Saw Slade and the Blue Oyster Cult a couple of weeks ago at the Capitol Theatre, Passaic's answer to the Academy of Music.

The Cult blew Slade right off the stage. After they'd ripped through "The Red and the Black", "Seven Screaming Diz Busters", "Buck's Boogie" incidentally, the long rumored live version is now available on a Columbia sampler titled "the Guitars that Destroyed the World", and "It's Not Easy", the audience nearly tore the place down until the BOC encored them with that great 60s punk anthem, "Born to be Wild".

After that, Slade didn't have a chance, and they blew whatever momentum they might have built up with absurd audience-participation interludes in every song. It may work in England, where they're so idolized they usually can't hear themselves for all the screaming, but when the audience isn't as fanatically inclined, it sounds as silly and lame as it looks.

DAN NOOGER - THE VILLAGE VOICE - 4/10/1973