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Cheap Trick/Blue Oyster Cult at Pacific Amphitheater

August 27, 2021

Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame Inductees, Cheap Trick (2016) and rock icons, Blue Oyster Cult played the Pacific Amphitheatre at the OC Fair Wednesday night, August 10th 2021. With tours still being postponed and cancelled or just starting up, Cheap Trick and BOC have each played a number of shows already this year, however this was a one off show of both groups together. This was Cheap Tricks 14th and BOC’s 17th show this year.

Cheap Trick formed in Rockford, IL 44 years ago while BOC formed 50 years ago in Stony Brook, NY, but had a different name even before that.

My first BOC show was at the Pacific Amphitheatre in 2011. Their most recent show around L.A. was in Burbank two weeks ago with Jefferson Starship. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of their debut album. BOC has influenced a whole array of artists from Iron Maiden to The Cult to Queens of the Stone age.

Leading BOC for over 50 years are guitarist/vocalists. Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom. The current band of Danny Miranda (Bass), Richie Castellano (Keys/Guitar), Jules Radino (Drums) has been together since 2017, however Miranda was the bassist from 1995-2004 and in 2007. BOC released their first album in 19 years in 2020 The Symbol Remains, it was also their 15th studio album. Speaking of symbols, the group’s logo has become a part of pop culture. In 2000, BOC rose to fame again with one of SNL’s most popular skits of all time between Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken where the phrase “I gotta have more cowbell” came to be.

Their set was quite short, consisting of just eight songs including their three biggest hits “Burnin’ For You,” “Godzilla,” and “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”

I’ve seen Cheap Trick at least ten times including tours with Aerosmith, Pat Benatar, ZZ Top & Lynyrd Skynyrd, Peter Frampton, and Foreigner & Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience. Rather than playing their usual intro reel Cheap Trick simply walked on stage maybe due to the venue's curfew. The band went right into “Hello There” after walking out.

For 47 years. Cheap Trick has been Rick Nielsen (Guitar), Robin Zander (Lead Vocals/ Guitar), and Tom Petersson (Bass). Nielsen’s son Daxx has been the drummer since 2010 taking over for original drummer Bun E. Carlos. Zander’s son Robin Taylor (Guitar) is also a touring member. For this tour, Robin Taylor has been covering bass duties as Petersson is still recovering from open heart surgery which took place early March. The group is half original members and half their sons. Cheap Trick put out their first album in four years this past April titled In Another World.

Just like any great Cheap Trick show it was full of hits like “Ain’t That Shame,” “On Top of the World, “The Flame,” and “I Want You to Want Me.” Robin Taylor took over the mic for “Downed.” As any Cheap Trick fan knows, if you’re in the first few rows there's a good chance of catching one or many of Nielsen’s guitar picks. During “Dream Police,” Nielsen threw handfuls of guitar picks. Nothing like the crowd stepping on each other's hands looking for a pick. The encore consisted of “Surrender,” and “Goodnight Now.”