The Cult @ Luna Park, Sydney(06/05/2010)

Mon 10th May, 2010 in Gig Reviews

It has been fifteen years since The Cult were last here with their gothic brand of post punk rock and roll. It seems that the novelty of playing an album in full is what was needed to convince Michael Chugg to bring the band back to our shores as part of the aptly titled “Love Live tour”.

And so began the contradiction that was goth in Luna Park’s Big Top. The lights went dim and The Black Ryder rode blackly into view. These guys are clearly the best current proponents of shoegazing in Australia and were a great support choice appealing to a high percentage of the crowd and of definite quality but never a threat to blow The Cult off stage. This band never cease to please and did not struggle to gain the constant attention of this mature crowd.

Complete kudos to The Cult. After a strong start with the opening track Nirvana, the crowd’s energy drained away from song to song. The title track surprisingly failed to raise any gusto, this spelled trouble, and then Brother Wolf, Sister Moon brought the gig to a complete standstill. Although Rain finally brought some action into what was a thinning crowd up the front, this was the only glimmer for a while.

From the start Ian Astbury’s voice was in fine form, hitting all the notes and singing every word with zeal no matter how uncomfortable the crowd must have made him feel. Add to this the jaw dropping guitar stylings of Billy Duffy and you could tell these guys still had it.

Eventually Revolution got the crowd warmed up, and all were ready to explode for She Sells Sanctuary. And they did. Though whilst the audience seemed eager for the encore, they weren’t going to beg, not one clap or call or scream for more was made.

Finally, when The Cult retook the stage and announced “from here on in there is nothing but pure rock and roll” we were not disappointed. The whole encore was sheer strength, Wildflower was a standout, and even while the more recent Rise and Dirty Little Rocker went over the heads of the audience. Soon after Ian announced wisely that they had been around too long to bother going off-stage for a second encore and screamed into Love Removal Machine.

This was truly a gig of halves. Saved by a killer performance and wonderful encore. Love may not be the first album people may think of when it comes to an album tour, even for The Cult. You need an album that passes down the generations and the crowd showed that this was not the case here. This was further proven by Ian himself halfway through the album set. Holding the mic out to the crowd to hear, well, utter silence, he exclaimed “I thought you guys would be singing that, was this album really released too long ago?” to which he nodded with a wry smile.

Check out the photos from the gig