Irvine Meadows Amphitheater, Irvine, California
The last time The Cult stomped through Southern California was in January
and I caught every show in town. This time I caught the Jun 13th show at
Irvine Meadows.
I was dying to see the band again especially because I had tickets in the
pit. Just my luck, I had pit tickets and they put seats in there, not that
pissed me off. Most of the people in the pit were snotty assholes and once
The Cult came on stage I pushed them aside and made my way upfront, dead
center. "Let the Ceremony begin!".
This show was completely different than the prior one. Both Ian and Billly
have cut their hair and Billy looks like he did in the "Love" days. The
concert started with She Sells Sanctuary and was followed by Lil'
Devil. The only two songs they did from "Ceremony" were Earth
Mofo (which was introduced as a punk rock ecology song), and Heart
Of Soul. The band concentrated on their older songs which was fine by
me. Ian and Billy were in great moods, laughing and smiling at each other
thoughout the show. From "Love" ,the band performed Love, Nirvana,
The Phoenix, and Rain. Some other crowd faves included
Wild Flower and Peace Dog which Ian dedicated to the LA riots
and said that it wastime for all colors to come together or "that kind of
violence" will happen everywhere.
From "Sonic Temple", they played Sun King, Sweet Soul Sister,
and the electric version of Edie (Ciao Baby) as opposed to their
acoustic version they did in January. Right before Fire Woman, Ian
went on a rampage going off on the media. He dissed MTV, Rolling Stone (he
said they wouldn't know rock n' roll if it bit them in the ass), Circus,
the English Press (which he said fuck off), Times, especially their music
critic Robert Hilburn (rightfully so in my opinion). I was waiting for Ian to
say, "Get in the ring..."
Ian said that he hadn't expressed himself like that in ten years. Love
Removal Machine finished the show. Nothing like rockin' to the best band
around.
Joe Martinez
Setlist:
She Sells Sanctuary
Lil' Devil
...
Encore:
The Phoenix
Love Removal Machine