has always been somewhat of a curiosity.
Straddling a fine line between faux shamanism, punk idealism, and hard-rock swagger, the English rockers, to their credit, have created a singular spot in rock’s canon. Throughout their decades-long career they have created a big sound that’s equally accessible from remote seats in your nearby hockey arena, as well as from the sticky floors of your local club.
Saturday’s show began with the new song “Every Man And Woman Is A Star,” a mild rocker that was quickly one-upped by “New York City” (from “Sonic Temple”) which acted as soundtrack to a wild fight between a few drunken audience members dead center of the theater. Funnily enough, this clumsy rumble added the element of danger and excitement that’s often missing from the Cult’s frequently sterile hard rock.
The Cult toyed with that edgy precipice — for example, the fiery guitar work of “The Phoenix” was ominous and exciting, and the punchy rhythms of “Rise” and “I Assassin,” upped the ante after tepid new tune “Embers” — yet the band never quite fully crossed that danger line that makes truly great rock and roll.
The band began in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s as mystical new wave rockers, best typified by the sounds of the classic 1985 LP “Love.” They quickly developed into a driving, excessive AC/DC-like outfit — thanks in large part to producer Rick Rubin, who helmed their equally impressive 1987 LP “Electric.” Rubin brought Billy Duffy’s championship fretwork and vocalist Ian Astbury’s wailing cries to “Lil Devils,” “Honey Baby’s” and “Wildflowers” to the fore, and to the mass consciousness of fist-pumping ’80s rock fans everywhere. The formula was a success and reached near ridiculous proportions with their next LP, the vastly popular “Sonic Temple,” which included hits like “Fire Woman” and “Sun King.”
After floundering in the years of grunge and beyond, releasing weak records to less interested audiences, the Cult (namely sole original members Astbury and Duffy who historically rotate rhythm sections) continued to fight the good fight. They eventually released a respectable new record with 2007’s “Born Into This” and are currently touring with the promise of more new material.
That’s not to say they didn’t sound incredibly tight as a rock unit. Duffy is truly an unsung hero on the guitar and Astbury (despite his Jim Morrison affectations) maintains some of the most impressive and unique vocal chops around. Further, he did his best to amp up the crowd, frequently tossing out tambourines as souvenirs. In turn, audience response was particularly strong for numbers such as the catchy “Rain,” and “Nirvana” from “Love” and the aforementioned “Sun King” and “Fire Woman” from “Sonic Temple.”
Duffy, swapping back and forth between his white, hollow-bodied Gretch for the chiming Edge-like guitar tones of tunes from “Love” and his thick Les Paul for the later-era harder rocking tunes, frequently seemed to be shouting to sound engineers some sort of displeasure. Though from the audience perspective the only problem was an odd panning of left to right of both vocals and guitar in the monitors during several of the songs — whether this was intentional or not is unknown, however it was very distracting.
Besides their anthemic set closer “She Sells Sanctuary,” highlights were surely the compact crunch of the songs presented from “Electric,” which the band held off on playing until the very end of the evening. These included “Wildflower,” “Lil Devil” and “Love Removal Machine.”
These are the songs that held the attention of audience members of all shapes and sizes. It’s this crossover appeal and tight hard rock workmanship that continues to create that unique place for the Cult. However, one can’t help but wonder how much better that appeal would be if the band weren’t afraid to cross that line and really cut loose.
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Michael Behrenhausen is a Denver-based writer, and regular Reverb contributor. The worst crime he ever did was play some rock ‘n’ roll.
