As we get in, french stoner band Nebulla Oscillator are already playing, the sound is messy and it seems like they're playing the same song over and over again.
It's very easy to get down the front of the pit as there are lots of spaces; the balcony, with reserved seats for the crazy fans who are willing to pay more than a 100 Euros for a meet & greet after the show, is quite full.
They start the show with "Nirvana", the sound is neat even tough Ian's voice is very far in the mix.
Of course there are always a couple of drunk assholes pushing their way to the front and pissing off everybody, the security had to calm them down and kicked one out in the end
Anyway Billy Duffy on the guitar is on top form, still looking great and posing with his guitar like a true guitar hero unfortunately there are no photographers at all as The Cult didn't want any press photographers (but us) WOW so enjoy the Pics.
Ian is looking more and more like Jim Morrison at the end of his life when he was living in Paris
I don't know the new guys at all but they have a nice bass player and a funny looking guitarist.
A weird thing happened : Ian though that one guy in the front was challenging him or insulting him so he spat in his face and insulted, the poor guy, several times and asked the security to kick him out. They didn't know what to do as the guy didn't do anything wrong.
In fact he was just showing his "The Cult" tattoos to Ian.
Big misunderstanding.
The show went on without problems.
After the show we went to the Meet & Greet (of course we didn't pay, do we look like we have to pay for an autograph? No fucking way.
There were around 50 people queueing, the band was nice and chatty sitting behind a table, it wasn't a proper meet & greet like I though it would be but you could get a picture with the whole band. So cool.
"Only in Paris, only in Paris"
Considering the few concerts the CULT ever gave in France, you could suspect that the band have some kind of reluctance towards the French audience. I first saw Ian and Billy as the DEATH CULT on 1st sept 1983 at Les BAINS DOUCHES with my friend Olivier and I remember that Ian later criticised the local fans in the press for being too passive that night.
On Friday night at Le BATACLAN, the band gave a wonderful rendition of the LOVE album, a timely reminder of how almost every song on this album is a gem (ok, I confess i am not a great fan of Black Angel). Yet the atmosphere was not that festive and the fact that some idiot in the first row seemed to provoke Ian with insulting gestures didn't help. Ian got very angry with the guy and requested that the Security remove him. He sort of said he was "getting enough shit on the street for the way he looked and he was expecting a CULT show to be a place of shared love". He then explained that the crowd in Spain is great at dancing during the shows, the British and the Germans are great at talking but the French seem to stare.
You could yet wonder how easy Ian was with himself since he nearly hid behind his long hair & beard, as well as he kept his jacket and leather gloves during the whole set, as sweaty as the place was. Anyway, he finally put the blame on the full moon for his high tension...
Fortunately, Billy and the rest of the band appeared to be more relaxed.
Anyway, Ian must have relaxed a bit during the break as the encore was really brilliant and even more powerful.
The most frequent comments I overheard after the show were "I didn't expect them to be THAT good" and "they really pulled it off".
Let's just hope that it won't take another ten years before we see the CULT in Paris again !
CULT FOREVER LOVE to Shayda, Olivier, Fred and Elvis Arno FOREVER CULT