Las Vegas, Nevada, The Joint
Well, I arrived at the church of rock and roll - the Vegas Hard Rock Hotel a little after 7pm. My
wonderful fiance Michelle had surprised me with a Valentine's Day present of two airline tickets
to Vegas and two tickets to the CULT show - now thats love. Now getting older as I am, I was not
disappointed to learn that Michelle had opted for 2 balcony tickets - my days in the pit are over.
So, after she played some slots (and I played the star wars slot machine - drank some free drinks,
and just took in the Hard Rock crowd which is pretty funny)...we went up the elevator. Not what I
expected. I had been a little nervous about the small print on my ticket "partially obstructed
view." When the Cult finally took the stage 35 minutes late (what do they think they are rock stars
or something?!?) my table in the second row (with wonderful table mates from Hawaii - Lia and Juda)
had its view "totally obstructed" by a fat Mr. Clean look alike and his nasty retired stripper
girlfriend (not sure if she was the pay by the hour variety). So...my view of the Cult for the
first two songs was intermitent, as she dusted off her aching pole dance and lap dance routine,
and Mr. Clean stumbled around trying to get a better feel on her, which she resisted. I watched
the screens a bit, and then decided I need a REAL view, as I could watch the cult on DVD at home
if I wanted screens. So I moved a few feet over, and had a decent view of Billy and Ian.
So, the nitty gritty. The opened the set with a classical synth musical introduction - which led
into Lil' Devil. Backed by a nice version of Sweet Soul Sister. Chris Wyse tried to
do a decent job at The Witch, but he had a wierd bass setting on (which he used again in
War) - kind of a digital delay on overkill, and he played it in some of Billy's lead bits
that totally killed Billy's work....
Wildflower was next, and I took a bathroom break for Revolution....but it was a nice
version - I just don't really like that song. Then....they decided to talk....and talk they did.
In fact, this is the first Cult show I have ever heard a peep from Billy, and in fact he did the
lions share of crowd interaction. He introduced Gone as a song from an album they loved,
but from a bad time in music....it slayed. In The Clouds was also good. The TSN turning
point of the show was Wonderland. They brought it for Wonderland, and the show
picked up a notch.....Billy introduced Wonderland after they played it as a song for the
Ceremony album, and joked with one die hard fan in the front row.."you with the blond hair, that
was better than sex wasn't it?"
Then, out came the stools, and I had high hopes which were exceeded with an acoustic version of
Edie (Ciao Baby) that was very nice.
War was next, and then my personal favorite - Peace Dog.
Rain, Fire Woman and Rise finished off the main set. (my setlist reads this
was, but I think they did a mid set switch...I just can't remember which song they switched).
They came back with a sweet version of Spiritwalker, and then She Sells Sanctuary.
They gave lots of "encouragement" to the crowd...asking if we had forgotten how to rock, and
telling us to MAKE NOISE! Also the first time I have ever seen Billy and Ian actually talk to
each other on stage....nice to see.
Of course, Love Removal Machine was their set closer, and it rocked.
This was a great show, and the band was actually better than I remember them being, even on the
Cult Rising tour. They were tight, the new drummer and bassist were good and sounded like they had
been long time members. Ian sang well...although he was doing some wierd pronounciation things
were he would change some of his lyrics to a real "Yankee" pronounciation....I think perhaps it
was the wanna be Jim Morrison leaking out.....
All in all - a great night. Now, after the show, I checked out Merch, and wow...down comes a guy
with a box of double disk CD's from the show THAT NIGHT. Now Jon, the webmaster at this site had
mentioned this on the open page, but I didn't take it seriously I guess. So down went my $25,
and away I walked with a wonderfully recorded 2 disk set of the show I was just at! Like 10 minutes
after it...ahhhhh tecnology!. I would recommend that any Cult fan buy the Vegas show....it kicked
ass, there is lots of entertaining dialogue, and some rare nuggets of songs. Apparently Napster is
carrying all of these concerts on their new site, so you can downloads them. If you go song by song,
I would have to say Wonderland, Spiritwalker, and Edie (Ciao Baby) were the
highlights.
Sorry for rambling....go out and enjoy these shows....Billy thinks he is "getting too old for the
Cult"...it might be your last chance.
Vince
I have been a hardcore Cult fan forever and recently travelled from Chicago to see the show in Las
Vegas...it was KICK ASS!!!!!! They performed 17 songs,a few that they normally do not play like Gone
and Wonderland and performed 2 encores. We thought it was well worth the trip to see them,
even though we could have seen them in Chi-town,it was awesome to see them in Sin City.
James Sun King
Setlist
Lil' Devil
Sweet Soul Sister
The Witch
Wild Flower
Revolution
Gone
In The Clouds
Wonderland
Edie (Ciao Baby)
War
Peace Dog
Rain
Fire Woman
Rise
Encore 1:
Spiritwalker
She Sells Sanctuary
Encore 2:
Love Removal Machine