• 2 Shows: 8pm and 11pm

3-9-74 - Orpheum - BOC backed up Aerosmith on their 'Get Your Wings' Beantown debut - eye don't know if'n there were two shows, AS I attended that one behind 3 hits of potent orange microdot, and may have erased alot of memory tape loop...

I recall that the gig was during Spring Break in high school and took place in the Memorial Stadium in Daytona Beach, Florida in front of a pretty small crowd - perhaps two or three hundred people.

Eric was wearing his full-length cape. It was black outside and silver inside. Seems he was wearing some high boots also, either black or silver.

Allen was wearing a solid silver "Spaceman" suit. Looked very similar to the ones that astronauts used to wear. Buck and Eric were playing red [wine] colored Gibson SG guitars. Allen played a Les Paul, seems it was sunburst during some of the tunes. He [Allen] started OD'd on keys and ended up with guitar at the end of the song. It knocked me back since I am a guitar player also.

I don't remember anything unique about the drummer or bass player. One thing that stands out is when someone up front asked "When are you going to play .... [whatever title]?" Eric replied "We gotta play Diz first!" He was smiling when he said it. Sticks in my mind.

Oh, another interesting note: the fact that they only played songs from the first two albums. They definitely did not play any tunes from albums other than the first album and Tyranny.

Some of the tunes I remember were:

The Red & The Black
OD'd On Life Itself
7 Screaming Diz-Busters
Bucks Boogie
Cities on Flame
Stairway to the Stars

Seems they only played briefly - perhaps only 30 minutes. Looking back, I wish they had played Transmaniacon MC, Wings Wetted Down and other obscure tunes but I don't think they did. It was the first time I saw them. At that moment, I was hooked!

April 12 1974: Michigan Palace, Detroit MI: Running Order: KISS, Blue Oyster Cult, Suzi Quatro

This date is confirmed by the motorcitymusicarchives.com website.

April 13 1974: Michigan Palace, Detroit MI: Running Order: KISS, Blue Oyster Cult, Suzi Quatro

This date is confirmed by the motorcitymusicarchives.com website.

April 27, 1974: Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ: Running Order: Ross, KISS, Blue Oyster Cult

This date is confirmed by the Capitol Giglist on Moyssi's website.

KISS arrived too late to set up, and they were forced to cancel...

Running Order: Hydra, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Blue Oyster Cult

Running order: Aerosmith, Sharks, Blue Oyster Cult

This date is confirmed by the Aragon venue website.

I think Chris Spedding's Sharks were the first up, but that was a long time ago, and my memories of that night may have been somewhat... ahem... distorted.

I think Aerosmith came on second, they were already gaining some noteriety, while Sharks never made much of a dent in the US market, and by this point Andy Fraser had already left the band.

We sat in the 3rd or 4th row, on Buck's side, directly in front of the P.A. There was a fellow who stuck his head into one of the speaker cabinets, passed out, and remained there through the entire evening. And no, it wasn't me!

The Aragon stage was only a couple of feet off the floor at that point, but was raised to 10 feet or so shortly afterward. Great show, wasn't it Jeff?

BOC behind Aerosmith again...

Running order: Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult

Running order: Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult

Scene 1... Van load of 17 year olds head down I-74 to the Union Auditorium. There was LSD, Weed and copious amounts of beer involved. I think I drove (here's where I say that I don't condone abuse of drugs among children and I don't know how we made it there and back alive.)

Scene 2... The show starts. I was in awe. The laser lights were spectacular and oh so loud, the music too

From what I remember I know for sure that they played - Bucks Boogie, Seven Screaming Dizbusters, and at some point (I think at the end of the show) there were 5 Guitars.

I'm seeming to recall Career of Evil, Stairway to the Stars, Flaming Telepath, Dominance and Submission, and Cities on Flame (I know Albert sang a couple times). Albert was all over the stage from what I recall, like a madman. I was weirded out by his leather shorts though.

During Bucks Boogie I couldn't take my eyes off this guy who could play this fast, this well! I kept thinking I wish I could do that with my guitar (fade to 17 year-old me with a record and turntable, and my guitar trying to figure out just some of the rhythm to Dominance and Submission). That show really made him stand out to me, that's why he's my favorite oyster.

There was also a drum an bass solo. I can't remember what encore was done but I think they came back out twice. I don't have a clue how long they played, I just knew that I wanted it to go on forever. For what its worth there you have it.

I was at this show, as was Jeff Turley... Jeff sent me photos, years later. I don't remember any lasers, but I was in the front row and couldn't see much of the light show.

Buck Dharma brought down the house, as always, in the white suit with a black shirt, and played the white strat and also the sunburst Gibson Les Paul.

Eric had the silver boots and cape and played the black SG. The place was packed and it was hot in there.

They DID do the five guitars thing, I have a picture of Albert in his leather hot pants.

Thanks to Jeff Suhs for info on this show. Jeff co-authored a book called "KISS Alive Forever," which chronicles in detail KISS's touring history. He researched these dates over seven years so I'm very happy to benefit from his hard work. Cheers Jeff.

This is the first of a series of gigs which were supposed to have featured KISS, but Paul Stanley had to have minor throat surgery and KISS backed out of the shows.

Running order: Nazareth, Lynyrd Skynyrd, BOC

Another gig which was supposed to have featured KISS, but because of Paul Stanley's minor throat surgery, KISS had to back out.

Running order: Maggie Bell, BOC

Obviously this stub is dated 26 June and I currently have this show down as the 27th, but this date is confirmed as having taken place on 27 June by Jeff Suhs as one of the shows KISS cancelled out of.

Running order: Maggie Bell, Lynyrd Skynyrd, BOC

Another gig which was supposed to have featured KISS, but because of Paul Stanley's minor throat surgery, KISS had to back out.

Running order: Brownsville Station, Nazareth, BOC

Another gig which was supposed to have featured KISS, but because of Paul Stanley's minor throat surgery, KISS had to back out.

Running order: Brownsville Station, Nazareth, BOC

Another cancelled KISS show...

Running order: Nazareth, BOC

It was the summer of 1974, I was a young 18 year old just learning about HARD ROCK. I had been a BOC fan for about a year. Myself and two friends Zach and Dickie, I am Cliff, had our first apartment away from the folks. We were partiers from the get go! 18 and free from home, this was the life. We all worked construction $5.00 per hour as laborers. Good money back in 74. Kept us in beer and what ever, you know what I mean.

We had an arrangement at the apartment that we would take turns selecting what LP to play next. Each person taking their turn of selecting an album. My turn was always BOC "Tyranny And Mutation". I had the album sleeve of the band, a black and white picture of them, in a picture frame next to my bed. These guys were my anti-heroes!!!! No one else ever picked BOC for their turn, because they knew I would. So between POCO, AEROSMITH and MOUNTAIN there would always be BOC selected.

So we all heard about the Alexandria Roller Rink show and were very excited. I had seen only two other concerts in my life, Raspberries at my high school and Pink Floyd at the Post Pavilion, in MD. Neither excited me like a chance to see my idols, BOC in concert. We bought 10 tickets and were ready to rock!!!!

The day of the show came, not only BOC but Nazareth, and some band I never heard of called KISS. We were getting ready to go from our apartment only 15 minutes from the Roller Rink. All of a sudden dickie comes in and is very upset. He just wrecked his Honda 750 while coming home to change for the show. The very ironic thing is he ran in to Brian (his brothers friend), who was crossing the road, to also go to the show with us. Oh well, we all went anyway and it was awesome.

The show had no seats, no stage lights, and a small stage. I was with my friends center stage 4 or 5 rows back and wasted to the BEJESUS BELT!!!! The show started with Nazareth, who I also liked, I love "Go Down Fighting", they played very well. KISS was a no show. However, I did not care, cause I never heard of em anyway! BOC came on and ROCKED the house.

I do not remember their set, song for song, but the standouts were, Last Days Of May, Cities On Flame, The Red and the Black, Buck was incredible. He was all in white and played the white Gibson SG, that was later stolen. His fingers were SOOOOO fast and his licks soooo melodic and tasteful, I will never forget. The finale was all five guitars jamming at one time, AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME!!!!! The entire band Allan, Buck, Eric and the Bouchard brothers were awesome!!! All of BOC literally blew me away, I had such a good BUZZ, that I will never forget BOC in this small and intimate place!

Another cancelled KISS show...

Running order: (no other acts listed) BOC

Running order: Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult

Another of the run of cancelled KISS shows...

Running order: Nazareth, Rare Earth, BOC

Another cancelled KISS show...

Running order: Nazareth, BOC

First gig of the resumed KISS/BOC tour as Paul Stanley had recovered from his minor throat surgery.

Running order: KISS, Nazareth, Blue Oyster Cult

Second gig of the resumed KISS/BOC tour.

Running order: Isis, KISS, Uriah Heep, Nazareth, Blue Oyster Cult

Third gig of the resumed KISS/BOC tour.

Running order: KISS, Nazareth, Blue Oyster Cult

Fourth gig of the resumed KISS/BOC tour.

Running order: KISS, Nazareth, Blue Oyster Cult

This Baton Rouge show is often - incorrectly - dated as 5th July on various sites on the internet.

The 5th is the date that the show was originally scheduled to take place, but due to Paul Stanley's aforementioned surgery, the gig was re-scheduled for the 16th.

What's more - I know the person who recorded the July 16 performances by KISS and Blue Oyster Cult (the New York Dolls were in the middle of the bill), and he assured me that the July 5, 1974 show did not take place.

As for the Electric Ballroom gigs. I have seen on several BOC web sites a listing for BOC in Atlanta on July 17 & 18. But, the ads for the show that appear in the "Atlanta Constitution" and the "Great Specaled Bird" (an Atlanta entertainment rag) both list these shows as: KISS w. special guest Fat Chance.

So, while it makes sense that BOC would have done these gigs, I've never seen anything in print that would confirm that.

I can confirm that the July 19 date in Fayetteville was definitely a BOC/KISS gig.

The running order for the show was: Nazareth, KISS, New York Dolls, Blue Oyster Cult.

The KISS/BOC tour resumes after a break.

Running order: KISS, Nazareth, Blue Oyster Cult

By the way - the dates on both this Indianapolis show and South Bend show on the next day are often listed incorrectly.

We consulted KISS's itineraries, and also called the venues and/or promoters to clarify when these shows happened and the results of our findings was that the Indianapolis show took place on August 3, and the South Bend show took place on August 4.

Running order: KISS, Nazareth, Blue Oyster Cult

As well as this gig often being incorrectly dated as the 6th August, the venue name is often misquoted.

Please note that the correct name of the venue is Morris Civic Auditorium, not the Civic Center as is sometimes given.

• New York Dolls didn't play

Fargo... my 1st BOC show. It was at the Fargo Civic Auditorium. A guy comes onstage around 7:00... says the NY Dolls said something to the effect of "Fuck North Dakota, we aint coming! " We could get our money back or stay and watch BOC who agreed to do a double set.

They took the stage about 7:30 and I remember looking at a clock behind the stage that said 11:40 and they were still playing. Great show... glad the Dolls decided to skip out.

Regarding there being an opening band (Gandolf) - it was so long ago, but I don't remember a opening act. It is possible.

I do remember BOC played a regular set... came back for a one song encore , then another 2 song encore, then a 3 song encore, a four song encore, and came out yet again and played 5 more songs.

So they took quite a few breaks. I was not very familar with their songs at the time, I remember at the end they seemed to be doing a lot of covers, they might have even played a few songs twice, but it was definately almost midnight when they quit playing.

I thought the stagehand said the NY Dolls were back in Minneapolis and didn't want to come to N Dakota, so I don't know if they played the Minot show or not the night before...

I was at this show. I had never heard of BOC but became a fan after the show. Aerosmith was the band everyone came to see and they blew the roof off the Coliseum, which was a hockey arena. The acoustics sucked but where I sat, I could hear pretty good.

I saw Johnny Winter there about two months before - I was down front and couldn't hear his singing. That was a long time ago.

The final segment of the mini KISS/BOC tour resumes.

Running order: Rush, KISS, Blue Oyster Cult

My first show was in the fall of 74, BOC at Thomas Fieldhouse on the campus of Lock Haven State College in PA. It was, like, a $5 ticket (a whole week's worth of earnings from delivering newspapers!. Treaties was released earlier that year. The place was packed to the rafters, probably 2,200 rowdy kids. My friend Bill and I sat in those bleachers and rocked as only a couple of 16 year olds can.We didn't get to see many big name rock shows in Central PA.

When the guys played Harvester, I remember they had a Roland synthesizer that was having a problem with itself. I think it was Eric who banged on the side of it to get it working. A display of brute force against the technology of the era, brilliantly executed in full leathers. A few years later, Bill and I played in a R'n'R band that covered Death Valley Nights with a female lead singer.

My recollection of BOC's set is rather fuzzy, unfirtunately. It was a very busy night. Bearing this in mind, here is what I remember (no particular order):

The Red and the Black
ME262
Harvester of Eyes
Career of Evil
Hot Rails to Hell
Astronomy
ODd on Life Itself
Bucks Boogie
Flaming Telepaths

The show was on a school night, my friend and I had an 11 pm curfew, and it was taking the crews forever to reset the stage between acts. BOC was headlining, natch, and we had to pack it in and head home at 10:45. Anything that happened past that time would have been relayed to us by a non-musician 3rd party. We were told that Cult's set wasnt much over 90 minutes.

And that's pretty much what happened that night, to the best of my knowledge and recollection. Sorry I couldnt be any more help than this...

The final gig of the mini KISS/BOC tour.

Running order: Rush, KISS, Blue Oyster Cult

I just wanted to post a comment about BOC's 1974 gig at the Tennessee State Fair. I was there, and it was the first time that I had ever seen them...

The show was utterly fantastic and shaped me and my musical taste and style for the rest of my life.

The most amazing part of this experience is this... imagine yourself in Nashville Tn in 1974... BOC opens for Lynyrd Skynyrd (who are riding a big wave about then). After BOC's set....most of the audience starts to get up and leave (I did... I mean who the hell could top BOC) after they did about 2 encores... and Skynyrd had to come out and OPEN with Free Bird just to keep the audience there.

I don't know about you, but that to me was just amazing...

Thanks to Cliff McLenehan, author of "Marc Bolan 1947-1977 A Chronology" [www.helterskelterbooks.com] for confirmation of this gig...

Hi Ralph,

Here are some corrections/additions for you. This is pretty much authorative as I had access to T. Rex tour manager Mickey Marmalade's tour itinerary.

• 11/10 - Warner Theatre, Fresno (probably just a small spelling mistake by you)
• 14/10 - Show Palace, Phoenix
• 23/10 - Stampede Corral, Calgary, Alberta
• 24/10 - Kinsmen Fieldhouse, Edmonton, Alberta
• 26/10 - The Gymnasium, University Of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Everything else was correct. I know that T. Rex and BOC shared the same US booking agent at the time. Of course, the name now escapes me. Hope I've been of some help,

Best wishes
Cliff

Regarding the spelling of the "Warner Theatre" venue - I have a jpeg of this theatre and it is clearly spelled "Warnors", so that's why I've gone with that...

• OYFOOYK recording
• T-Rex didn't play

In 74, I would again see BOC, this time at the Long Beach Arena.The arena was sold out. T. Rex was scheduled to open for the boys. T. Rex (Marc Bolan) was either a "no show" or too fucked up to go on stage. They made the announcement that T. Rex would not be performing, the crowd was not pleased.

They sent some guy out on stage with an acoustic guitar, now the crowd was really not happy. He tried to play a few songs, but the crowd would have any of it. So he ended with a song that had a chorus that I remember to this day.

It went like this " so fucken what, I gotta get out of this rut, it's a pain in the butt, so fucken what."

And this is how it ended up:

guitar guy: So fucken what
the crowd: FUCK YOU!
guitar guy: I gotta get out of this rut
the crowd: FUCK YOU!
guitar guy: It's a pain in the butt
the crowd: FUCK YOU!
guitar guy: So fucken what
the crowd: FUCK YOU!
guitar guy: fuck you!

The crowd was now ready for someBOC and they came out and played their ass' off. A number of the songs from that evening appear on the "On Your Feet Or On Your Knees"album, that's CD for you youngerfolks. Yes, the amazing Blue Oyster Cult.

I've never been able to find out who the guitar guy was, poor guy.

The Long Beach arena gig on Oct 12 '74 was the first time I had seen the Band. I was 15. My best friend Rusty and I had heard about them some months before. We thought the Band's name sounded really bizarre & cool, so we went to our local record shop to pick up a couple of their albums.

Rusty bought "Tyranny & Mutation"; I purchased their new album "Secret Treaties". We both instantly dug the band, the music and the imagery, so went about telling all our friends & schoolmates about them. We became responsible for turning on most of Orange County to the band that year!

T-Rex was supposed to play first, but for some unknown reason cancelled at the last minute. Rusty & I didn't care. We were there to see BOC! When the band came on, we were totally blown away! The set list is chronicled elsewhere, as I cannot remember the exact song order.(it's been 33 years!) Eric made mention that the show was being recorded, and the crowd went wild!

The Band was great. Standing about 6 feet from Buck, we witnessed some the best guitar playing we had ever seen. Some of that show made it onto the "On Your Feet Or On Your Knees" double live album. It was a privilege to be in the audience for that moment in BOC history! I have been a fan of the Group ever since, and have seen them many times throughout the decades. BOC On Tour Forever!

I hadn't seen the Long Beach Arena that full since The Grand Ol' Opry was in town... seriously! I saw Johnny Cash on the very same stage. The vibe from the crowd was intense! You could tell there were many, many hard-core BOC fans in attendance. I wish I could remember the opening soundtrack to these shows... as I somewhat dimly recall, it was quite majestic and doomy, and I could feel the bass in my chest.

The band was so hot! So cohesive, so spot on in their renditions of songs I already knew by heart, and those I would come to know intimately later on. Buck's white suit took on an ethereal quality as his guitar mastery sought to hypnotize. Eric, who was my major heartthrob back in the day, appeared tall, lean, and handsome in black, with a voice that could melt any girls heart... not to mention other anatomical areas of pleasure.

The renderings of Hot Rails to Hell and Dominance and Submission stand out in my memory as being captivating and haunting. Still being a silly girl who preferred studio recordings to live performances (I know! It's hard to admit to even now!) I remember being stunned at the quality of musicianship of all the band's members, and for the first time in my until-then-sheltered-life, I loved me some live rockin' and rollin'! BOC was the catalyst; I would forever more appreciate the fact that a tune could be different from the studio version, and be absolutely wonderful!

Cities on Flame! Oh! My! God!! I screamed along with that one until my little girl voice cracked! And Last Days of May... this tune became the ultimate road trip song for me and my pals... the sky was bright, the traffic light, now and then a truck... and we hadn't seen a cop around all day... we were into riding dirt bikes out in the Mojave desert, and when you hit town, there was this one lonely traffic light out in the middle of nowhere. We just knew that tune was meant for us, exclusively!

October 1974. Long Beach Arena. After listening to their first 3 albums over and over, I was ready for this.

As I stood in line outside the Arena, "The Symbol" suddenly lit up the entire wall of the Arena. Crowd went wild. Seen them over 50 times since. Is there anything better than the right frame of mind, a bean bag chair, headphones, and Secret Treaties' "Astronomy"? I didn't think so. BOC, the Light that never warms...

• OYFOOYK recording

The ONLY gig involved in the recording of "On your Feet" that I don't have a date for is the "Phoenix Show Palace"... it's mentioned on the back of the record, but nobody seems to know about that venue.

Do you?

I know for a fact that BOC played in Phoenix, AZ on October 14, 1974. It is listed on this site: http://www2.cambridge.ma-usa.sugarmegs.org/billgrahm.txt

T-Rex and Golden Earring opened the show, seems to be a Bill Graham sponsored event. This also coincides geographically with the tour schedule listed on the BOC website. I'm also 99% sure the venue would be Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, AZ. They were hosting many shows there in the mid 70's. As far as I know, there was never a place called the Show Palace in Phoenix.

I have run into people who say they saw BOC play at the Celebrity Theatre in the mid 70's... hope this sheds some light on the mysterious OYFOOYK reference to Phoenix, AZ.

Visit Mark's vegas4boc site...

As for the Show Palace venue, I can say for certain that it was not the Celebrity Theater (the Celeb has been called the Celeb since it opened in 1963).

I want to say, and I have nothing to base this on but my questionable memory, that the Show Palace was at 33rd Avenue and Indian School Road, later becoming a Graham Central Station, and then Graham's. I'll try to verify this and get back to you.

• OYFOOYK recording

• OYFOOYK recording

I saw Blue Oyster Cult with T-Rex on 19 Oct 1974 at the Paramount NW in Seattle, a sellout event. This was the second time I saw BOC at the PNW that year. Trying to recall events after 30+ years is difficult. Both concerts seem to blend together now. This is how I remember it.

Many in the crowd were dressed up like glam rock stars. They looked like a cross between Gary Glitter and David Bowie, colorful clothing, platform shoes, dyed hair, makeup, glitter, etc.. T-Rex was the first to play that night. The only T-Rex song that I remember was "Bang A Gong (Get It On)". The up and coming BOC was the headliner. They played most of the tracks from their new "Secret Treaties" album, plus many from earlier work. The band now had three albums, enough stuff of their own for extended concert play. A young Buck Dharma had already developed the skills to become one of the best hard rock lead guitar players ever. Eric Bloom had a stand out performance with his stage theatrics and vocal skills on tracks such as "Dominance And Submission", "Flaming Telepaths" and "Career Of Evil".

The 4-5 deep line of people, waiting for the theater doors to open, wrapped around the side of the building and up the block. Waiting in line, I noticed many large cables coming out of the stage entrance and going into a semi trailer. I believe this was so BOC could record tracks for their next double live album "On Your Feet Or On Your Knees" (ca. Feb 1975). OYFOOYK album notes listed PNW as one of the venues where music was recorded.

I was there also!! It was my first concert ever... 15 years old. 33 years and I remember in a haze (it was the 70's after all). I went to see T. rex and remember that he started on his back on an illuminated lift that raised him to a vertical position with pyrotechnics, and had him outlined in a star with lights. He played Bang a Gong and most of the the songs from "The Slider".

What I remember about BOC is that they were loud! Remember this was my first concert. They were very theatrical. I wasn't really a fan before, but was after and still get nostalgic at "Don't Fear the Reaper". So cool I found the date for this show.

Those were the druggy years, you're asking alot of my faded memories!

I don't remember whether BOC headlined or not, they may have been the warmup, I have a vague memory of walking out before T-Rex was finished, which would suggest they in fact headlined.

I really doubt that Holy Smoke appeared, third acts were usually local bands, so HS wouldn't have travelled cross-country with BOC/T-Rex.

I have no degree of certainty about the 26th date, although I do remember perusing the BOC official site a few years ago and somehow extrapolating that date from the geography/travel possibilities. If the bands went west to east, Edmonton Alberta, Calgary Alberta, and Regina or Saskatoon in Saskatchewan would have been likely dates as well. The U of Manitoba show was in the gymnasium, with probably 1500 attending. Edmonton and Calgary were both about the same size as WPG, about 500,000 population.

I attended this concert in the University of Manitoba East Gym. T-Rex headlined, although I remember there being some controversy about who would play first.

A local band, Steel was added as an opening act. BOC was the crowd favorite, many people left before T-Rex finshed. Can't remember the set list, although Cities on Flame stood out.

This gig saw the start of the BOC/Aerosmith feud...

My friends and myself are psyched up all day, we're going to our first Blue Oyster Cult concert.

The lineup for the show is Hydra, BOC and Aerosmith so we know its gonna be along night and we have an hour drive from Pittsfield down to Springfield. We had all of our goodies ready and some Old Grand Dad to smuggle in and mix with our cokes.

Hydra opened up and was good but we had never heard of them, I think they were from Georgia.

Next is BOC and were all pretty buzzed at this point, finally the lights go down and the announcement is made " On your feet or on your knees, here they are from new york city, the amazing Blue Oyster Cult" . Well off went the flash pots and out comes BOC playing stairway to the stars, the whole band was rocking out the civic center with a vengeance.

Next was OD'd on life followed by Career of Evil. We just keep looking at each other, what a show, next was Harvester of Eyes followed by Cities on flame then Flaming telepaths.

Next it was Buck's boogie and then ME-262, we're singing along and having a great time. The regular set ended with Hot rails to hell, everybody in the civic center is screaming for more and the place is lit up with everybodies lighters.

Out they come and blast into Born to be wild with the blue strobes going off, the scraping guitars and a hell bent for leather intensity that can't be beat.

All the way home we talked about Eric's boots with the kronos symbols on them, the strobes and the scraping guitars and Buck's guitar work.

Aerosmith came on next did some great songs, my favorite was Seasons of wither, but it just wasn't BOC.

Oh yes - I was there with several great friends in high school. I had read about Hydra and even purchased their first recording prior to the show. I didn't know they were even on the bill and I recognized them as they took the stage. A few really good songs, especially "Land Of Money".

BOC just destroyed the place. The "feud", I believe, relates to Aerosmith pulling the plug on BOC's use of FX as their warm up act. Then, quid pro quo, Aerosmith's entire sound and power mysteriously vanished mid set for them. Joey Kramer, Aerosmith's drummer did his solo acoustic, which was lame - I remember he goofed, grabbing his own head of hair and slamming his head into a drum while simultaneously using his kick pedal. Funny... but not as amusing as when singer Steven Tyler lept on stage after power resumed wanting to know "who was the cunt who shut us down."...

I remember that the set was very short after the power outage... It was a magical night in rock & roll.

That was the first time that Hydra played "Land Of Money" for people... it was worked up on the way to Springfield... and that was the name of the second album... I was happy as a pig in shit that night as the band played fucking great and I had a big ol PA to mix on and they didn't even sandbag me that I could notice...

I even got the PA company to give me a separate mic for the cowbell!!... the song they were opening with at the time featured very prominent cowbell and it was really hard to get it if I didn't have a separate mic on it... most PA companies would just laugh when I handed them the mic list with a cowbell mic listed on it...

Aerosmith didn't leave BOC much room, wouldn't let them use the lights they wanted to put up for their set, wouldn't let them use any lights on the main trusses and I believe didn't let them use any effects (fog/flashpots)...

Then during the Aerosmith set one of the see factor guys touring with BOC (Richard "Ho Chi" Holtz) slipped into the power distribution room and lifted the neutral on the power distro...

That fried most of the PA and lighting system... they finished their show with next to NO lights and sound... I was hip to the whole thing as it went down... Ho Chi had come up to me as I was standing on the side of the stage watching Aerosmith and told me to watch closely cause the show was about to get really interesting...

As he slipped away, I followed him and saw him go into the power room and figured he was gonna sabotage them in some way... as soon as he did it he left the building... nobody else with BOC had a clue what was going on...

Once the feces hit the fan, I was the one that took Downey and E.Crowe off to the side and told them that Richard had done something to the power, so they wouldn't be totally clueless...

11-10-74 - Aerosmith, BOC, Hydra

Well, Wally reckons this gig was Sunday 10 November - I think it was Sunday 3 November. Anybody know for sure?

I was a fan of the Airplane and Starship but I was worried that the B.O.C. vibe would not translate very well to what certainly would be a rabid Starship home audience. I felt we might go over like the proverbial "lead balloon." As it turns out we were fairly well received and my fears were unfounded.

Could there have been two gigs here in just 6 months (May 17 was the first)?

The Aragon Ballroom venue website says so: click here...

OK I have two gigs vying for this date - the Omaha one comes from adverts kindly sent by Art Liming and Peter Nielsen advertising the upcoming gig at the Civic Auditorium.

As it's such a contemporaneous piece of dating evidence, I tend to place a degree of faith in it.

The second gig contender is the Palmer Auditorium, Davenport IA with Premiate Forneria Marconi and Foghat.

This date is confirmed by the quadcitymusic.com venue history website here and the Foghat site here...

It's a tricky one. As usual, if you know for sure which of these is correct, please let me know...

This date is confirmed by the motorcitymusicarchives.com website.

Well it was my first time seeing BOC, I went with my friend Andy Baum who had played some BOC on his radio show at Albany State U (I think) and thought it would be cool to see them.

I remember Carmen was booed throughout their set (except during one really nice tune with the lyric "I fought now I think I won") which actually got some radio airplay. Camel was a British Prog-Rock band and were OK.

I truly don't recall much of the BOC set (early show) but they did "Subhuman" and I thought they might have done a song called "Hansel & Gretel" but I'm probably wrong.

When they did "Buck's Boogie" a small fire broke out by some seats near us but was quickly put out and when they took too long between songs some guy yelled out, "Hey,you're not THAT good."

I wish I could remember more of that gig but it was my first (of 100+) and just six weeks later I saw them open for Rod Stewart at Madison Square Garden and that one I remember like it was yesterday.

I went to see BOC on New Year's Eve, 74-75 at the Academy of Music in NYC. Went with a bunch of friends, all UTI of something or other, but I still remember the show. Top ten.

A flamenco-rock band ( presented by David Bowie ) named Carmen opened. Ha Ha - they were not my cup of sangria. Then a rock band named Camel, I dunno if they had Peter Frampton or not, they were ok. Guess it wasn't Frampton cos I liked Humble Pie.

Then the lights went out and we heard some big screen drop down behind the drumkit's shadow. We figured it was the eyeless kid from the ad for the show, but it turned out to be the 1st BOC album art.

The sound guy was playing "I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band". The lights came on and BOC came out, behind them was some sort of Nuremburg Rally thing with long black banners with BOC logos on them.

They opened with "Stairway to the Stars". They were very, VERY LOUD! Still one of the loudest shows I've seen and I still go to many.

Saw a few of the local music scene there, Patti Smith and some of the Dolls. They did a great set, some of it is on On Yer Feet, I think. Eric shaved himself with an amplified razor for his New Year's resolution. That was cool. He was in Black leather, Buck in white and Al in boxing shorts.

At the end of the encore Buck stood there pulling the strings off his white SG, one-by-one.

I think also that these date(s) were played in 1974 - if you have any info, please let me know:

It was at the Decatur Armory. I don't know the date, but I think it was in the Summer. My brother and I were the first in line, and when there was a delay opening the doors, we asked the ushers what the deal was, and we were told that BOC blew the power grid, downtown, and the armory didn't have enough power to run their sound and stage show. Rather than play without it, BOC chose to not play, and when we found out about it, we scalped our tickets for face value and left the venue.

I heard that Pavlov's Dog and Frigid Pink went ahead and played, because they were offering a reduced rate refund, to a few people, then decided that that was a bad idea, since everyone wanted refunds. I heard that the show was enjoyable, but obviously my decision to cut and run was never regretted.

Pavlov's dog was ran by a dude named David Surkamp, who, on March 6th, 1996, opened for BOC at KSHE concert cafe, in St Louis, where Surkamp is from, (The David Surkamp Band) and told the story of what had happened... it was ironic that I was in the audience, because when he mentioned the venue, I told him that I was at that show, and he told me and the rest of the crowd that we missed a jam session at the Decatur Ambassador Hotel, after hours. Too bad, too, cuz I may have gotten to meet Buck way back then instead of on March 6th, the night of the KSHE show.

I went with a friend to Columbia SC to what is now known as McGuire Auditoreum (or Coliseum) at the University of South Carolina. It was the summer after Secret Treaties, and would be on the southern leg of the same tour that this show is on.

I know Lynyrd Skynyrd was the band just before BOC, and I remember during "Free Bird" the now-dead lead singer screamed "we're gonna play all night, we don't need no Oysters!" Grrrr. It took me 33 years to buy the album (CD) that "Free Bird" is on.

I still have a couple of photos, but nothing that documents just when this show happened.

I have been looking for years and can't find my FIRST time that I saw BOC live. To this day they are my favorite band. The date in question is 6 DEC 1974 (at least that is my recollection). They played with Bob Seger and BTO was the headline act. This occurred in Utica NY.

This was important because the Utica paper ran a headline in the inside section a day or so later stating that 7400+ people showed up for the show. This is still the record for any event in the Utica Memorial Colusiem because this was more than 800+ over the fire code. Looking on the Giglopeadia page, it doesn't list that they ever played with BTO, so it should be relatively easy to authenticate.

Well, if it DID take place on that date, it's an unknown gig I need to document. I'd be interested to know what makes you say THAT date and year specifically? Is it memory alone?

> 7400+ people showed up for the show

According to the various websites which give info on the venue, it's max capacity is 4000 and that rises to 5200 for concerts. Have you still got the newspaper clipping? That would obviously help date the show...

> it doesn't list that they ever played with BTO

Well, they've played with them in 73 and 74, but all the Bob Seger gigs take place during 1976 - some early in that year, but most of them from summer through to December 76.

Any info that anyone can offer that might help me to help place this show for sure would be very gratefully received.