I timed a visit to a friend in L.A. to coincide with a the Cult show. My first show was Roseland Ballroom in NYC.
"Wild Child, full of grace, saviour of the human race, your cruel face yeah"; is what Ian delighted the crowd with in a Morrison-esque tone during the break before the finale of Love Removal Machine. Then, like a flame lighting a fuse, Duffy's blistering riffs ignited Ian and the crowd and they exploded in a frenzy of dancing and jumping. Ian moved swiftly around the stage demanding that people jump up on stage with him, much to the chagrin of his stagehands that had been battling stage divers all night. In his dance frenzy, Ian managed to smack himself with his tambourine and as the song finished Ian bowed and wiped blood from his nose. He then crumpled to the floor in exhaustion occasionally leaning his head back in an effort to stop the blood flow. This was an amazing ending to an amazing show.
The Cult at the universal amphitheatre and my 4th Cult show in a decade (2nd from this tour). The support band The Flying Tigers did a very good job and had some catchy tunes, they are definitely a band to watch. Anyway back to the real reason we are here The Cult. The band took to the stage behind the huge BGAE curtain and as they ripped into the opening bars of Rise the curtain dropped covering half the band, it was a very funny spinal tap moment. Halfway through Rise Ian saw a security guard doing his Job and spent the first half of the show picking on the guy, not a cool thing to do as the guy was just doing his job. The set list was the same as all the other dates and it's great to see the new stuff performed live and with as much energy as the old. I wish Shape the sky was in the set as it's an obvious live song. The Cult were really in fine form as this was home territory (the band live in LA) and Ian was full of little vocal ad libs. At one point he was starting a little impromptu song just before Rain, it was just a little chant and was really getting going when Billy cut Ian off mid sentence with the opening riff to Rain. The venue was packed and about 98 % full, and that just added fuel to Ian's fire. Ian talked about the new stuff and how hopefully it would be as well received as the old, and it was. Billy did his guitar god poses, as ever there was no real interaction between the band, but that didn't detract from the show. The whole set was very tight and on form. I have noticed on this tour that Ian kind of cheats on some of the vocals on a few tracks, he kind of speaks them or shortens the notes, but I am sure playing night after night and trying to hit all the notes would blow out his vocals. Before playing She Sells Sanctuary, Ian said some thing like "the song that inspired a hundred Slipknots, a thousand Marilyn Mansons and a million Limp Bizkits (although he called them some joke name like king Bizkit, or something) and it still blows them all away". After She Sells Sanctuary we were treated to the three song encore, Ian made a few jibes at the crowd to go crazy (as he does at every show) a lot of fools jumped on stage throughout the show and did the "Look at me I'm a star" thing. Perhaps if Ian hadn't told security to "fuck off" a lot of these people wouldn't of got on stage. For Love Removal Machine Ian threw in some Doors lyrics (Wild Child). And then the show was over, it was a great Cult show and if the band continues to put on shows like this and release albums that are as great as BGAE I am sure they will touring for many more years.
The show was great. I was fortunate enough to see the show at House of Blues Downtown Disney the previous night and feel as though I got the best of both worlds. At Downtown Disney, House of Blues is not really that big and felt like a club show. I was told it holds around 900 people but it seemed like more than that were there. The crowd was awesome - O.C whitey's know how to rock. The guys felt the energy and played accordingly, they really seemed to have fun at the show. They did seem to have some problems with their equipment but quickly fixed it. Some poor girl passed out for some reason during the last song of the encore, Love Removal Machine (No Nirvana tonight, they had to be out of the club at a certain time). At the point of the song where they usually pause for a second before Billy start ripping up his guitar solo, they had to stop and wait for security to pull this girl from the pit in front of the stage completely unconscious. At Universal Amphitheater, it was a much larger venue, around 6500 seats. As far as I could see the place was packed. There might have been a few empty seats near the rafters. The show was great but definitely had a different feel in the larger venue. Ian had to work to get the front of the stadium rocking but once he did the whole house got into it. The highlights of the show were...everything. The new songs sound great, the old songs sound fresh and are played like they were just written. All of you who are tired of Fire Woman should have heard it played the last two nights. It is a powerful song that was played with energy and got the whole place going. Besides that it was nice to hear Nirvana, which they had to skip the night before. Of the new songs, Rise and Breathe stand out and Take The Power is great in the encore. At the Amphitheater, the sound and lighting were absolutely fantastic. In summary, it was great to be in a small club and upclose one night and in a large venue that sounded awesome the next night. But most of all, it was just cool to see THE CULT two nights in a row.