Blue Öyster Cult

Blue Öyster Cult will probably forever be linked to Will Ferrell, whose turn as the band’s cowbell player in a 2000 Saturday Night Live skit managed to revive interest in the band while not-so-subtly poking fun at it. Yet there was nothing funny about BOC in the mid-’70s, when the band kicked serious ass. Albums like 1974’s Secret Treaties, 1976’sAgents Of Fortune, and 1977’s Spectres produced such great rock songs as “Godzilla,” “(This Ain’t) The Summer Of Love,” and, yes, that cowbell favorite “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” BOC hasn’t released a new studio album since 2001, but these masters of the parenthetical rock anthem can still bring it live.

Updated 06/20/2011