THE CULT

After all these years, this UK hard rock band can still seduce the fans in Vancouver.

It’s been awhile for me since I last saw The Cult.  When I say that, I mean decades, like 35 years (1989) when I last saw them on tour in Winnipeg as they were supporting Metallica and riding the popularity of their release called Sonic Temple.  To me it was an odd pairing, but they made it memorable to me and put on a fantastic show.  Grunge took over a few years later and all of our attention was focused the likes of Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden.   After that the band entered a few hiatus’s and didn’t produce the many ‘hits’ we were used to hearing on the radio.  But they seemed to do well in Canada and they have been to Vancouver on a pretty regular basis in the last 15 years.

Tonight, they are at the Vogue Theatre (seating capacity 1280) and this show sold out within a day or 2 from what I have been told.  I wouldn’t have been surprised to see them move it to a much larger venue but I don’t think this is the band that really cares or had the option, and possibly preferred the more intimate affair with their fans.

The 2 person new wave outfit called Patriarchy was the support act, I largely ignored them as did others. They just didn’t seem like a good fit to warm up The Cult.   I am sure we have local bands here much more suitable in Vancouver that would’ve jumped at the chance to open this show.

As for The Cult, the core of the band is really about the two founding artists, with Ian Astbury on vocals and Billy Duffy on guitar.    After that its John Tempesta (formerly of Rob Zombie, Exodus, The Cult, Testament) on drums and Charlie Jones (Robert Plant and many many others) on bass rounding out the rest of the band tonight.

Just prior to start up, one of the band roadies (?) had lit up a packet of sage and went all around the stage smudging the area, adding a touch of spiritual cleansing, which is not surprising to me as they always felt like hippie hard goth alternative rock.   They did release a new album in 2022 called Under the Midnight Sun which is the 11^th in the discography.  How many songs will we hear off this one? 

“In the Clouds” was the first up tonight, which is a pretty heavy start that sets the tempo for the rest of the evening.  “Rise” was next at song 2 but my ears perked back for that recognizable riff in song 3 with “Wild Flower” from the 1987 Electric album.   That song got the fists up of the mostly generation X crowd dancing.

“Mirror” at song 6 was the only new song played from Under the Midnight Sun however, a little sleepy compared to some of their other rockers but definitely is in their forte in the vein goth rock .  To the very casual Cult fan such as myself, I patiently waited for the hits like “Edie (Ciao Baby)” which is a favorite of mine, or “Sweet Soul Sister”.  So these hits on the setlist were sprinkled in between the lesser known songs for the most part.

Ian’s 62 year old voice sounds just as good as the recordings, believe it or not. I was actually pleased that he has taken good care of it, of course he can’t do the screams or some of higher yelps as I heard on song 12 hit “Fire Woman”.  To me, that one came out a little flat, and not only him, but the whole band just seemed to be a lack of energy on that one I noticed.  Could it be after 35+ of playing it?  Other than that one, the more goth-like sounding “Rain” was next followed by one of their most well-received songs ever with the raucous “Love Removal Machine”.  The audience picked up the dance pace on that one as I saw individuals dancing like they didn’t care who sees them.  I am not sure on the band dynamics, but they are pretty straight forward to the audience and not alot of smiles, if any back and forth between them I noticed, as they pretty much stayed in their respective stage zones. But this is a pretty serious band and they are fully professional entertainers that accomplished what they set out to do and that is to make the audience happy.

The encore consisted of more their alternative rock side with “Brother Wolf, Sister Moon” and the very recognizable Duffy riff in “She Sells Sanctuary”.  They ended with the song that really burned in the sound and tone that they would have for the rest of their career.   Was there any songs I would’ve liked to hear and surprised they didn’t play it?  A resounding YES from me, and that is the miss of “Wild Hearted Son” from the 1991 album Ceremony.  Thinking maybe they just played it last time here……NOPE.  I looked at setlist.fm and they have NEVER played that hit song in Vancouver as far as the inputted setlists go in Setlist.fm.  Apart from that tragic miss, this was a pretty solid show.  Ian’s vocals did remarkably well over the 17 songs played, Billy’s guitar work was impeccable and the rest of the band members held their own no problem.  It was fun seeing them again, albeit we are all a little older now, but us generation X felt relieved that The Cult is still the same band we all came to see, even 35 years later.