On Sunday, The Cult's "A Return to Wild" tour staggered into its final stop at the Nokia Theater in New York City's Times Square. There was quite a mix of people compared to what you might have seen at a Cult concert 18 years ago; young and old congregated for a night of fist-pumping late 80s alternative rock.
Based on their performance, the crowd may have caught a glimpse of a band that seemed to be on their last legs. Looking every bit their 40-plus years (by rock star standards), it was clear that getting warmed up for this performance was going to require a little something extra of The Cult. Ian Astbury (looking more and more like Che Guevara than the Lizard King) and Billy Duffy (sporting the rock star hairdo) rattled through roughly 20 Cult classics with varying degrees of success and were only able to fully live up to their legacy in the last 20 minutes of the show.
Astbury and Duffy were playful and self-deprecating with the crowd as the show moved along - whether it was informing the crowd that the tambourines cost $2.99, finding the humor in being compared to Poison, or their admission that "She Sells Sanctuary" launched the trend "of a million black tights and pointy boots." The band tried to keep the momentum flowing, but Astbury and Duffy seemed rather bored. At times Astbury chose to play his tambourine over singing coherently and Duffy was clearly playing one song on the guitar and grooving to the other inside his head. Astbury even appeared to purposely ruin a few songs or maybe he just forgot the words. Instead of crooning "Sweet Soul Sister," he decided to shout the chorus "Sweet!!!! Soul!!! Sister!!!!" Even the requisite "NAnaNA-naNAna" from the band was missing and the 2,000-plus crowd seemed to forget this little nuance. Instead of pushing the crowd to flex their best devil horns during "Peace Dog", Astbury decided to play up the song's noble intentions. This is The Cult, not Rage Against the Machine.
When they decided to treat the crowd to a rarity they chose "Libertine" from the Australian/Japanese import Beyond Good and Evil over a more relevant song like "Horse Nation" from Dreamtime or "Love" from Love. They did manage to play at least one song from each of their albums, even the dreadful Ceremony. The majority of the material played came from Love and Electric. "Edie (Ciao Baby)", unfortunately, was stripped down to its bones when typically the song is the equivalent of Guns N' Roses' "November Rain". Instead, they chose to strip it down to Astbury's domineering voice and Duffy's best coffee house guitar, diminishing the whole effect of the song as a power ballad and turning it into something you might find on a rarities or outtake album. Astbury and Duffy did manage a few moments of youthful vigor for "Rise", "Rain", and "Electric Ocean".
Article comments
1 - awe
billy wasnt wearing leather pants [Edited]
2 - THIS CRITIC SUCKS
YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW THE NAME OF THE TOUR
IT IS NOT "Return to the Wild" AS YOU SAID
IT'S "A RETURN TO WILD"
YOU ARE STUPID
3 - CARE TO ANSWER THIS
IN YOUR PERSONAL BLOG YOU DO NOTHING BUT ATTACK
NOT ONE POSITIVE THING TO SAY ABOUT A BAND
CAN YOU ONLY WRITE BAD REVIEWS?
4 - Rinjo Njori
Awe- I will give you that-- I am 35 and wear glasses, I guess my eyesight aint what it used to be.
This Critic Sucks- Yup! Got me on that one, putting out a correction
CARE TO ANSWER THIS- I thought my review on The Dukes of Stratosphear was positive, not too mention my Review of the Cult's Beyond Good and Evil (***), The Cult (***, my favorite CD of 1994), and Electric.
if you want to leave your e-mail next time I am sure we can start constructive debate via e-mail.
later...
5 - Guppusmaximus
Rinjo,
It's sad to hear this review about a band that I loved at one point. Maybe they were tired? Or maybe they just don't like NY...
I would've been upset to see the band without some of it's real members. My only correction is that they weren't a late 80's alt rock band. They started in 84 and probably inspired G'n'R to play straight out rock. Electric is way better than anything G'N'R' ever released (Just my opinion)
6 - Tone-dog
I do not know how good the Cult were in NYC, but the were pretty damn good the night before in AC!
If you would like to find out for yourself just how good they were, get yourself an audio copy of any of the shows from this tour from Instantlive.com. (The Buffalo and AC shows are very good.)
1994's The Cult and Electric are two of the best straightforward rock and roll albums you can find. Sonic Temple and Love aren't too shabby, either -- although the latter is more Alternative than R&R.
7 - Rinjo Sux
Dude, where were you during the concert??....playing tetris on your phone or what??...I hope you don't do this for a living because you would surely starve!!! The Cult rocked Times Square and if I remember correctly Ian wanted the audience to rock too....which I believe you were in, right???
8 - D. Houlli
Are you sure this was a Cult concert. I just saw them in Birmingham and they were phenominal! Looking aged?
Far from it and they still put most bands of half their age out there, to shame. But anyone that refers to Ceremony as awful, would obviously be better off with something a little more manufactured. Try the top ten instead.
9 - Ian
c`mon, you`re fuckin kidding me Rinjo. It`s the damn lizard king you`d been hearing and talking about. Show me some respect, i wonder if you can even appear in front of such a crowd. Have you ever wrote a song or tryied to compose one. Peace.
10 - Cult Fan
Ian, you are the best!! I've been wanting to see you guys for so long. I am just concerned that politics are part of the show. That would break my heart. If its not, I'll be there in Jersey and Philly.
11 - Bella
Well, I believe you are being slightly unfair. It's seems like you enjoy to be sarcastic, so there for, The Cult has to suffer for your ego. Don't critize, just to critize. If you write something, it has to have dept behind it, or else it seems very fake in a way, which your text kind of does. They are what they are, and they've heard a lot of shit about selling out, or doing this or that wrong. But now, they're back together again, and as a Cult fan, I'm really f-ing happy about it, and if you were one aswell, you'd feel the same way. I really think it's immature to talk about how they look now as well, it isn't the 80's anymore so yeah, people change, try to talk about the music more instead.
Anyways, I'm not trying to be mean, I just think that you should reconsider what you've written and think about if you're being quite fair.
Take care,
/Bella
12 - MM
Yesterday I went to see The Cult in Buenos Aires. I think was a great show.
13 - Allan
I saw them in Rio and they were absolutely rocking!! Don´t listen to what this reviewer says. I paid about 30 pounds for the ticket but I would have paid double - one of the best concerts I´ve seen.