The Cult concert review
Reviewed in The Calgary Herald May 20, 2006
As the opening 1-2-3 punch of Li’l Devil, Sweet Soul Sister and The Witch rung
through the Stampede Corral, it was clear that the reunited The Cult still had
some show in it.
Led by singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, the English blues-rock
band put on a shimmering performance Saturday night, a tight set buoyed by a
strong catalogue of hits. As they poured out single after popular single, the
arena air quickly filled with the familiar mixture of sour sweat and skunky
marijuana.
No one knew what to expect from The Cult, a London-based act 25 years into a
rollercoaster career, the first half of which shot them to rock stardom, the
last half of which have been largely ignored. Perhaps that’s why there were so
many empty seats on a Saturday night.
Though they’ve been in existence since 1981 (originally as the Southern Death
Cult), the band has broken up twice, once from 1995 to 1999, and again from
2002 until February 2006. In that time, Astbury fronted a Morrison-less The
Doors, later The Doors of the 21st Century, later D21c, later Riders On The
Storm, while Duffy played guitar in some band called Cardboard Vampyres.
And so their last recorded co-effort was 2001’s Beyond Good and Evil, and their
last hit single was 1993’s The Witch.
Make no mistake, this is a band that still gets by on its ‘80s output. And make
no mistake, that material still rocks. It was evident as they played their
first single, 1984’s Spiritwalker, which led into a great version of Rain and
Fire Woman. The only misstep came on an acoustic version of Edie (Ciao Baby),
on which Astbury’s pipes were too strained to bear the emotion of the track.
Meanwhile, Duffy was brilliant all night, looking like a superhero with a mop
of blonde hair over all black clothing. His guitarwork over the 90-minute set
was clearly the driving force of the band, and they all stepped up to meet him.
Opening the gig was Toronto’s post-punk Controller Controller, which swelled
their fanbase after touring clubs across Canada with Death From Above 1979 last
year. Though it was evident the crowd weren’t familiar with them, the quintet
seemed to have little trouble entertaining them.
