Walking through the doors at House of Blues on April 14, 2016, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Cult and honestly I only really thought I knew two, maybe three of their songs before this night. As I took my first steps into the venue, I noticed the place was packed! I was very surprised to see how many fans The Cult still had after all these years. So far this was looking like it was going to be a fun night.
Shortly after 9:00 pm The Cult took to the stage, opening with one of their older songs, “Wildflower.” The band continued the nice hard rock flowing, playing songs that spanned their 33-year career. “We played you songs from the ’80s, the ’90s, the ’00s and something from 2016, fuckin’ amazing,” said lead singer and expert tambourine player Ian Astbury as he informed the crowd of The Cult’s latest album, Hidden City, released in February of this year. “Florida, Jim Morrison!” Astbury exclaimed as he began this new track that definitely had a distinct resemblance The Doors. I just became aware that Astbury came up as part of The Doors revival, The Doors of the 21st Century/Riders on the Storm. So channeling Jim Morrison wasn’t too much of a stretch.
The Cult continued to play a mix of old songs along with a few new songs off of Hidden City. Astbury threw the mic stand down a few times, as he is known to do, and gave some lucky fans a tambourine by tossing them into the crowd. The best part of the night for me was right before they played “Fire Woman” when Astbury shouted-out, “Comin’ right at you live and direct C-U-L-T with the hits, just keep on coming!” Considering this was one of the songs I knew by them I was highly entertained at this point.
Following “Fire Woman,” they went back to the earlier 80’s with the song “The Phoenix,” which had one of the greatest guitar solos of the night. Next up was one of The Cult’s most memorable hits, “She Sells Sanctuary.” When they played this song live it sounded just like it did from the album, nearly 30 years later and The Cult still brings it!
As the show winded down, The Cult closed it out with a new song called “G O A T,” followed by a nice hard rock oldie “Love Removal Machine.” Even though I wasn’t too familiar with the band, this was a great show. I was impressed that crowd knew the crowd knew most of the songs and were singing it right back to the band. After seeing these guys perform live, you could say I’m a follower of The Cult and I would for sure go see them again whenever I have the chance. If you haven’t heard it yet, be sure to check out The Cult’s newest album, Hidden City. It definitely has a few hidden gems on it.
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The Cult Live Review by AJ Lucarelli edited by Matthew Weller.
Concert Photos by Aaron Wockenfuss.
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