A packed house at the Roseland with the biggest crowd I have seen yet for a Cult show at this venue that has become a regular stop for them. Ian later in the show even making note of how packed it was for a Monday night. Some of Robert De Niro’s lines from Taxi Driver play as the guys take the stage at 9:45. The set starts out with no noticeable shortcomings in sound quality. Really loud, really clear and just really damn good! Ian's vocals not true to original form yet powerful even all the way through to the end with a crescendo of sorts for Sun king. Billy guitars working great and doing an extended solo in Sun King. Probably the longest solo I have heard from him. James doing a great job of filling the spot and no offense to Mikey but I did not notice him missing. James even added a bit of backing vocals that really helped round things out. I would have liked him to do more of that but maybe something with his vocal range that His contributions there were minimal. Ian talking of the day during the original Electric Tour when they were so drunk and then later mentions a Facebook post where some fucker said He was getting fat. To that he said he was not 24 anymore when he had the body of a 16 year old. He then walked over and brought attention to Billy’s physique and Billy did a little Charles Atlas pose.
Only a few minor places they were off and that would be; the two encores songs were not up to snuff with the rest of the set. For the Animals in place of Horse Nation for this show was not to my liking. Ian's political rants were in high gear. Shows are one way of escapism for me and even Billy seemed a bit put off at one point and gave a sort of, "not again", scowl and seemed to try to muffle Ian by playing a funky riff during a slowdown in SSS. Another fan maybe taking exception by hurling a half full cup of beer from the back toward the stage after one of Ian's monologues. Zap City (do you think they will play this instead of B2BW at Buffalo Chip?) was not quite as good as I had imagined it might be although we need more tunes like this in future set lists.
While Love live remains the new standard for me as the music is more to my liking this was a more powerful performance. So, if there are any reading this that are on the fence about going, you will regret not making it. With a set that approached two hours with tons of great music and the band sounding so good you would be crazy not to make it. Now anxiously awaiting Sonic Temple 14 (?)!