1995: This page contains all I know about Blue Oyster Cult for this year - and all I know is what you folks send me, so if you want to see more info on this page, there's an easy solution...
Have you got anything to contribute to this page? Reviews, missing info, ticket stubs, posters etc etc - if so, let me .
Blue Oyster Cult. $12.00 Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, Providence, RI. 1/5/95
Kind of ironic that the next show we would see is Al Bouchard from the Brain Surgeons old band, BOC!! It is about a 55 minute drive to Lupo's from Boston, which is not too bad, but the shows at Lupos go so late, which is a drag.
Carl and Tania had never seen BOC so this was a big night for them and the band were quite good and loud!
Lupo's is kind of a strange place. If you are front row on the balcony it is great, but towards the rear is not so good at all. We stood on the floor and I recorded the show from there in the middle.
The place must hold about 1000 people I would guess? The show was really good and they played one new song that they did not play the last time I saw them, nearly two years ago and they said the new lp would be out next year, ha!!!
The set list was:
A great set of songs but I really wish they would drop Don't fear the Reaper and especially Burning for you. I still love Godzilla but the others are a bit old and they have other great songs from that era they could play.
OK - so there's a discrepancy - I have this gig down as 6 January - whereas Scott's acount above says it was 5th January.
Anybody know for sure?
I was a member of a popular local mid-90's Salt Lake City band called Blister'd Toad and we played the opening set for BOC on January 27, 1995 at Upper Country Nightclub in South Salt Lake City, Utah.
Upper Country was a hollowed-out supermarket 5 miles south of downtown Salt Lake City. There were about 750 people in attendance on this cold January evening. I recall seeing several tour shirts out from the 1980 "Black & Blue" tour that was held at Bonneville Raceway outside of Salt Lake City; a show that saw a double Blue Oyster Cult set, due to the cancellation of Black Sabbath.
Our band was honored to hang out with the members of BOC for an hour before show time. We had a blast telling road stories and partaking of party favors backstage. I was crew manager for 'The Toad' and did the stage intro for our group, which was a well-known Salt Lake City hard-rock beat combo. We were raucously received in our 45 minute set, and did a nice job of warming up BOC. I know this because Buck Dharma told us so.
The BOC setlist was the same as the January 21 show at The Ritz in Charlotte, NC. "See You In Black" was a particular highlight for me, but the big roars from the crowd came for the hits. I had an excellent perspective of the band and the scene from my perch on stage right and I sang my lungs out. I looked out at the audience's reactions and felt great energy in the room. The band played an hour and twenty minutes worth of familiar and excellent rock-n-roll.
After the show, we struck our gear into the van, and later I was backstage with my paper and pen, hoping to get a few minutes with the boys before evening's end.
I chatted with Eric Bloom and bassist Jon Rogers for awhile and asked them to sign the back of a promo poster for our band. I said to Jon, sign it, "To Mike,., if you would".
He smiled and signed, "To Mike If You Wood".
The opening act was CARETAKER. I took several pictures of BOC on stage. I drank a pitcher or 2 of beer and I was smashed. I enjoyed the Hits of BOC Live again, but I don't really know their songs to give you a setlist.
After the show I met Eric Bloom (for the 2nd time). He autographed some snapshots I took at Corry Pa. in September 2nd 1994 and pictures I took when I met him November 27th 1993 at Valley Forge on the Total Recall Tour.
Can't tell you much about the show, it was a long time ago now; wasn't a very big crowd, and I remember it being a decent show. My friend and I talked briefly to the band (Buck maybe?) afterwards. Sorry I can't add more...
I attended this concert and was once again astonished by the artistic perfection that this band displays each time I see them. Saw them once before at the '89 show at the Center Stage (ATL) and they were still spot on here in '95. Bloom mentioned an upcoming album just before the band played "See You In Black".
One major correction to your site concerning this gig, though: the opening act was definitely John Kay & Steppenwolf. I got there a little late but wiggled my way to near the front just in time to see an extended "Born To Be Wild". Both bands were amazing and I'm glad I witnessed the spectacle.
Eddie B, opened, i knew Bucks brother and he got me the gig. I traded Don a stratocaster for that black lp custom Git as seen in the marshall plan music video, for whatever it's worth...
Oh yeah, a Gig Memory - I had to set up my amp in front of Bucks, which got an oh shit from me. we did pretty well, but the one thing I remember was that my drummer did a small solo spot. I forgot to tell him that wasn't a good idea. When it came time for that spot of the show for the Boc Drum solo, Buck turned to chuck and said "show him how it's done"...
Priceless...
Minor, but I just wanted to add to the July 6, 1995 gig in Bismarck, ND that they opened for REO Speedwagon that night.
BOC was in top form, and was the reason I was there. I normally dislike crowds, but my girlfriend knew I loved BOC, and purchased the tickets, knowing I wouldn't go otherwise. So yeah, I was dragged to the show. It was the first and so far only time I've seen them live. I couldn't believe they were here in lowly Bismarck!
I was blown away. They were playing a song off their upcoming CD (Heaven Forbid--which did not appear until 3 long years later) called "See You In Black". It rocked! The whole show rocked.
As they were opening for REO, their set was short, maybe 40 minutes. I remember being somewhat disappointed in REO. They sounded good, but a bit too-polished and not spontaneous at all.
Bought my first BOC T-shirt there. The "Puppet Show" one.
I remember loving their bombastic intro music, which I'd love to know what it was so I can hear it again. That heavy keyboard intro (played in complete darkness) REALLY got me pumped up.
I don't remember much of the setlist, but my favorite song that night was by far "Flaming Telepaths", a song I'd never heard before, since my BOC collection was quite small at the time.
I went on a BOC CD buying spree in the months that followed.
The Foghat site lists this show a being at Black Oak Mountain Amphitheatre, Lampe MO with BOC, Nazareth, Steppenwolf. Link:
Does anyone know either way? I notice the same line-up is also given for the gig on the 8th July at Bonner Springs, which DOES accord with Foghat's lists...
Spudstock (yes that is what they really called it) in a potato field in Fort Fairfield, Aroostook County, Maine ( population: 2500 people) The title was lame but the concert was classic and memorable.
They had advertised this concert as selling 30,000 tickets. So the people in this small town were freaking out. When we got there they had 2500 -3000 tops. The vendors lost their shirts, but the fans got front row action.
Lineup: The Guess Who, Blue Oyster Cult, Quiet Riot, Rick Derringer, Eddie Money, The Outlaws, John Anderson, etc. ( various artists from other seventies bands that jammed together.)
Quiet Riot would not leave the stage cause they wanted to rock all night and BOC tried to take the stage and the bouncers tried to remove Quiet Riot, they wouldn't budge so BOC walked off in a huff and never played - they left for the Presque Isle Airport. Therefore Eddie Money went on at midnight and played 'til 3am. Awesome music to fall asleep to in your tent.
The highlight of the whole weekend was The Outlaws playing Green Grass & High Tides, the dueling guitars was screaming. I had to back up or my ears would bleed. Unforgettable lineup all the way around.
They arrived at the gig, but never performed because someone was mishandling their equipment. I was backstage at the time and they were ready to perform and stormed off.
This was a 3 day music festival, I will try to collect the list of other bands that performed. I know Quiet Riot and Eddie Money were two of the bigger names, but most were local and up and coming.
Complete setlist for navy pier - aug. 5 1995:
good sound, good show. nice breeze from the lake.
Sun Jester??? Could you double check your notes for that one as this would be so unique to be played in 1995 as to officially earn the title of "astounding" - it's generally known to have only been played on the 1979 tours (plus the start of 1980).
At the Navy Pier show in 95, BOC had a "temporary" bassist, Greg Smith, and he'd only learned a set number of tunes and BOC more or less played that set every night in the same order (boring bastards!!) - so seeing Sun Jester amongst the setlist for just this gig really sticks out. If you could double check this, I'd be grateful...
i know i was a little hammered (double bloody marys at 16 bucks a pop, friggin navy pier) but i've also seen the band over 50 times, and i'm pretty familiar with the line up, songs, etc. i have on my setlist, though written a little shaky "sunjester" right after in thee, and right before "acoustic", what ever that means. then me262 and so forth.
and are you sure they had greg smith on bass? i seem to remember danny miranda....
I have it in an email from Danny Miranda himself that he joined BOC in Aug 1995, and that his first gig was St Louis which was apparently Aug 11. If you reckon Danny Miranda was playing bass on Aug 5th at the Navy Pier, then that would be news....
"Acoustic" sounds like it's referring to what's called "Acoustic Blues (fill-in jam)" (aka "State 95 Blues", "2 Shows Today Blues", "Hershey Blues", etc) - according to Bolle Gregmar: "Acoustic Blues actually had a different name just about every time it happened - it was a sporadic jam every night and some nights Bloom would sing, but mostly it would be Allen goofing about - but the whole band plays it, thus rendering it as a distict and separate song..."
The thing is - this normally would precede "In Thee"" - whereas in your list, it comes after... it's possible that they may have played the opening bars of Sun Jester as part of the "Acoustic Blues" medley and you wrote it down and then they wandered into something else... grasping at straws here...
i've been scanning my brain all day as to why i wrote the word "acoustic" right after the word "sunjester".
i was almost positive that danny was playing bass that night, now i'm not so sure. can't anyone else clarify this show? now it's really starting to bother me. the reason i originally started writing setlists for myself was so i would remember the show (for various reasons, if you get my drift).
this sucks. i've never run into this. maybe they did an acoustic version of sunjester? dammit this sucks.
The band running order was Missouri, Mountain, BOC, and then headliners April Wine.
Please note that the date for this show was 11 August and that the venue was the the Riverport not the Riverfront Ampitheatre. We do have a local paper called the Riverfront Times and that's always been a good source for listing upcoming concerts, reviews, etc.
I'm grateful to Paul for clearing that up. It's fairly well known that Danny's first gig with BOC was St Louis, and all previous indications had been that this took place on 15 August.
My old band Project Blue were on this bill. Here is the info from the poster
Arkansas Jam sunday sept 24 1995 riverfront amphitheatre little rock.
This was a fun concert. We hung on stage and got to see boc and nazareth up close. Go godzilla!
An eBay auction for a stub for this gig gave the following information: "Riofest 95 w/ April Wine and Blue Oyster Cult at Rio Rancho, NM, October 14th 1995"...
I recall this one since I had taken the Virginia bar exam in July and 10/20/95 was my 28th birthday. :-)
First of all, I had met MilesKB and Steverivet through the then-nascent internet (AOL) and they were all local - as was I staying with the 'rents near Rivet's. Rivet rode his bike and Eric spent a chunk of the evening cruising Northern Virginia.
I was up front (duh) and while I can't tell you the setlist, I can say that the encore was Born to be Wild and Eric rode Rivet's bike onstage for it.
Towards the end of the show it began to pour like a bitch. Got to hang around a bit with the crew as they were packing up. Didn't get to meet the band, but with rain and all, it's understandable. I recall really enjoying my only BOC birthday show.
Thanks guys.
There was a poster for this show advertised on eBay which gave the following information: "Original Rare Concert poster Greg Allman Oct 28, 1995: Grand Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles"
Mass MOCA means Massachusetts Museum Of Contemporary Art.
Rainy, cold night but well attended gig. A college type of crowd.
Opening band's name escapes me, a local(?) funk outfit with female vocalist. Low-ceilinged space with a low stage made for a more intimate experience. Was able to get up close to the stage for the show and grab a guitar pick after.
Back in '95 and I was an AOL'er then and was involved in many of the live chats with the fans and sometimes Eric and Buck. Well, I managed to catch them in a club in Orlando and hung around afterwards and talked to Eric briefly (he liked my kronos tatoo) and I told him I would be at the St. Pete show in couple days.
The St. Pete show also happened to be on or right before Eric's birthday, so I brought him a gift (not a thrilling one, but a thoughtful one, anyhow...) I posted myself right up front at stage about a foot from where the boys would be. It was one of the best shows I had ever seen by the world's greatest band.They even did an old lessser known Beatles tune for an encore.
There was a funny spot in show where the strobe was supposed to kick in during "Flaming Telepaths",while Eric sang the chorus "... and the joke's on you!". Apparently the guy doing the lights missed his cue and Eric had already started the chorus. When he realized he wasn't getting the strobe, being so close I heard Eric say off-mike "I guess the joke's on me"- Too funny!!!.
However the BIG BIG highlight was twofold: During Dominance & Submission, Eric stuck out the mike for me to shout out the refrain!! I almost shit myself!! Here was my alltime favorite band and I got to sing part of one of the coolest songs (well,at least a SMALL part).
And to top it off, I met both Eric and Buck after the show, had pics taken and just generally had a great time. Even talked with Eric about the area of upstate NY he was from (we both are from the Canandaigua/Geneva area). I will never,ever forget that night!!!!
On a business trip to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1995, I managed to catch a BOC show (my plane landed at about 9:30, and I drove to the club and got there with about 10 minutes to spare before BOC hit the stage).
Their final encore was "Slow Down", with guest guitarist Al Pitrelli of local heavy metal group Savatage.
About this concert, I would say it was really a monster show. So big that I was afraid it would be the last one, in France, or even in Europe...
It was neverending, 2 hours and a half, 19 songs, with beautiful rarities live like Flaming telepaths, In thee or Lips in the hills.
We were exhausted, as the band I suppose, after the show, and feeling a bit sad because we thought it could be the last time we could see them.
I was very happy and surprised when I heard BOC was coming to play 2 concerts in Athens (they had done exactly the same in 1987 but then it was a big football arena).
I felt very happy and lucky since I was in my country at that time (for the ones who don't know me, I travel a lot worldwide)... I always had that thought in my mind: "I will feel very bad if BOC visit Hellas and I am not there..."
That would be the 3rd time I was going to watch a live BOC concert.
The problem was that I was a bit far from Athens. I was in the Marine academy in Kefallonia (graduating year) and until then there were several times I was absent from the academy. They were also kind of strict too and if you were absent one day without any papers from the doctor or something then they had to call you (wait in the raw... blah blah) to ask why... and most of the times there was a "penalty".
Since one concert was on Friday and the second on Saturday, I had to leave the island on Thursday - so I had to find a good excuse so they wouldn't call me to apologise... So I did and the prob was 'solved'.
I went to Athens and I was more surprised when my wife (we were engaged then) told me told me she also bought a ticket for the first night (she doesn't like Hard Rock).
I was very close to the stage both nights and in front of me was Allen Lanier. The club was full of crowd but the 2nd night were more fans for sure than the 1st one...
There were 2 new members for me - one was Danny Miranda on bass and the second one was the fuge O'Reilly on drums I had no idea since I knew last summer they had changed a few drummers and Gregg Smith was on bass.
Finally Miranda ended to be the "surprise"of the show since I remember many people (not real BOC fans) telling they liked him a lot... he was very cool on stage indeed. O'Reilly also was very good.
BOC performed a very long set each night - about 20 songs each night. I remember the played almost the same set with some exceptions... (f.i. Take me away the first one... Astronomy, Joan Crawford the second)... totally there were 5-6 songs they played only once... the band was in very good shape... definetly better than the 1987 shows.
Buck also... his solos and sound was a killer. LDOM wow!!. I remember Allen having the cigarette on his guitar...
I was like to find a guy who took many nice shots from this concerts (color and black & white too) and many years later a guy who had captured the concert from the console and sold it to me with the exception of the 40% of one night which was missing so I have memories from that show...
They also performed 2 "new"songs at that time : "See U in black"and "Harvest moon"which probably were the highlights of the show.
At the end of the 2nd night I called Buck while they were leaving the stage and he came back and gave me his hand and we "talked"for some seconds.
It was one of the coolest Fridays/Saturdays ever I couldn't know that the next time I would watch BOC would be in 2003 in UK.