The Cult - Live Cult
(Music Without Fear)
Performance
Production
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The Cult - Live Cult
Performance
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The Cult made a comeback of sorts a few years ago with their excellent Beyond Good And Evil album. Founding members, Ian Astbury (vocals) and Billy Duffy (guitars) grabbed longtime drummer Matt Sorum, who had left them a while back to join Guns & Roses, and decided to hit the road again in support of this new album. I jumped at the opportunity to see them for the first time when they played the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, in 2001. This was essentially the same concert that appears on this DVD, only the DVD show was filmed at Los Angeles's Olympic Auditorium. I remember leaving the show saying to my wife that it was one of the best club concerts I had ever seen. She agreed. Music Without Fear does a decent job at capturing that live show, but this is not one of their best performances. Much of the energy of the concert I attended wasn't fully captured on this DVD recording. In a good move, the band brought along a rhythm guitarist (Mike Dimkich) to supplement the live sound, and he added some extra depth and power to the mix. Billy Morrison handled the bass guitar duties for this tour. They both played well and showed a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Billy Duffy, on the other hand, looked like he didn't even want to be there. He just stood in one spot, never really interacting with the crowd or his band mates. Ian Astbury is the quintessential rock and roll front-man. He exudes charisma and sex appeal, and has great rapport with the crowd. This is one of the reasons he was chosen to fill Jim Morrison's shoes on the latest Doors tour. This show was recorded only a few weeks after 9/11, and it had an obvious affect on Astbury. Tell me this isn't one of the best intro's you've ever heard to get a crowd pumped for a song. Just before the new song "Take The Power", he addresses the crowd with the following: this is a "time to rebuild...a spiritual gathering...until September 11th nobody fucking knew what was going on, but now everyone is fucking tuned in! We are right there with you. There is a solution - TAKE THE POWER!" Damn, that sent chills down my red-blooded American spine. And all that from a bloody Brit. Unfortunately his singing was not up to par with his patriotic enthusiasm during this show. His vocals sounded very strained. He sounded much better when I saw them live, or maybe I was just too caught up in the moment to notice. The Cult started out in the early 80's and had more of a alternative-rock sound in the beginning. Their sound slowly evolved into a more AC/DC-style, riff-rock sound that peaked with their Electric album. The most recent incarnation of the band has them sounding more like a heavy metal Led Zeppelin. They touch on all of these periods during this concert, with the new album getting the most play. The beginning of the concert was pretty cool, as the picture switched between the stage, which had a huge curtain draped across the entire front, while eerie, droning sounds poured out of the speakers, fans streaming into the auditorium, and the band walking backstage preparing to start the show. Suddenly the lights go out and a huge silhouette of Billy Duffy appears behind the curtain as he rips into the opening chords of the new song "Rise". The curtain soon falls, the light show kicks in, and we are off to the races. The set list was very good. They played all of the required songs from their two most popular albums Electric and Sonic Temple, including the classics "Lil' Devil", "Wildflower", "She Sells Sanctuary", "Edie (Ciao Baby)", and "Fire Woman". Those songs alone are worth the price of the DVD. They touched on most of their other albums with the notable exception of Ceremony. Too bad, that album had a few great songs I would love to hear live. The six new songs that they played from Beyond Good And Evil actually sounded the best. The band, especially Duffy, seemed to be into playing them more, rather than going through the motions like on some of the old songs. The audio mix was very good, but not completely satisfying. I thought Ian's vocals were mixed way too loud in the center channel, and the guitars were mixed a little too low overall. The separation of the instruments was excellent and the surrounds were used nicely. The rhythm guitar was mixed dominantly to the left-front speaker, and echoed in the left-rear, but on some songs (notably "In The Clouds") the left-rear had the dominant rhythm guitar mix. Billy Duffy's guitar was mixed to the right-front, and echoed in the right-rear. The rear surrounds were also used nicely to project Ian's tambourine playing and the crowd noise. The picture quality was excellent and looked like it was recorded on video. There were certain segments of songs, and in the case of "The Witch", the whole song, where the video suddenly changed to a very grainy, film quality. It appears that this was done purposely by the director for artistic effect. It wasn't too distracting once you realized it was done on purpose. The camera work was decent, but the director hardly shot any good close-ups during Billy's solos. There were a lot of great full-stage shots that gave a good audience perspective. Overall, this is an excellent documentation of The Cult live in concert, and makes the perfect companion to their outstanding Pure Cult video anthology DVD. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - March 2004 |
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Set List |
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Running Time: 86 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - November 2002 |