Tantalized

Blue Öyster Cult, Irving Plaza, NYC: This ain’t the Garden Of Eden January 25, 2008

Driving into the city was a breeze; getting back, not. An accident in the Lincoln Tunnel rendered it hopeless, so I took the long way home, up the West Side Highway to the George Washington Bridge. Another accident on that route made it an even longer way home.  This is why I like trains. Anyway, it was a fine evening before all that.  The setlist:

Summer Of Love, OD’d On Life, Burning For You, Shooting Shark, Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, Career Of Evil, Buck’s Boogie, Veteran Of The Psychic Wars, Godzilla, Don’t Fear The Reaper

encores:

Workshop Of The Telescopes, Dominance & Submission

Solid 90 minute show. They threw us a few curveballs. It was great to hear Workshop as the first encore. Buck’s Boogie might have been an audible from Buck, as he had a hasty conference with Rudy & a brief chat with the rest before they started, but who knows. It was smokin’! The crowd loved it.

First time I’ve seen them do Veteran, after all these years. It was sweet. They even brought out two guys wearing hooded monk’s robes to beat snare drums for some extra psychic effect. Nice job all around. Buck really outdid himself.

Buck seems to have developed a new approach to his Shark solo, kept the song fresh. Richie had a short but sweet break. Overall not as much soloing from Richie as at previous gigs. A tradeoff for the “nuggets.”

I have to say that the New York Dolls drew a roughly 10% larger crowd at Irving a couple weeks ago. However there was at least 20% more weed being smoked by the BOC crowd, so I guess it all evens out.