I was beginning to wonder whether The Cult would ever surface again after frontman Ian Astbury went off to play Jim Morrison in The Doors.

By that I mean The Doors of the 21st Century, Riders on the Storm. My query arose after the band released and toured behind its last album, 2001's heavy duty Beyond Good And Evil.

In 2006, the Cult reunited for a world tour that went on for nearly the entire year and then resumed in February 2007. At that time, Astbury quit Riders on the Storm to focus exclusively on The Cult. That resulted in a new album, Born Into This, and this new concert DVD, which were both released in October of this year.

The Cult: New York City (if you go by the title on the cover of the DVD) or Live At The Fillmore New York At Irving Plaza, November 13th, 2006 (if you go by the title on the side of the DVD case) was recorded during the band's 2006 world tour, at the place and time indicated by that longer title. Although the ending credits say it was recorded on November 11th, the real date was the 13th per the Fillmore Website. I'll just refer to the DVD as New York City, to make things easy.

Joining founding members Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy onstage for this tour were Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar and Chris Wyse on bass guitar, who have both worked with the band since the 2001 album and tour. The band also included drummer John Tempesta, who is best know for his work with Rob Zombie.

I was quite pumped when I first heard about this new concert DVD, because I have been anxiously awaiting a video that would finally capture the power and intensity of a good live Cult show. The band members' previous effort, 2002's Live Cult: Music Without Fear, did not quite live up to the awesome show I attended from that same tour. Unfortunately, you get pretty similar results with this new DVD. Neither of the DVDs capture one of the band's better performances. Maybe they just don't like being filmed.

Another one of the main problems with both DVD's, and especially with this one, is with the audio mix. New York City is one of the most cheaply produced concert DVDs I have come across - more about that later - and only a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio track is provided. There is no stereo track for those of you without a surround setup or who simply prefer a stereo mix.