Mexico City, Mexico, Salon 21
the waiting finished...
and the legend of the cult began the way of Ian Astbury engaging in a dialog with his
Mexican audience, with some words in Spanish like "hola, muchas gracias" "Mexico, es
grande" began the first song "Lil´Devil" and the salon 21 burning on the place that were
turned a ritual where thousand throats roughed to the unisonous one of a wild, the return
of the cult, the Cult and the legendary lead vocalist Ian Astbury appeared on stage with
their tipical pandero and wore wolf of denim trousers and sweater shirt with cap black
color.
Moments to begin the second song, unexpectedly it happened a mishap, some fans shouted
"a ver a que horas c**lero" "Ian, Ian, Ian!!!"...... without imagining that after backstage
rubbing between the musicians with the sound engineer was provoked since they had detected
some anomalies.... after one long delay of almost half an hour, Ian returned to take in
dominion on the scene and continued with "Sweet Soul Sister" in this occasion sounding a
pair of maracas that made us remember those dancing musicians of the cathedral of the Zócalo
of the City of Mexico. Ian Astbury finishes his second rola successfully and immediately
afterwards persigna in signal of gratefulness to God that finally the sound was in perfect
conditions....in a way for mentioning that when seeing Ian to persignar itself we can realize
that is a good "catholic" thanked for with God Jesus Christ to have granted the request to him
to offer a good concert to its Mexican audience. And it is that Ian Astbury as their musicians
did not leave of took to end a direct dialogue and closest with this public to whom all along
said more words in Spanish as "Mexico los quiero mucho" "vamos todos con la V de la Victoria"
"que viva el subcomandante Marcos" and to end joking she loosen a shout like "Chivas! united
states " but by logic the public defended itself shouting "Noooo...Chivas Mexicooo
" The concert continued without having the minimum failure on the stage enymore during almost
more of the 2 hours and accumulated time... already everything had left to the perfeccción!
the hearing shouted desperately that it continued the historical song of The Cult... but was
not until in first and only encore that began to rugir Ian with the épica song "She sells
sanctuary" and after this last estrepitant howl of the wolf... little by little the Mexican
audience kept in his memories the legend from the cult... The Cult... the legend contnue...
next soon...
photos and reviews of average press reporters of newpapers and magazines.
Olga
Great show last friday in Mexico City, a little guitar technical problems at the beginning but
nothing compare with the great performance of the band, Ian was singing as never before, strong
and loud vocals, Billy one of the best guitar players worldwide, very emphatic with the audience.
Great second guitar, powerful drummer, great bass player, they performance as a long time band.
It was exciting to have those guys back in town after 12 years of absence. Cult friends you don't
have to wait to much time to got back here, you're the best hard rock band over the earth.
Track list includes great songs as Hollow man, Nirvana and Horse Nation, one track I couldn't
recognize.
Abraham Arias & Julia Velez
And then, they were back!
Finally after some years, we got Billy and Ian playing back live in the
great Tenochtitlán (México City). This was the third Cult's gig I have
attended, and the best for sure. Pure Cult, pure energy, pure great rock'n
roll. Great audience, totally wild hearted fans. Some technical problems,
yes, but who cares!; after having the chance to listen-see, and share their
great music with The Cult themselves, I am totally convinced that this is
one of the greatest bands ever on earth.
Hope to see them again; thanks Billy and Ian for coming, thanks for
contributing for an experience, I will take with me wherever I may go.
Carlos
I was very excited about the second visit of “The Cult” to Mexico City (Their
first visit was on December 12th, 1991). This time, I was very lucky because I
won some tickets to be in the 0 Row (a special area located between the stage
and the general crowd, right in front of the band), so when the bouncers of the
entrance gave access around 20:30 to the 0 Row area, I went directly to the right
side of the stage just in front of Billy’s place. The Venue was not completely
full but I think it was ¾ of its capacity. Marshall’s amps were in front of me
and the sound check by the guys of the crew continues until 21:20 (The show
originally was scheduled to begin at 21:00) Finally at 21:26 the band took the
stage and the powerful riffs of “little devil” sounded very loud, after that
immediately followed “Sweet Soul Sister”. Unfortunately at the beginning of the
song, the sound of the Billy’s guitar failed interrupting the show, I said, how
can this happened? The song started once again but Billy suddenly left the stage,
and Ian said where is Billy? We can’t continue the show without Billy! At this
point some bad memories came to my mind about this particular venue, the last
shows that I saw there (The Sisters of Mercy and Slayer) both also had technical
difficulties with the sound at the beginning. Ian still in the stage kidding and
saying that if we want to throw something to the guitar tech guy, he was the
right person for that. Ian looked at me and I showed him my Electric T-shirt,
the ceremony tour book and the LP of the little devil single, he said sighting
at me “thank you for your support and your patience”, after some minutes he left
the stage apologizing for the problem and telling that the show will start over
again.
After 10 minutes the band came back to the stage, and “Sweet soul sister” sounded
again, beginning with this moment Billy was in bad mood doing sights at his guitar
saying something about the sound to the crew, I think he was not happy with his
guitar sound after the interruption, the show continued with the same Billy’s
attitude during the following songs “Electric ocean”, “The Witch” with a great
bass intro from Chris, followed by “Spirit walker”, “Revolution, “Rain”, when
“The Phoenix” ends Ian said “We are going to change the original set list tonight
with different songs”, probably this was due to the guitar sound difficulties,
Edie was replaced with “King Contrary Man”, followed by “Hollow Man”, “Nirvana”,
“Horse Nation”, (I heard most of the instant live shows from the Return to Wild
tour, but never heard this songs before), Chris bass solo (at this part of the
show Billy was in a better mood), “Jailbreak” from Thin Lizzy, “Fire Woman”,
“Rise”, “Peace Dog”, “Wild Flower”, “Love removal machine” sounds absolutely
fantastic with a mosh pit in front of the stage at the end of the song, after
that came the encore and finally “Sanctuary” close the show, Billy, Mike and
Chris gave some guitar picks to the audience (I pick up one from Billy!) and
John gave his drum sticks. Talking about the rest of the band John is a Tornado
with the drum, in some moment he was playing very fast and the drum tech needs
to get in the stage to fix part of the drum kit, his speed metal roots are
obvious, Chris is an excellent complement to the rhythm part and Mike’s guitar
also sounds great. My luck continues and besides my entrance I got a backstage
pass! After the show I got into the dressing room and met Chris and Mike they
are really nice guys, they sign my set list and the ticket. Unfortunately Billy,
Ian and John, never showed up.
Despite the technical sound difficulties I really enjoyed the show! My place in
front of the stage was the best and the change to the set list was good for me
because the Electric album is my favorite and they played six out of eleven songs
from this album, besides the songs from their earlier albums were great! I just
really missed the acoustic version of Edie…maybe next time.
Enrique
Setlist
Lil' Devil
Sweet Soul Sister
Electric Ocean
The Witch
Spiritwalker
Revolution
Rain
The Phoenix
Hollow Man
King Contrary Man
Nirvana
Horse Nation
Fire Woman
Rise
Peace Dog
Wild Flower
Love Removal Machine
Encore:
She Sells Sanctuary