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Blue Öyster Cult

A Long Day’s Night DVD

Review by Greg Olma

There are certain bands that have such a catalogue and legacy but haven’t really released a lot of visual material.  Back in the very early 2000s, all that you could get by B.Ö.C. was Live 1976 DVD which came out and quickly went out of print.  Blue Öyster Cult is one of those legendary 70s rock bands that put on concert experiences that were groundbreaking.  Don’t forget, they were one of the very first rock bands to incorporate lasers into their shows.  Well, the lasers are well in the past, but the music is still as potent as it was back in the day.  This concert was filmed in Chicago in 2002 and represents the tour right after Curse of the Hidden Mirror.  The show is a good retrospective of the band’s catalogue and touches upon almost all of their records.  The Revolution By Night, Mirrors, and Imaginos are the only records not represented on this DVD, but if you are a fan of their earlier material, then this release is for you.  Of the 19 songs performed, ten of them are from their first three records, and I can’t remember them ever playing "Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl)" (listed as "Quicktime Girl" on this package) at one of the dozens of shows I have attended.  They also brought out “Perfect Water” from the overlooked Club Ninja and “Lips In The Hills” from their masterpiece Cultösaurus Erectus.  The band even included newer numbers "Harvest Moon" and "Dance on Stilts" just to make sure that that the fans knew they were still a recording band and not just treading on past glories. 

A Long Day’s Night was filmed well, and I like that they kept the lighting darker so that it had that concert feel.  As I mentioned before, the big B.Ö.C. stage shows are in the past, but as a visual of band that still delivers live, then this release delivers, as well.  Aside from some band member interviews, the extras consist of a little behind the scenes material that shows the soundcheck.  The fan interviews rank from slightly entertaining to downright cringe worthy.  I never purchase DVDs for the extras, so I’m not bothered by lackluster bits and pieces.  I can pretty much guarantee that you will maybe watch them once, if that.  The main feature, on the other hand, I can also guarantee that you will watch countless times.  There is not much visual Blue Öyster Cult material out there, so any that is available is worth purchasing, and I would start with A Long Day’s Night.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2021  Volume 3. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2021.


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