Blue Oyster Cult @ Keswick Theatre, Pennsylvania (30.10.21)

Music is one of the greatest gifts that can never expire and has been the main driving element in our everyday lives. We have often forgotten the days in which many of the older classic rock bands had given us not just great listening pleasures spanning their careers, but mentally taken us back to all the early days where growing up with one band certainly was an epic musical journey that has captivated their career and made them a great – that is Blue Oyster Cult.

Blue Oyster Cult has redefined music and has generations still discovering their music for the first time as if they are a new band. Yet, they have been in the limelight for countless decades and still make every song sound like a brand new musical interlude. While we typically think this band only has a handful of songs that made them radio successful or radio-friendly with MTV jamming a video or two down your throat, they have almost 20 amazing records and a well-rounded collection of live performances that made them truly great in the world of classic rock. Perhaps there is no better way than to see an arena classic rock band perform in what I would say is an intimate, close and personal show than at the Keswick Theatre. It is almost like being on stage with any band, big or small; you still get that wow factor with every single song performed straight to you.

It was a grand delight to sit in the second row and do a music time warp from the very beginning right to the present with Blue Oyster Cult pulling out not only the hits like ‘Burning For You‘ and ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper‘, but they also went deep into their archives and performed many songs that were true gems. All these years I thought many of those hit songs had Eric Bloom as the main vocalist, however, Buck Dharma actually sings the majority of every song. Kind of shows me how much I knew my classic rock.

Every show has some great highlights that truly impact a musical interlude of relished ecstasy. ‘Harvest Moon’, ‘Box In My Head ‘, ‘E.T. I. (Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence)‘ and ‘Buck’s Boogie’ were perhaps one of the greatest moments on stage watching Buck Dharma shred lead guitar centre stage to bring everyone to their feet in a standing ovation. The ever-popular ‘Godzilla ‘ and then closing out the evening with three great stellar encores: ‘The Alchemist‘, ‘Hot Rails To Hell‘ and ‘Cities On Flame With Rock and Roll‘. With no opening band and Blue Oyster Cult performing to a sold-out show, I have to say this was a gem of a great show. The hits, the favourites, and the lesser-known songs all in one show made a great evening of music spanning countless generations of fans at the Keswick.

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Photography credit to Steve Trager.