Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington 
Opening bands: Bif Naked, New American Shame
I got to the Paramount Theatre early to meet with some
other fans and had the fortune to catch Ian heading in
for the soundcheck. He was talking on a cell phone,
so I didn't get a chance to say hi, but it was a good
start to the night.
I headed out to town for some dinner, with the plan
to be back at 8:00 when the doors opened. Well, we
arrived back at the Paramount at 7:55 and the doors
were already open, they must have opened early. Once
we got inside, we found out that the opener, Bif Naked
had already finished her set. That was quite
dissappointing, as I was really looking forward to
seeing her. Did anyone see the girl in the leopard
print bikini outfit with thigh high boots?? I've
never seen clothes like that at a concert - I must
be getting old!!
About 8:15 or so, New American Shame started. We stayed
in the main area, outside the actual general admission
floor, watching the band on the TV sets. I wasn't
too concerned about not seeing them right up front and
close.
Once New American Shame left the stage, we moved into the
general admission area. After a long wait, Andy Savage
from 107.7 The End came out and announced that The Cult
would be on stage in 5 minutes. Well, about 20 minutes
later, the concert finally began.
The set started with a musical introduction, as we've been
used to from The Cult in the past. After the short musical
introduction, the band took the stage with Lil' Devil.
As I was standing watching this show, my first in just over
four years, I was thinking to myself that the lyrics Ian
was singing were just as relevant today as they were when he
wrote them. It made me appreciate The Cult in a new way
that I hadn't thought of before.
The highlights of the show for me, included Edie (Ciao Baby),
Revolution, and the classic, Love Removal Machine.
Ian talked a lot during this performance, and improvised a
fair bit through the music, at one point asking an audience
member, "Joy or sorrow, what does revolution mean, to you
my friend?" Ian hinted that the band would be back next year,
lets hope he's right.
After the show, I spent a bit of time chatting with other fans
and hanging around, until finally, the band emerged from the
back of the Paramount. A quick chat with Ian and Billy and
a couple little autographs capped off the night.
The night was amazing. It is excellent to see the band happy,
performing well, and enjoying themselves. It is especially
satisfying watching them play a song that's almost 15 years old
that has just as much meaning today as it did that long ago. This
was my fifth Cult show, and probably the best of the five
that I had seen.
Jon Taylor - jtaylor@coastnet.com
The Cult is back in business. Ian Astbury’s hair is long; Billy Duffy’s
is short. All is well and as it should be. The Cult rolled into Seattle on
their small venue blitzkrieg and for fans like myself, it was the spiffy
way to see them. Astbury said it best when he proclaimed now was the time
to see The Cult because they are focused strictly on the music. The show
kicked off with a fiery rendition of Lil’ Devil and ripped
through ninety-minutes on nothing but high octane pure Cult. The band covered
most of the bases with fan faves from Love, Sonic Temple and Electric,
decidedly abandoning their works of late. Nothing from Ceremony and more
disappointing, nothing from their last self-titled album. This devoted Cult
follower would have gladly downed a bowl of comet chasing porridge with
a glass of grape Kool-Aid to hear a live rendition of Saints Are Down,
Star or Coming Down (Drug Tongue). Never the less the show rocked
and I left exhausted without voice or clenched fist to project furthermore.
Personal favorites were The Witch, Rain and of course She Sells
Sanctuary. Wildflower took the moshing to frenzy and Revolution
proved that Ian had the crowd in the palm of his hand. It was fun to watch the
crowd go through the full spectrum of energy and emotion. Another thing I found
most interesting about the concert was the audience. Most of the brethren cult
of souls were not unlike myself; thirty-somethings holding steadfast on the edge
of groovy, but well behaved and civil. No fourteen-year-olds were there getting
drunk for the first time and it was swell. Rest assured brothers and sisters,
The Cult is back.
Entozoon - entozoon@canada.com
I must say, I was blown away! I was too young to see them during the 80s ... but
this concert was well worth the wait. I was in too much of a euphoria to remember
much of the set list now, but Sun King, Revolution, Edie (Ciao Baby)
and (of course) She Sells Sanctuary stand out in my mind. So, from the city
known for grunge, I must say ... good ol' rock-n-roll is back! YAY!
Kirsten - klevenk@bellarmineprep.org
Well, I guess I am the first to get something online about this show. It was awesome.
It was clear from the start that the Cult are on a totally different wavelength. Gone
are the egos, replaced by a sence of pride in their accomplishments. Not trying to
strike out into new ground, they were relaxed, and comfortable playing what the
people (or most of them anyways) wanted to hear. The sound in the Paramount was second
to none, and for those of you in bands like myself, the equipment used by Billy and
LeNoble was top notch. Billy played his Les Paul for the entire show, using two-12
Matchless Combos on 4-12 Marshall Cabs. Great sound..I was impressed. LeNoble played
through twin 8-10 Ampeg cabs, with some type of ampeg head. The third guitarist (who
seemed slightly dazed and confused by it all), played the typical marshall rig.
Highlights....well, the whole show kicked ass....Ian, who tends to mush mouth on
higher notes, and longer sustains sang with a vengence...the only time I have
ever heard him sound this good live, was on the two radio recorded songs on the
WHITE CD single. Billy and Ian exchanged several friendly glances, and the on-stage
mood seemed very positive. They began the show with little stage light, and an
over dubbed recording called "battle of the???" from the Star-Wars Episode I
soundtrack. As soon as the music faded, Billy stepped right up to unleash Lil' Devil.
This was followed up by Sun King. My favourite had to be a blistering In The
Clouds which Ian sang better than he did on the actual recording! This was a
great show, in a great venue..hell, the opening band even kicked ass! Hope to see
what the rest of you think.... PS...I snapped a whole role of film, so I will scan
some of these and send them on....
Vince Warry - vwarry@aol.com
Amazing. My friend, Mark and I were driving along Aurora in Seattle and we heard on
the radio that The Cult were coming to town. We looked at each other. "WHAT?!" I said.
I didn't know anything at that point. Whether Ian was singing or anything. I found out
quickly that it was Ian, and Billy, and Matt Sorum, and a few other good players. I was
psyched because I'd never seen The Cult, but always felt that I'd missed out. I was able
to get tickets. The show was nothing short of phenomenal. I didn't know what to expect,
but The Cult delivered an awesome show mainly focusing on older material, except for
In The Clouds from the High Octane Cult collection. Quite the rocker. All songs
were performed well. Ian Astbury was an amazing sight. After years of bands basically
distaining the audience (read, Grunge) here was a real rock star out to kick ass and
actually put out 110% and give it to the audience. The audience returned the favor and
you could feel the energy. At the end of the show the band seemed genuinely surprised
by the response of the audience to which Astbury said, "you've all been fucking
amazing." Fucking amazing is right. Thank god The Cult are back. May they save Rock
and Roll. I wish them the best of Luck. I moved down to LA at the beginning of August
1999 and went to see the Cult again at the House of Blues. I'll add another story for
that show.
Ken Creten - kcreten@hotmail.com
6:30 PM on July 16th, we started off south. We planned on going through Alberta and
crossing the boarder in to Montana. We hit Calgary in a record breaking two and a
quarter hours. Making what we thought was great time, we arrived at the 49th parallel
at 11:15 PM. Inauspiciously, said border closed at 11:00 PM. Fifteen minutes cost us
eight hours. There was nothing left to do but sleep.
The sun broke the cold darkness as the gates opened. It was 7:00 AM, we were sore from
sleeping in a truck, and hungry. The American border patrol saw us as a threat to their
homeland, and proceeded to root through everything we had. After not finding any
contraband, they reluctantly let us into their country. A short twenty minutes later
we were buying lots of fun stuff...A couple packs of Marlboros (yummy), American
Doritos (you'd be surprised how different they are!) and some cool old style cream
soda with a picture of a native guy with a wicked headdress on the bottle. I can't say
much about northern Montana, the winding roads made me want to toss my Doritos
(literally) and the mountains are no where near as resplendent as ours. One thing
interesting was the road, the asphalt was red!!!
We passed into Idaho in the early afternoon. I always assumed when Americans called
K-marts "big" it was a size reference; silly me. There parking lot was oh so welcoming,
as were their public restrooms. Perhaps it was my bladder full of cream soda, but I
thoroughly enjoyed their clean toilets. After my little break, it was off to the toy
department. $6.89 later I had an Oom9 to play with for the duration of our trip.
Our next break was a little gas stop twenty minutes before Spokane. I was amazed by
American Lays (potato chips, you sicko); they are the same price as Canada, but the bags
are considerably larger. (American EP1 cards are different too) Around this time I started
getting a headache. Stacey was a trooper, we new we couldn't do any shopping by the time
we hit Seattle, but he wanted to trek on anyway. It was a shame, from what I saw Spokane
looks incredible. I plan on getting down there again soon.
6:00 PM, we reach Seattle. Wow, this is one cool looking city. Our search for a hotel
begins. Sadly for us, the King Dome just opened that weekend and it was also their Bite
Of Seattle; a local event showcasing their many restaurants, so hotel rooms were scarce.
Finally after over an hour of searching we landed in the Ramada, their suites suck, as did
their prices: $200 American a night! Shame on them.
After hitting the showers, it was time to go to the show. We were only a few blocks away,
so we took our time. It was then I spotted a truly strange site: hundreds of people lining
up to see TPM! No joke, there were hundreds. I make my way to the front, where I met a
couple of guys from The Seattle Star Wars Society; nice blokes, check out their site:
www.seattlestarwars.com.
The Princess Theater, an awesome example of architecture. This is the venue famous for
Pearl Jam's Evenflow video, a Nirvana video (I forgot which one) and Sound Garden's Bad
Motorfinger video cassette. We wait in the will call line to pick up our tickets. It was
at that point I noticed Jeff Ament (bassist of Pearl Jam) right in front of us! Things are
definitely off to a good start. We perambulated in the old theater only to discover we
missed the first band. To our surprise, Canadian rock chick Bif Naked was an unlisted
opener! ARGHHHH!!!! I was a little upset; Stacey was plenty more pissed, you see, he
loves Bif Naked. Next up was New American Shame. They weren't too bad, but I had ears
only for The Cult.
Just after NAS's set, I bump into Mr. Ament. In all honesty, I've met plenty of musicians
through the years (the one advantage to my past years at record stores) but none were as
nice as Ament. We chatted about my road trip, and about his band. Good news for PJ fans,
they have a new album slated for release in February. He went on to tell me how he and the
boys were planning on coming back to Canada soon, but they have been too lazy to do it yet.
Somewhere around 10:00 PM, some local radio celebrity gets up on stage and goes through the
usual "I'm having a party at my place later and your all invited" speech. He says give him
five minutes and you'll see The Cult.
Twenty minutes later the lights go down. The introduction music starts. It takes a moment
for me to realize my two worlds colliding. The introduction song was none other than Duel
of the Fates; good thing I bootlegged the show! The band walks on the stage. A moment of
silence, then Billy Duffy breaks into the overly familiar riff that is Lil' Devil.
Astbury starts to sing, and the time warp begins. Over the band's last ten years, he had
only a fraction of the voice he had when he was younger. Tonight he was twenty three again.
By the time the song was done, the audience was a in a slobbering frenzy, cheering load
enough to deafen the entire city. Next up was Sun King; it's wailing guitar riffs
filled the theater. By this point, Stacey, who had never seen this band live, was fully
into it. Finally he knew why I dug them so much.
The Cult rifled through Rain, one of their more popular and grooving songs. If this
wasn't enough, they played In The Clouds, a song from some various artist thing they
did in 1994. For those who didn't know the song, it was a rude awakening... The Cult could
get very heavy. The song has many similarities to the music on Kyuss' Sky Valley album.
Heavy indeed.
They worked their way through some of their most popular tunes including a haunting rendition
of Edie (Ciao Baby), Fire Woman, an organic version of the electronic Witch,
Peace Dog, New York City, Revolution, Sweet Soul Sister, the
headbangers anthem: Wild Flower, the obscenely popular She Sells Sanctuary,
American Horse, and Love Removal Machine.
The band was tight, the tunes were all good, and the audience had a great time. This was the
first show I've ever been to where a chick actually flashed her teetas at the band, and the
show gets extra props for that.
We left the Princess around midnight. With only a few hours left to sleep, we ordered pizza
and reviewed the show. The bootleg I made was bad, but it was a recording I made of a show I
was at and I wouldn't trade it for a better one.
After leaving down town Seattle, only three things remained: beer, Marlboros, and toys. We
picked up the first two at 711; you Americans have no idea how good you've got it! A quick
trip to TRU provided the toys. I picked up the Famous Covers Daredevil and Black Widow,
Captain Tarpals and the large sized Bride of Frankenstien, all for under $30.
We arrived back in Edmonton at 4:00 AM, and I was sleeping by quarter after. 6:00 AM came much
too fast, but to work I had to go. That Monday sucked, but given the chance, I'd do it all over
again.
WAMPA@CANADA.COM
Setlist
Lil' Devil
Sun King
Rain
In The Clouds
Edie (Ciao Baby)
Fire Woman
The Witch
Peace Dog
New York City
Revolution
Sweet Soul Sister
Wild Flower
She Sells Sanctuary
Encore
American Horse
Love Removal Machine