Libby insisted Don't Fear The Reaper was our song. By the time we'd had this discussion I'd already bought a ticket to see them play at a strip mall bar in Albuquerque on the off-chance that the bouncer would take pity on me and let me in despite not being 21. He didn't. I ended up on San Mateo at 10pm on a Tuesday, 90 miles from home, with a state citizenship test the next morning that I was forcefully opting out of. I wandered around the freeway greenbelt collecting broken fan belts, while waiting for the midnight showing of Silence of the Lambs. I got home at 4am. I'd stopped dating her before the show and ended up dating her briefly again; Libby was the kind of girl who would get knocked up and end up giving up twins for adoption. Twice. In your honor I cued up Fire of Unknown Origin for the first time since, probably 1993. You're right - they're a hell of a bar band. I've always held that The Doors are the ultimate Holiday Inn lounge act and what's wrong with music is that everyone pretends that they were somehow more than that. There is a certain purity to Blue Oyster Cult that a band like Nazareth or Deep Purple (another under21 stripmall bar fail) lack. But I mean I'm in a weird mood. I decided yesterday that I really needed to listen to Def Leppard's Hysteria for some reason, and followed that up with three hours of Shania Twain because fundamentally Mutt Lange is a badass and I will fight anyone who disagrees. BOC is in a weird spot in my head. It was a centerpiece of a relationship that would have been spectacular if we weren't so busy being dysfunctional. Our ACE scores probably broke thirteen when added together.
I wondered what your take on Cult would be... they are definitely not in your usual milieu, but it's hard to deny liking any band that has such apparent integrity. I mean, when the backline retired (Albert and Joe Bouchard on bass and drums), their SONS played with the band for like a decade. And the guys in those roles now? Been playing with the band since like 2002. BOC has been doing this shit a LONG time. Side note: Last time I saw them was at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma. Holy shit it was fantastic. The room sounds AMAZING. The sound system was PERFECT: loud and detailed and precise and ... you could still talk over the music to the person standing next to you. And the band was as tight as ever. I saw them play the Kingdome in 1982, for fucks sake... These guys just get on stage - ANY stage - and put on a great rock-n-roll show. City's On Flame, with Rock-n-Roll. Absofuckinglutely.