Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC
Opening act: Lenny Kravitz
Cult, Kravitz combine to fuel teen-rock triumph
To borrow a line from Seattle's Nirvana, Saturday night at Vancouver's
Coliseum not only smelled like teenage spirit, it looked, sounded, felt
and behaved like it, too.
A throng of more than 11,000 - with a walk-up crod of over 1,000 -
turned up for what was the best rendering of a '70s-style rock show
since the last time Mott the Hoople passed through town. Flaired jeans,
lank shoulder-length hair and all manner of high-heeled boots were the
order of the day for those both on and off stage.
Lenny Kravitz kicked off the evening with a short but brutally powerful
set of passionate soul-pop. Toeing the line somewhere between
Revolver-era Beatles and Sly Stone, Kravitz and his band gave the
headliners a run for their money.
With bobbing dreadlocks and footwear resembling psychedelic mukluks,
Kravitz swiftly won over the audience, garnering a thundering response
for memorable ditties such as Mr. Cab Driver and It Ain't Over 'Till
It's Over.
Kravitz - not unlike Springsteen or bono - has a natural gift as a
performer. Stalking the stage like a caged animal, he finally cut loose
and headed over the retaining barrier at the stage front to shake it
down with the audience during Let Love Rule.
The amazing thing was, it didn't come off as hokey or contrived.
On the other hand, the magic of The Cult's lead singer Ian Astbury is
that everything he does comes off as hokey and contrived - but it's
great.
This is a guy who has rented way too may Doors videos, as is evidenced
by his Jim Morrison/electric shaman impersonation.
Bounding on the stage in requisite lizard-skin pants, cowboy boots,
Mexican-style shirt and a headdress that looked like a Daniel Boone
coonskin cap with some feathers sticking out the back of it, Astbury
immediately launched into his rock-'n'-roll-poet routine with the title
track on their latest album, Ceremony.
Musically the five-piece band - featuring Astbury's longtime sidekick,
guitarist Billy Duffy - are meat-and-potatoes, lowest-common-denominator
rock. Actual riffs and hooks are few and far between, the tunes relying
for the most part on blistering chord progressions cranked out at a
relentless and hypnotic mid-tempo beat. Sort of like the Ramones on
Quaaludes.
But live, songs such as Sun King, Edie and She Sells Sanctuary are a
joy to behold. Astbury may well be the last in a dying line of genuine,
honest-to-goodness, crotch-rock vocalists.
Really, here's a guy whos message to fans in the band's program reads,
"Free your mind, and your ass will follow," and still goes out there and
keeps a straight face.
Incredible.
As far as good, loud, dumb, non-metal, straight-ahead rock goes, The
Cult is sitting pretty at the top of the heap.
Greg Potter - Vancouver Sun, Jan 13/1992
This was the second Cult show that I was able to get to. Lenny Kravitz
opened the show. He was actually quite good, and made a point of climbing
into the crowd to hi-five as many people as possible. And these boots he
was wearing were wild. Big furry things with pom-poms on the back. Quite
groovy.
The last Cult show I went to was a general admission show, this one was
not, unfortunately. The whole floor had rows of chairs. I was up in the
balcony to the left of the stage, but I could tell the floor wasn't as
crazy as it could have been.
Jon Taylor - jtaylor@coastnet.com
Opening act was Lenny Kravitz who at that point I'd only heard about very
little. He was amazing and definitely a large part of the crowd was there
to see his show. But then, the Cult came on and the house was on fire. I
never sat down once, and when She Sells Sanctuary came on, look out
That is my song, ask anyone who Knows me, once that song comes on I'm off
and dancing. Anyways, so glad there is other big time fans out there and if
anyone hears of any shows anywhere near the Pacific Northwest or California
please post it. Thanx. Ciao Baby. Long long long time Cult fan, finally get
to see a live show.
Nancy - nancy_bruce1@excite.com