Oyster Cult Finds Pearls of Wisdom Online : Pop music: The veteran hard-rockers, who play in San Juan Capistrano on Sunday, get feedback when singer-guitarist Eric Bloom chats with fans in cyberspace once a month.

Just about every impassioned rock fan has experienced the disappointment of his or her favorite band neglecting to play a relatively unknown but personally beloved song in concert.

For the Bruce Springsteen fanatic it may be the frustration of coming away from a three-hour show and not hearing “She’s the One.” For a disciple of the Jesus and Mary Chain it could be the feeling of dissatisfaction when the Reid brothers omit “Blues From a Gun.”

But unlike most rock fans, Blue Oyster Cult followers have an opportunity to help shape the veteran hard rock band’s set list. BOC singer-guitarist Eric Bloom often joins fans in cyberspace during an hour set aside each month to discuss group-related matters on America On Line. Fans can--and do--end up serving as valuable band advisors.

“I do poll them on different things like ‘we’re thinking about putting out a classic T-shirt to take on tour; which shirt do you like?’ ” reveals Bloom during a phone interview from his Long Island home. “I actually changed the set recently because people said, ‘Why aren’t you playing this song?’ or ‘Why aren’t you playing that song?’ You can’t play them all, but enough people mentioned certain songs that we went back and relearned them, and now we’re playing them.”

It would be impossible to satisfy every BOC fan, since the group has released about 120 songs during a recording career that began in 1972 with its critically admired, eponymous-titled album. Except for a nine-month hiatus in 1987, the New York band has continued pretty much uninterrupted since its birth. Bloom and lead guitarist Buck Dharma (a.k.a. Donald Roeser) have been the mainstays of the outfit. Original member Allen Lanier left the band briefly in the ‘80s but is now back playing keyboards and guitar with his old mates.

Blue Oyster Cult, who will play a New Year’s Eve show at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, is best known for its 1976 breakthrough hit single “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” and the corresponding album, “Agents of Fortune.” The group continued to be a commercially potent act through 1982’s “Extraterrestrial Live” album. But widespread interest in the quintet dimmed soon after. Though it continues to perform 12 to 18 shows a month, BOC hasn’t released an entire album of new music since 1988 and continues to search for a record label.

Bloom maintains that Blue Oyster Cult contains enough youth appeal to be a viable, contemporary recording band.

“We get original fans, which would be people in their late 30s, at our shows,” says Bloom, who has a 17-year-old son who plays in an “extreme metal” band in New York. “But I’ve seen a lot of kids in their 20s at the shows who are just discovering us.”

Blue Oyster Cult’s plethora of unreleased new material may lack a record company outlet, but the same cannot be said of its songs from the ‘70s and ‘80s. Several months ago, Columbia/Legacy released a two-CD anthology of BOC material called “Workshop of the Telescopes.” Columbia also just unleashed the band’s first three albums as one specially priced multiple-CD package. In 1994, the group rerecorded many of its better-known songs for a compilation called “Cult Classics.”

Blue Oyster Cult has had a sizable impact on several generations of rock bands. Dennes Boon from the trailblazing ‘80s band the Minutemen shortened his name to D. Boon in tribute to Bloom, who was sometimes listed as E. Bloom on BOC albums. Axl Rose, the late Kurt Cobain, and Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins have also expressed admiration for the group.

Bloom said he once met Rose but didn’t exactly seize the moment. “I didn’t recognize him,” recalls Bloom. “It was about 1985, before [Guns N’ Roses] were huge. It was at the Wiltern Theatre [in Los Angeles]. He came in and shook my hand. Yada yada yada. I was changing clothes. I was thinking, ‘Who is this guy?’ So he [left], and this other guy said, ‘Cool, that’s Axl Rose.’ I didn’t even know it. I would have been nicer to him. You know, I was pulling my pants on when this guy walks into the room. So it didn’t hit me.”

Blue Oyster Cult was known in its heyday as a thinking man’s heavy metal band. Satire and smarts were interwoven with the group’s leather and studs image and gothic, sci-fi lyrics.

Apparently, BOC hasn’t lost its sense of humor. Several months ago Bloom and Dharma found themselves doing some impromptu singing at a restaurant-club in San Diego.

“They had karaoke going there, and I said, ‘Give me the list,’ and ‘The Reaper’ was there,” says Bloom. “So there are about 80 people sitting there, and Buck and I got up and did ‘The Reaper’! About halfway through, people started to realize that, wait a minute, these guys are pretty good. As it went on I think the word got out [that is was us]. It was strictly for grins. It was a lot of fun.”

(You can chat with BOC fans and Eric Bloom--when he’s not on the road--on America On Line [keyword: NIGHTCLUB] the second Tuesday of every month between 7 and 8 p.m.)

* Blue Oyster Cult will appear Sunday at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. 9 p.m. $35. (714) 496- 8930.