2001: This page is a preliminary document - a placeholder if you like - for some text entries for the BOC history for this year.
I have some more images to add to this page when I get the chance - so if you've sent me stuff for this page and can't see it yet, please be patient - I'll get there in the end.
The reason I'm posting this page before it's even remotely ready to go online properly is that as soon as a new History page goes up, people start sending me stuff for it. So my logic is this - I'll put this up quick and maybe you kind folks will get typing and scanning and start sending me info for this year...
Have you got anything to contribute to this page? Reviews, missing info, ticket stubs, posters etc etc - if so, let me .
Regarding the BOC show on Jan.26,2001, the venue was Marshfield High School Auditorium, not Marshall High School as is listed.
Thought I would clarify that for you. It was a benefit concert for Coos Bay area firefighters.
The opening band was Thunderfinger.
That was the 5th May 2001 show. I had some time off work & my partner couldn't make it so I thought 'What the hell'. Bolle Gregmar had said he would arrange for me to go backstage if I made the trip so I booked a flight to Vegas & found accommodation when I got there. The US customs at the airport were a little nervous as I was travelling light & they didn't like the fact that I had nowhere to stay. If I had done this after 9/11 I may have been deported straight away!
Anyway I found the Casino but before the show looked around some shops nearby. Wearing my Buck Dharma T shirt I was noticed by Paul & Sue [famous BOC fans who seem to travel the world to see the band] & I have since met them at gigs in the UK.
Bolle was very friendly and I hung around with him for a while. He told me about videos he had of BOC on TV & also promo videos & sent me some for a small fee.
I decided to try to ring Buck in the hotel assuming he was actually staying there but the operator could not locate a Buck Dharma. I said try Donald Roeser & before I knew it Buck had answered the phone! He said I could watch them rehearsing for the show but for some reason I missed that.
I remember walking to the stage area before the show & nobody was about. The Band's bus was close by [along with Nazareth's] & I opened the door to see if any Cultoids were in but it was deserted. I felt I shouldn't really be there & left quickly!
The show itself was outdoor behind the Casino, quite a small seating area, & it was light when the gig started. BOC were on first & it just didn't 'spark' that evening. Maybe because it was outdoors although I saw them outdoors in Copenhagen in 1997 [I think] & still remember 'Last Days' bringing tears to my eyes.
When they finished their set I was allowed backstage & managed to talk to Buck while Nazareth blasted out. Eric & Allen were there but I didn't feel able to just go up to them to say 'Hi'. You feel a jerk saying how great you think they are & it can be difficult to make conversation with these 'stars'. You have to see it from their point of view. Why would they want to speak to a complete stranger who is dumbstruck at meeting his heroes.
Later on there were a group of fans in the Casino talking about the show & Buck came to talk to us. There were some hardcore fans who he knew pretty well but he was polite to everybody & signed T shirts. So that was my experience of BOC close-up. Probably won't get to do it again but I have great memories of that trip. When I flew out of Vegas at night the plane banked & the Strip was laid out superbly below me. Everything just seemed to go right!
At the 5 May 2001 show in Vegas, I was dutifully scribing a setlist. Exiting at one point to use the facilities, I asked my date (a casual BOC fan) to keep track of anything they played while I was gone.
I kicked myself for missing "Many Voices," God love her...
Sprecher is a great milwaukee beer, not simply a mass marketed "schwag" brew but a fine company with a whole line of tasty morsels including amber, black bavarian, and octoberfest among others. friday's show (8/31/01-my brother's birthday) in glendale, wi was at an outdoor festival called sprecherfest at old heidelberg park. this park is TINY and centered around an open ended pavillion with tons of tables and a decent wooden stage. the sound system was pretty decent, powerful and clean, but we could've used louder side fills or extensions like the tubes pulled out last month for those of us up front.
bad boy opened. they are a legendary milwaukee band that used to rule the clubs in the 80s. they reunite several times a year to do special events like sprecherfest and summerfest. their front man was wailin' away on a beautiful white gibson sg and the other guitarist, zeno - who always brings the party, was red spandexed and fairly spastic. i thought it was a pretty solid set full of many originals but it was the covers that got people interested, especially a stones-ish "miss you" that got zeno all excited as he did his jagger routine alongside that killer bass line. their last tune (prior to encore) was a rockin' original that resulted in both guitarists squirming around the stage like a pair of teenage angus youngs! encore was a very out of tune "(i can't get no) satisfaction", i think they trashed tuning while on the ground ... the party had started and the sound system was tweaked. a nice warmup act that i commend for creating the energy that seemed appreciated.
fans swarmed toward the stage at the last note of satisfaction as if the flood gates had opened involuntarily. we filled up the open area in front of the stage very quickly and patiently waited through a pretty quick changeover. many smiling faces got re-acquainted or met for the first time. behind me was reaper and his family-they have a gorgeous 4 year old that was proudly displayed on dad's shoulders with a boc hat, ear plugs in and a huge smile on. suddenly a "B.O.C." chant begins and starts to swell in volume. blade runner music not present yet... chant swells louder and in full force. b.r. melds into sound system and gets cranked. the chant grows into almost total unison and practically drowns out the p.a. as our boys stroll on stage with glowing looks of readiness.
eric tries to settle everyone in as if a quarterback at the scrimmage line, making sure all are in position and set to rock. the "B.O.C." chant is relentless by now and the crowd is super loud as buck hits the opening riff to stairway to the stars with great opening energy. unfortunately, a low end feedback starts to grow on the stage until it sounds like godzilla himself during buck's solo. it looked as if eric wanted to stop the tune and fix thangs as he starts motioning with hands to stop but only gets attention of half the band. buck is near the edge of the stage gettin' down and cannot see eric behind him. magically, almost, the feedback stops and band continues on as if it hadn't happened... VERY professional and impressive. i've had this occur on stage as well and it's a tough thing to ignore and can be extremely painful on the ears. a sigh of relief seems to flow across the stage as stairway ends.
slight pause as QB bloom steadies the vessel and then gives an affirmative nod to buck who responds with those killer opening chords to teen archer. what a rockin song! allen gets a nice keys solo that leads so sweetly into buck's monsterous solo that rips a few heads off. danny is jumpin' all over the stage and has just discovered reaper's little cutie up on shoulders, he smiles and waves to her as she lights up. buck's ending vocal note gets a huge response as he hangs onto it eternally and we scream in awe. dharmaman then kicks right into e.t.i. as eric strolls back up to his microphone and gets fairly animated. during his solo, buck steps up to the ledge right in front of me and puts his foot up with a big smile. tune ends and buck looks up to the sky to affirm "their" presence.
the bloomman struts over to the keys and brings up the new album as they head into pocket, very tight and full of life with great backing vocals! as it ends eric puts up a peace sign (a "V") to the rest of the band, the symbol for the vigil. buck really hits the solos hard on this one and comes to the edge of the stage to smile at reaper's daughter, she seems touched and i'm sure it made her feel special. i actually catch him laughing to himself as he's a half-step high on a fill. once again, bd looks up to skies several times in reference to "them". about this time a fan holds up a sign reading unknown tongue that eb spots and says, "we'll think about it." eric passes a message on through allen who strolls to the buck zone as buck and bobby start burnin' for you... wow, 3 buck vocals in a row! eb is surprised as well - looked like his message went unheard - wonder what song he had suggested?
yet another hand signal from eric points to a dirge-like cities on flame that lets buck show off his whammy bar-raping in the middle section. danny boogies over to the ledge in front of us and plants a foot during a true rock star pose. crowd screams the call-and-response "rock and roll" at the top of lungs. then we get the back-to-back harvests, harvest moon - there was a gorgeous full moon overhead that i had to stroll out to see during that one - and harvester of eyes, which totally captured every ear in the house.
then the old gods returned in full force aligning the crowd with the moon in a dark but powerful melody of madness to sweep glendale back into hell. during the middle section the boys all got in a line ala '75 that pleased much of the crowd. being a brewery festival almost demands that the golden age of leather gets played. most of the crowd raised glasses during intro and sang along... very cool. the middle section was soooooo high energy that it just sucked me into a cult abyss of groove. i was rockin' hard to danny's bass line at this point, oblivious to the rest of the world, when i suddenly felt a presence and looked up to see buck staring at me mid-solo. as i busted outta this magic plane bd looks me square in the eyes and says, "wow!". pretty damn cool.
the most dynamic moment of the eve came next as the last days of may swelled orgasmically throughout he entire park. the 4 axewielders all got down on the ground (shades of angus again) and twisted about. guitar tech jack burst into laughter. this song has really been a highlight all summer with the mid-section allowing for lots of improv. they even hit a reggae groove during it at this show.
here comes that big beast again, it's godzilla. danny yells at the audience to wake up during his bass solo... i think many of us were mesmerized into an almost zombie-like state during LDOM. crowd awakens just in time for bobby's amazing drum explosion that ended in a gong bashing. danny enters the stage again playing the "purple haze" bassline to some chagrine prior to returning to song.
nothin' like that moment when buck gets to take stage by self prior to reaper, this time it's sweet and melodic with traces of delay that head us into that killer opening riff. the rave up at the end seems even more extended than usual and buck teases another jimi lick from "all along the watchtower" as solo rises beyond proportion.
the frenzy is unbelievable as the B.O.C. chant rises up again. 3 signs compete for encore: unknown tongue on stage left and both the red and the black and dominance and submission on stage right. eric reaches out and grabs the d and s sign, holding it up for all to see. danny gets so animated during this that it's almost funny and the crowd screams uncontrollably at the end for call-and-response submissions.
hand shaking, lots of smiles and waves, and genuine looks of happiness seem to override both band and audience as yet another amazing show goes down in history... thanks guys!
I was at that show, but have little setlist information beyond a couple of facts...
Opening act in Ludington was a local group from Grand Rapids, Michigan, about an hour away by automobile. unfortunately, I have no idea who they were. Google was not much help in finding them, either.
Some of the songs they played (in no particular order):
That's all I can remember. I know there were more. I can also tell you with certainty that they did not play Astronomy. I guess i could mention a lot of songs that were not played. it's just that each time i see them, i hope to hear Astronomy.
Many thanks for putting together the Hot Rails From Hull. it is a great service.
I was at the BOC show at Fort Smith on September 22,2001. It was my first show and I drove over 200 miles to see them.
It was also their first show since 9/11 and they opened up with America the Beautiful. They performed all of their signature songs, as well as a couple that I wasn't expecting, such as The Vigil, The Golden Age of Leather, and Pocket off of their just released Curse of the Hidden Mirror cd. The show lasted around 1/1.5 hours or so and there were extended solos by Buck, Danny, and a great drum spot by Bobby Rondinelli.
Upon arriving, I found one of the promoters and asked him if I could go backstage after the show since I had driven so far and he surprisingly gave me a pass. So, after the show, I got to go backstage and meet all of the guys and get their autographs on the Curse of the hidden mirror cd as well as have my picture made with the entire group. I have seen them 4 times since then and each time they manage to impress.
"Wichita... Please welcome from New York, the amazing Blue Oyster Cult!" With these words Buck Dharma and company took the Cotillion Ballroom hostage for 2 hours of hard rockin' madness. The band opened with the classic "Stairway To The Stars" as Eric Bloom lectured the audience on the thrills and arrogance of stardom that are the lyrics to the twisted tale. Before going on stage Dharma commented to Classic Rock Revisited Jeb Wright that he loved to play in this historic midwestern monument. The venue itself is a testament to times when rock concerts mattered to people. The decor has not changed -- tuxedo powder blue paint complete with a walkway around the entire area, filled with people quaffing beers, smoking cigarettes and perusing band merchandise!
BOC pulled a few tricks out of their hat by performing several songs not seen on the set list the past few years including "The Vigil" from their album Mirrors. Allan Lanier and Dharma played the slow harmonious drone that opens the song before Buck broke into the songs crunching main riff. "Joan Crawford Has Risen From The Grave" was also dusted off for the evening's performance. The classical piano opening was like taking a time capsule back to 1981 and yes, there was a funny burning smell in the air!
The highlight of the evening was the extended version of "The Last Days Of May." The song is a true story of a drug deal gone bad. The star of the evening was Dharma as he opened up his guitar arsenal and massacred the ears of all in attendance. From the bluesy swagger to the crescendo of all five band members pounding out the song to the soft subtle ending this was Blue Oyster Cult at there finest. Tonight's version of "Last Days" puts to shame the original cut on the bands first album and rivals the awesome live performance captured on vinyl on 1975's On Your Feet Or On Your Knees.
Of course the night saw all of the classics including "Burnin' For You," "Godzilla" (complete with the 'zillagod' lyric at the end) and "Don't Fear The Reaper." The group also blasted fan favorites "Cities On Flame," "Buck's Boogie and Harvester Of Eyes" much to the crowds delight. BOC performed two songs, "Dance On Stilts" and "Pocket" from their new CD Curse Of The Hidden Mirror proving that veterans of rock's psychic wars can still make new music as good as anything they have done before. In the end, Blue Oyster Cult will be in a town near you before long as they are the band that is on the road forever. The group is still cranking it up and cranking it out sounding as good as ever. Eric Bloom's vocals and dramatic mannerisms are still delivering the goods as the audience is thrown between Dominance & Submission.
29 November 2001
The Lyric Night Club
Kitchener, Ontario
Canada
These songs were played... there might be order errors, and there might be some missing... but I KNOW these ones were played :)
30 November 2001
Warehouse - it was actually at "Kool Haus"
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
I KNOW these ones were done, but I also know there are probably some missing!