SOME ENCHANTED EVENING

I see that Blue Öyster Cult has reissued this live recording as a double-disc remaster recently. While I’d be interested to see the DVD portion, this one will probably have to wait (until probably never) to get upgraded in my collection from the original one-disc version.

This was released to take the place of touring for the band in 1978, as they had been doing that nearly non-stop for most of the mid-seventies. It’s not what I would call a bad live album, but it’s not really good either. The sound quality on the original is a bit uneven, clear for the most part on the early tracks but by the time “Godzilla” rolls around the mixing engineer seems to have had some problems controlling the bass, and the overall quality suffers a bit from a slightly flat high-end.

On the other hand the song selection is pretty good except for the first two tracks which are generic stadium-rock concert staples but nothing you’re likely to want to play at home or in the car.

This version of “Astronomy” is my favorite just because it has a slightly raw quality for the vocals, and Buck Dharma is dead-on with his guitar. This is a really underappreciated track from the band, lost in the glare of the much more familiar “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” and “Godzilla”.

And speaking of ‘Reaper’ (have I mentioned that song is my cell phone’s ring tone?), this version is actually the first one I remember hearing as a teenager. Living in the western U.S. at the time, we weren’t all that familiar with east-coast bands who didn’t tour in our area, and of course because Al Gore hadn’t invented the internet yet so the only thing we knew about music was what we picked up at Musicland and on King Biscuit. Come to think of it, these guys probably played on King Biscuit, but I don’t remember it.

The rest of this album is only so-so at best, and it’s also quite short at less than forty minutes. Mostly for those two reasons I’d have to say this one is only for collectors. If you really want a good live Cult album, pick up the 1982 ‘ET Live’ instead. It has most of these tracks with better sound quality plus several more, and has a killer version of “Roadhouse Blues’ featuring Robbie Krieger. This one is a two-star by comparison.

peace