Concerts

Expect more cowbell with Blue Öyster Cult in Beverly

The hard rockers hit The Cabot stage Saturday, March 5.

Blue Öyster Cult. blueoystercult.com

1 minute to read

Long Island’s Blue Öyster Cult released its first collection of songs in 1972, years before Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, or Queensrÿche (not to mention Spin̈al Tap!) adorned their names with purposeless umlauts.

When I interviewed lifelong Cult member Eric Bloom in 2015, I asked if his band deserved credit for pioneering that trend. He replied, “Well, we were first, but that’s a very small claim to fame. We don’t propose that we’re smarter or better or anything else!”

BÖC was beloved by hard rock and metal fans for their first three albums — one of which, 1974’s “Secret Treaties,” was included among MOJO’s greatest albums of all time — before becoming known to millions in the late ’70s and early ’80s with songs like “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” “Godzilla,” and “Burnin’ For You,” all of which were written or co-written by singer and guitarist Donald Roeser, a.k.a. Buck Dharma, also a lifelong Cultist.

This success imbued Blue Öyster Cult deeply enough in popular culture for the band to weather the less prosperous ’80s and ’90s. The band figured prominently in the 1994 movie “The Stoned Age” (in which Dharma and Bloom have a cameo) and 2011’s “Roadie.” Stephen King quoted “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” at the beginning of his 1978 novel “The Stand,” and the song served as the opening theme for the 1994 miniseries based on it (and as the closing theme for the 2020-21 version of the miniseries).

It was also the basis of the instantly classic, Will Ferrell-written, Christopher Walken-starring “Saturday Night Live” sketch “More Cowbell” in 2000. Finally, two songs from their debut (“Transmaniacon MC” and “Cities on Flame with Rock & Roll”) were used on the video games “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band 2” in the late aughts.

In 2020, the band released “The Symbol Remains,” its first album of new material since 2001’s “The Curse of the Hidden Mirror.” With Dharma and Bloom still leading the charge, BÖC is currently on a 50th anniversary tour that will stop at The Cabot on March 5.