Local Wire

Blue Oyster Cult, & Foghat @ Celebrity Theatre

You know that gag in This Is Spinal Tap involving the band's ever-rotating carousel of deceased or otherwise combusted drummers? Foghat's Roger Earl is the living antithesis of that. For 39 years, spanning no fewer than 20 lineup changes, Earl has survived as the boogie-rock foursome's lone constant — a one-man parody of the disposable-drummer rock trope. And that's meaningful, right? (When the band fires up "Slow Ride," it'll be nice to know there's at least one guy on stage who was present when Foghat first performed the song in 1975.) Conversely, Foghat's current tour mates and fellow oil-embargo-era artifacts Blue Öyster Cult have kept their brain trust more or less intact — both lead vocalist Eric Bloom and lead guitarist Don "Buck Dharma" Roeser have been with the band since its founding in 1967. Known for "Don't Fear the Reaper" and their wicked-awesome laser shows, BOC also lay claim to a lesser accomplishment: They made the unsightliest music video of the 1980s ("Burning for You"), shot under a filthy freeway underpass with what appear to be bona fide vagrants. Check it out online. It's Spinal Tap-esque.

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Craig Outhier

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