Blue Oyster Cult/April Wine Canadian Dates Announced

10/22/01 5:30pm

by Erik Missio (CHARTattack)

When you're Canada's biggest band, as April Wine once were, sometimes you have to drop your anxieties and inhibitions and keep a brave face. Back when they were rocking the nation with songs like "Could Have Been A Lady," "Doin' It Right" and "Sign Of The Gypsy Queen," it was clear that they didn't fear the press, that they didn't fear experimenting with their sound and they didn't fear the prospects of performing in front of a rabid audience.

Now, two decades after their prime, they're also proving that they don't fear the reaper.

Yes, the band that brought us pop rock and power ballads a plenty are teaming up with one of New York's seminal semi-underground forces: the infamous Blue Oyster Cult (a band that, uh, Rosie O'Donnell professed to liking on her show... not that you should necessarily hold it against them).

The BOC and April Wine perhaps have more than a few things in common: they influenced many of the bands that would follow in their wake, they inspired devout followings and they've been largely out of the public eye for the last little while. Still, with various personnel changes along the way, both bands have also been constantly touring and in the case of BOC: recording. The 'Cult has recently released Cure Of The Hidden Mirror.

Both of the announced Canadian shows that feature the two rock stalwarts should be damn fine performances and older fans should take some sort of comfort in knowing that the two bands have also been fairly dedicated to playing a back catalogue of their older material. If you want the hits, you'll get them.

Please, Blue Oyster Cult: can you play that song about Godzilla? Odes to radioactive reptiles rule.

Uh, in any case... check out the BOC and April Wine at the Venue Formerly Known As The Warehouse in the T-Dot and at Waterloo's favourite club in Kitchener.

Tickets are on sale at the usual Ticketmaster outlets and both shows are licensed for those old enough to legally purchase alcohol in public:
November 29 Kitchener ON @ The Lyric
November 30 Toronto ON @ Kool Haus