Tower Theatre, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

It was an amazing show!!! Ian just brought the house down!!! Me, my friend Mary who was not a Cult fan and didn't know much about Ian came, my great friend Tammy who is the queen of Cult, and Linda, another Cult friend decided to go to the show together and DAMN was it amazing!!! Tammy, Mary and I were all ready, we chilled out for a while and then Linda came to shuttle us all off to the show. I was SOOO excited. When we got there, there were TONS of people heading into the theatre. We got to our seats and waited probably almost an hour for the Doors to appear. Ian fit in PERFECTLY with Ray and Robby. It was completely amazing. The crowd immediately took to Ian--everyone on there feet cheering and enjoying every minute! The show consisted of their hits from Break on Through to Light My Fire to the new song Cops Talk, which I wasn't thrilled with....But Ian can do no wrong!! The highlight was LA Woman which was PHENOMENAL! Every song was amazing. They even did a couple acoustic songs like Spanish Caravan and Crystal Ship. Another great part was Ian singing Back Door Man which I think he does superbly! During Five to One, there was some very graphic imagery of animal killings and human anatomy (brains!) It was quite disturbing and I am not exactly sure what the point of that was...But for the most part the background imagery and shots of the band on the big screen was pretty good...But we were focused on IAN! And apparently someone else was focused on Ian. A girl decided to go up on stage and grope Ian. Ian seemed kind of perturbed and seemed to be waiting for the security to whisk her away, which they didn't until Ian uttered, "Motherfucker, get her off of me", after which he proclaimed, "this would never happen at a Cult show". Anyway, I had been sitting towards the back with my friend Mary when Tammy came up to us and said the seats in front of her and Linda were now vacant. We rushed up and could see Ian MUCH better. It was so amazing. The crowd just LOVED Ian there was such a good vibe in the place. Mary and I got to see the rest of the show closer and had a blast, especially being closer to Tammy and Linda--it was great to share the experience with all of them! Ray also went on a tirade against war, against using oil as our major source of fuel, about using solar power, about how we should get Bush out of office at which point he started to recite the preamble to the constitution. He actually got mostly boos for the anti-Bush part...Anyway, the show went on and lots of doobies were sparked. It was so much fun to be there. I was so glad to hear Peace Frog and Soul Kitchen at the end. One girl went up on stage and danced with Ray and he kissed her...She could have been his daughter she couldn't have been more than 20. The crowd couldn't get enough of it. Even after the show ended and we were walking back to the car, people were still whooping and shouting. The energy at that show was enormous and positive. Ray and Ian said that we were the best crowd yet and I can believe it because it was so amazing. We got back late and Tammy and I talked into the a.m. hours about what a kick ass time we had! Even though we wish Ian would come back to the Cult, we REALLY enjoyed seeing him on stage and Ian totally blew us away!

I can't wait for round two, Pittsburgh in June, the Doors with Tammy!!!

Julia - LuvAstbury@aol.com