Glasgow, Scotland, Carling Academy Glasgow
Opening Band: Theatre Of Hate, The Haze
And so to The Cult.
My friend said that she was in fear of it being disappointing.
I said they would have to surprise me from the off by doing something unexpected like
Moya or God's Zoo.
But not in an 'impress us!' kind of way but from the point of view that the last gig
was a belter.
Anyway, (The support band were v good The Haze they're called) The Cult took to the stage
... drums Spiritwalker ... Billy's guitar not coming through. Ian's ahhaaahaaa not coming
through and then boom! there it was. Off to a flyer. The crowd went mental.
Astbury jumping around the stage like he did 20 odd years ago. YES!
Followed by 'Rain' and then 'Wild Flower'. Great start.
But and there's always a 'but' something went wrong somewhere.
They did new stuff but not the strongest song 'Tiger In The Sun' (I Assassin) interspersed
with Li'l Devil, Edie and Horse Nation.
And then after an hour 'this is the last song ...' and launched into 'Sanctuary'! A fantastic
version of it. But why now?!
Surely 'Sanctuary' is the last of the lastermost?! Not so.
It was one of the best live versions of that I have ever heard. But why now?
So, they went off ... And then played 'Tiger In The Sun' on CD over the PA with a video of
Ang Sun Su Khi (A wonderful woman)
Maybe they should have left this until the house lights went up.
Then came back on stage and played 'Love Removal Machine' and something else which I can't
remember right now.
And that was it really.
My friend reckoned that 'Sanctuary' came too late in the set to lift it but too early to save
it. That makes sense to me.
Last time they saved it 'til last and rightly called it a British rock classic.
Tonight they blew it.
There may be tensions within the band I don't know but there were a lot of bewildered Cult fans
walking down Bridge Street on Monday night.
The set was exactly the same as Birmingham, incidentally.
Oktober Rattengift.
Tonight wasn't a case of what did we get, but more a case of what we didn't. The band played,
what appeared to be, a standard set list that's been lined up for the tour and was the same as
that played in Manchester.
Having expectations raised by reports from the London dates. My hopes for a radically different
set, to that of 17 months ago, were to be dashed. Of the sixteen tracks played in the set,
there were only 5 changes including three from the new album.
Whilst anticipating that a larger percentage of the night would be taken up with tracks from
BIT, I thought playing only three tracks was doing this album a complete disservice. Allied to
the vast back catalogue the band have to choose from, playing two thirds of the set used on
the tour at the back end of 2006 just felt like it was letting the fans down a bit.
Had the set been freshened up with Dreamtime, 83rd Dream, Gone, Born Into This & Diamonds,
(all played last week in London I may add), at the expense of Spiritwalker, Electric Ocean,
Rise, Sweet Soul Sister and Wild Flower. Then I'm sure that people's interest in the Cult
would certainly not start to wane.
Don't think that I'm being too down on the band as they were fine in what they did & I had a
great time enjoying myself, jumping around down the front of the stage as if I were 18 again.
Just, next time I would think twice before going, just to be served up with the same old same old.
Kiddy
Setlist:
Spirtwalker
Rain
Lil' Devil
I Assassin
Sun King
Electric Ocean
Edie (Ciao Baby)
Horse Nation
Savages
Sweet Soul Sister
Rise
Dirty Little Rockstar
Wild Flower
She Sells Sanctuary
Encore:
Fire Woman
Love Removal Machine