The Cult - HMV Picture House, Oct 7/2009
Edinburgh, Scotland, HMV Picture House
Where to start? This was like the proverbial "Game of two Halves". The first hour was excellent, "Love Live" brought back long forgotten tracks, still sounded as fresh as the day they were released, albeit in a verbatim fashion & were enthusiastically received by the audience.

This is where I come to the disappointing bit.

Now, I'm already on record as saying I felt let down, when watching the BIT tour, with the amount of material that seems to appear constantly in the set list. But the 2nd half of the show was a big let down for me. As with the rest of the tour, it followed a familiar pattern with absolutely no surprises whatsoever, (If you've been to the two previous tours, you'll know exactly what I mean).

Seven tracks, five of which have characterised all three tours, both the others featuring in 2/3 of the shows I've witnessed. When you take the set-list as a whole, seven tracks have been played on all three tours, five on two of them, with five of the Love tracks appearing for the first time in eons. Considering this WAS the "Love Live" Tour, you may see what I'm getting at.

The second half I felt went a bit flat down to this, I don't think it's an Edinburgh thing, as I've been to gigs there before which have been great. But it certainly wasn't as raucous as Glasgow, with folk appearing at the front, during that second half, with pints in their hands & not spilling a drop!

For a band that have a wealth of material in the back catalogue, there was nothing from Dreamtime (or earlier), Ceremony or Cult. The band must see something in Rise, that escapes me, as they keep playing it. They need to realise that their reputation in the UK was built off the back of Dreamtime/Love not Electric/Sonic Temple. As the majority of the audience, in G.B. would rather see, & were shouting for, earlier classics. Even if they had played a track from each of the other albums, that would have been fine, but we were dished up with same 3 from Electric & 2 from ST. It just leaves a bitter taste, considering how good a 1st half it was.

On our way home my compadre & I both agreed that, for us to part with our cash next time, it would only be for a tour of the Dreamtime album.

Alan Kidd
First half of this show was absolutely stunning, infact it made me wonder why some of these songs have been missing from the setlist for so long. Even Revolution (which i hate) sounded great.

The second half was not bad either however I would rather they played a couple of new tracks like Little Face or All Souls Avenue and ditch the likes of Electric Ocean and Rise. I can only thank god that Edie was given a miss.

A pretty good night though, next time can we have some rare stuff: Zap City, New York City and Earth Mofo would liven things up.

Scott
Setlist
Nirvana
Big Neon Glitter
Love
Brother Wolf; Sister Moon
Rain
The Phoenix
Hollow Man
Revolution
She Sells Sanctuary
Black Angel
Encore
Electric Ocean
Wild Flower
Sun King
Rise
Dirty Little Rock Star
Fire Woman
Love Removal Machine