Hey all, caught the show last night and wanted to give our thoughts.
First, the setlist was exactly as in San Diego on the 19th (if I'm wrong, someone correct me) but I'm pretty sure about that. The "love" set was absolutely amazing!!! It reminded me of being in 5th grade again listening to my 3rd generation copy of the tape...great memories! I thought Ian's vocals were not mixed all that well for Nivana and Big Neon, but by Love they seemed better. However, the Celebrity Theater is a small "in the round" type of theater and we were on the side, so that may have been it. The crowd was REALLY into it, so much that many times you couldn't hear what Ian was saying between songs because of the crowd noise-pretty cool.
The visuals were actually pretty cool and I thought added to the show (it was 3 projector screens with a mix of all sorts of visuals-just like San Diego show). For some reason, I really liked how it mixed with Brother Wolf, Sister Moon, but maybe it was just me. They took the quick break, then came back with the hits. Obviously I love the band, but this portion wasn't as amazing as the "love" portion, but I chalk that up to the fact that I've seen all the "hits" many times live, but the "love" portion was a special treat. I really think the long time fans (which I'm sure are the ones who will visit this site) will feel the same way. Great show all around, but the "love" portion was just icing on a rockin' cake!
Another note on the merchandise. They had some cool shirts, including a black shirt with the "love" album graphics on it-here's a possible collector's item because it had the tour dates on the back and Phoenix was spelled "Pheonix". Something for us locals to hang on to!
One last note, catch the opening band (Living Things). They were great and we really enjoyed them.
Peace dog.
Date- August 21, 2009 The Cult w. Living Things, Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix, AZ w. Jen
Rating:
Crowd- 9
Length- 9
Venue- 8.5
Music- 8.5, (visuals make this 9.5)
Closeness- 8.5
Overall Experience- 9
Most important observation first: this is an amazing performance. What a unique treat for a music fan. I cannot emphasize enough how artistic and meaningful this performance was. The age of the album is over for many consumers. But what The Cult are touring now is more than just a normal album tour. Bands like Aerosmith, Motley Crue, and others have done “album” tours recently (Aerosmith failing miserably due to injuries/no energy). But these are similar to almost any tour where a band is supporting an album. Songs orders are mixed up, tweaked, etc. Even album focused bands or new bands touring only one album rarely play an album as it is. (Notable exceptions of course include Pink Floyd, The Who).
And I think this tour, admittedly on a much smaller scale, puts The Cult right into that “concept” album discussion. I have always felt that Love really, really meshed (Electric did too but in a less artistic way), but never really used the term concept album to describe it. I don’t use the term concept album negatively here. I simply mean that there is a vision now (probably primarily from Astbury) of what Love really stands for.
To fully display this vision, The Cult (and whomever else) have put together an incredibly engaging background video/montage/art film. I couldn’t get over it. One could argue some of the songs on Love are weaker than other and certain styles may get repetitious. With this video though, the ability for the audience to connect on another level was offered and succeeded masterfully (IMHO). I would kill to have a copy of a show from this tour, but I think a video recording would due the show 3 times the justice (if that makes sense) as just an album.
I love setlists so I was really curious about how this would be presented. In playing the album cover to cover in order I was taken off guard. Of course then came the question of what else would they play? What would they close/encore with? etc. After the Love set and short break (during which I worried they might pull an Aerosmith on us a play some bullshit 12-14 song set), they came back and played another 7 tunes from the other albums. Honestly I could have used an encore (I view the “hits” set as a second set, not an encore set in itself), and several more songs, but I think that’s being overly greedy.
Billy looked really into it tonight. Sticking out his tongue and moving around the stage somewhat. Ian and Billy seemed gracious towards each other. Ian has slowed down a little for sure. Age, weight, injury, probably all contribute. The vocals (for the openers too) were mixed too low (the whole sound was a little low I thought) but in addition to that, I don’t think Ian really has his touring voice yet. He sounds really, really good – but nothing extra wild. Maybe he is maintaining his voice so he doesn’t lose it as he has in tours past (at times). He seemed very enthusiastic towards several sections of the crowd and very few of his in between songs comments were antagonistic (although, a rightfully so, he called out some yahoo for texting).
On to the specifics....
‘Nirvana’ obviously is a great opener especially for this tour. The crowd was wild during this song and there was lot of energy through ‘Love’. ‘Brother Wolf, Sister Moon’ brought this down a little but the montage was so engaging a think a lot of people were just enjoying that (myself included). I don’t mean this negatively – everything fit together real well. ‘Rain’ was the energy peak of the first set I thought. People were really ready to let go.
‘Revolution’, ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ were huge favorites. ‘Sanctuary’ has a different feel to it embedded as part of the album instead of a rockin’ closer or encore like usual. I kept thinking they would skip it and reserve for later but I really appreciated the whole album feel as mentioned above.
The first set’s biggest highlight for me though, was ‘Black Angel’. What an overlooked song! The video for this was mind-blowing. I really can’t say enough about this whole performance.
The second set opened Electric style. There was a significant energy decrease between ‘Wildflower’ and ‘Fire Woman’. For some reason ‘Rise’ and ‘Dirty Little Rockstar’ didn’t hold the same power as last time I saw them. After ‘Rockstar’ Ian sang the opening lines to ‘Soul Kitchen’ which was really sweet but it also meant the show was nearly over. ‘Love Removal Machine’ closed the second set and I was disappointed when they began playing it as that meant there wouldn’t be an encore realistically (I intentionally didn’t look at the San Diego setlist so I had all sorts of crazy ideas going through my head, ‘Lil Devil’> ‘Born to Be Wild’? No. Maybe ‘Horse Nation’ or ‘Holy Mountain’ with ‘Be Free’ or ‘Earth Mofo’ or ‘Sweet Soul Sister’ and ‘Sun King’ or....). Of course I was just being greedy. I moved a little closer and just enjoyed the amazing finish. The outro was the “she get high” style.
Overall, whenever there were musical lulls, the video compensated yielding a really sustained interest level from everyone. I think that this tour has wide appeal to many music, art fans as opposed to past sets where maybe it was too edgy for some. I wish I could see this again. A truly unforgettable spectacle especially rare for a theatre/club tower. Sometimes I wish The Cult were playing arenas, and then I’m thankful for these rewarding, intimate performances in venues with no bad seats (although I definitely could have picked better ones).
Notes on Livings Things: I don’t really have anything positive or negative to say. They are still working on their stage charisma it seems. Vocals were mixed too low (as mentioned above). It seems like some of their songs have some catchiness. Overall: nothing special, but worth watching.
Flew out from los angeles to catch the show in phoenix at the celebrity. the show was amazing. The Love album was my introduction to the The Cult so getting to hear and see it performed live was incredible. the celebrity is an intimate setting. its usually set up with a revolving stage but tonight it was made stationary. there is only assigned seating and no seat in the house is more than 75 feet from the stage. i was lucky enough to get center stage 9th row. Ian was very personal tonight interacting with the crowd personally handing out at a few tambourines and tossing another 4 or so out to the crowd. He even spoke into a fans phone that was talking to their friend. The music was exceptional. Billy on guitar is always amazing to see and hear. The crowd was pumped and standing and dancing the entire night. its really a two set show. after a small intermission vs an encore the band came out and rocked some tunes from electric, a song from sonic temple and a couple from born. took three friends that had never seen them before and they were blown away. The set list was the same as the HOB in San Diego. Flew back to Los Angeles and am going to see them again tonight at the nokia club.