The Boardwalk, Orangevale, California
This show was very strange because there weren't a lot of people there.
Perhaps 50 people altogether when the show started. I positioned myself
up front so more people could have come later. Ian was in rare form, he
looked to have lost some weight since the last time I had seen him perform
and he was smiling from ear to ear during the whole show which I had
never seen him do in The Cult. That told me two things, first that Ian was
finally truely happy and that The Cult were truely dead! When he recieved
the occasional Cult song request he ignored it until towards the end of the
set when he said "You want to hear a Cult song don't you? Well we finally put
that bitch out of her misery." As an encore they played a strange version
of The Witch. I don't know what to make of that but Ian found it all
very amusing. I heard that outside after the show he hung out and rapped with
anyone who wanted to talk until all the gear was loaded and they left for the
bay area.
Brian McClanahan - bmccl@hotmail.com
The Orangevale show was outstanding. I agree with what I've read, Ian was in
very good spirits and clearly happy with his new group. I received two autographs
from him (one on The Cult's self titled album, and one on the Holy Barbarian's
album. I liked Ian's opening comments about how we were about to experience an
evening to pay tribute to the likes of the Beat poets... after a nebulous intro
they kicked into Blind (truly a moment of "pure rock transcendence". I
was also pleased with the slow, menacing version of The Witch which
Ian described as more of a Holy barbarians song, as opposed to a "Cult" song.
Looking forward to "the Phoenix's" return.
The Doctor - Doctoromana@prodigy.net