Ruins” out of the hat from the much maligned “Club Ninja” album that still managed to contain a fair few classic cuts.
Nothing quite prepared the crowd for what came next – the Metallica approved “Astronomy”. It doesn’t get a run out very often these days but when it does, it’s an absolute show stopper with Dharma shooting for the stars as the song reached its stratosphere scorching climax. No wonder the entire hall rose to their collective feet in admiration and awe.
A second outing for “Flaming Telepaths” saw the “Secret Treaties” big guns reunited on stage with Richie Castellano’s “Tainted Blood” separating them.
Of course the lizard king, “Godzilla” showed up to take Tokyo before the hauntingly beautiful timeless classic “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” featuring Buck’s jaw dropping solo and some delirious four part vocal harmonies, closed the show.
With a rare outing for “Teen Archer” opening the three song encore before Bloom stepped up for “Harvester of Eyes” meaning every song bar “Subhuman” was played from their magnum opus “Secret Treaties” over the course of the two nights leaving “Cities On Flame With Rock and Roll”, to shake The Palladium’s foundations and close the show in incendiary style.
No band active today has played more shows than Blue Öyster Cult. They may be ‘On Tour Forever’ but every night is played as if it’s their last and tonight may even have just tipped last night’s show as one of the best seen on these shores.
With two, two hour shows over both nights featuring no fewer than 27 different songs, no pointless solos and no messing about, this was a master class in delivering a crowd pleasing event of such class and grace that if this really was to be their last time in the UK; they went out on an undeniable high.
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