The Cult (support: TV Eye)
Friday, 30 June 2023
Zagreb / ŠRC Šalata / Croatia
The Cult! Literally. A cult. These dark shamans of the eighties — with their singular, eclectic blend of post-punk, gothic rock and hard rock that has few real parallels — released their eleventh studio album, Under the Midnight Sun, last October, sending them out on a fresh European tour that brought them back to the Croatian capital for the first time in six years. The Cult have also entered their fortieth year as a band in 2023.
This time around the venue was warmed up by Zagreb locals TV Eye. Given the band’s name, almost certainly Iggy Pop devotees. If we want to dig even deeper into the weeds: a band of the same name existed briefly in Birmingham in 1977 and 1978, breaking up before ever releasing a debut. These four seasoned musicians — at least going by their build and look — only formed in 2019, with the band’s debut, Kick It Out, dropping this past March. In their half-hour slot they came across as a tight, focused unit where everything clicks into place. They’re not reinventing the wheel in today’s musical landscape, but they clearly revel in the expression and stage delivery of their musical vision — a mix of rock ‘n’ roll, (garage) punk rock, and post-punk elements — and it works convincingly. TV Eye made smart use of their half-hour to showcase their music while the bulk of the crowd was still streaming in from all directions.
The Cult revel in their cult status, and the audience that has claimed them as their own remains fiercely loyal and devoted. Their musical output, particularly from the eighties, stays flawlessly captivating and alluring — an eternal monument to rock and roll in our galaxy. It’s fascinating to watch the crowd age alongside the band. With a sizeable contingent of fifty-somethings who came to Zagreb to relive their teenage years — those days when the band was carving out their path with ambition, freshness, and a singular energy that made them an indelible mark on the rock map.
The band played just an hour and twenty minutes. Same as always. Once again, Astbury and Duffy stood on stage like carved wooden idols, save for a few fleeting bursts of kinetic energy — subtle movements — that Astbury let slip during the show. Over the years, this sense that the band doesn’t especially concern themselves with the audience during concerts has become a kind of expected standard for The Cult. Though this time was different. Astbury expressed his gratitude to the crowd right at the end and even introduced every member of the band — now a quintet. And the crowd was genuinely something else. Plain and simple. When The Cult rip through more than half their catalogue of classics from their key eighties albums, it can’t really be any other way. Astbury in his characteristic static “Morrisonian” pose — draped in oversized rags, his still-lush long hair in tight braids, a bandana pulled so far down it nearly covered his eyes — smashed a few tambourines and flung them into the crowd, while the shakers survived intact. Just another mandatory piece of the band’s concert ritual, another act of Astbury’s shamanic conjuring.
All in all, Astbury sang the concert very well. Above expectations. In certain passages he was backed by harmonies from keyboardist Mike Mangan and bassist Charlie Jones — which was certainly welcome (especially in the higher vocal lines) — but Astbury also developed at moments a resonant, booming presence that filled a solid part of the sonic picture. With Billy Duffy’s ever-cranked guitar again commanding the lion’s share of the sonic spectrum, Ian has definitely redeemed himself compared to the band’s 2014 show at CUK Kino Šiška in Ljubljana and the 2009 gig at the small hall of Dom sportova in Zagreb. I can’t speak to the band’s 2017 show at ŠRC Šalata — RockLine didn’t cover it — but measured against those two earlier experiences, Astbury at Šalata this time around seemed surprisingly alive. Energized. You won’t believe it, but he actually took a moment or two for a brief exchange with the crowd. Among other things, he made a point of calling out the venue’s owner for failing to renovate the place in the six years since the band last played there.
The band is brilliantly tight. Drummer John Tempesta definitely didn’t go unnoticed during the show, landing some explosive drum fills. Duffy remains loyal to the Gretsch Falcon and the black Gibson Les Paul. He cycled through quite a few Falcons over the course of the concert (the tech was constantly and diligently retuning the guitars and handing them back after every song). The bass lines kicked! They had that bottom end you could feel. The keyboards on the right side weren’t audible — something that was honestly expected, especially given Duffy’s almost legendary stage volume, which tends to drown out everything else in the mix. Duffy directed exactly one glance at the crowd all evening. A farewell one. The moment he raised his right hand in a final salute, he bolted offstage. Right after the last note of Love Removal Machine. While Astbury was still introducing the band members, Duffy was already long gone from the stage. Which brings us to another fascinating and rather distinctive The Cult quirk: Astbury and Duffy don’t exchange so much as a single glance for the entire concert.
The band didn’t change the setlist much compared to previous years. They played no fewer than six tracks from Electric, two from Sonic Temple, three from Love (Fire Woman has surprisingly dropped out of the setlist), while Spiritwalker, as the lone track from debut Dreamtime, remains a live staple (setlist below). These classics kept the crowd — who came to a The Cult show primarily for exactly this — in a constant trance. At moments the audience went absolutely wild, bellowing along with Astbury at full volume through every chorus. The venue became truly magical when the band managed to ignite the crowd to the point where the floor turned into a sea of raised hands, from the mixing desk all the way to the stage front. Setlist surprises? The inclusion of The Witch, used on the soundtrack for the 1992 film Cool World. The only two tracks from their latest effort Under The Midnight Sky — Mirror and Vendetta X — slotted in more than seamlessly alongside the older material.
The end of the show, with all the singular feelings a The Cult concert leaves behind, was marred by an altercation between security staff and a concertgoer — one of the security guards ended up on the receiving end when an enraged fan who refused to be escorted off the venue floor smashed a bottle over his head. How on earth did he manage to get it past security in the first place? Scenes like that fill you with real dread. You come to a concert for the energy of rock, to switch off, to get an emotional airing, to shake your whole being loose — and you end up watching blood on concrete. Terrible. Even in 2023.
Short and sweet. As always with The Cult. Their eighties output remains a kind of holy grail of absolute devotion among fans, and that keeps the band safely afloat at all times. Even if they disappear from the scene for a while, or venture into some unusual musical experiment, a cult will always be a cult. And this time in Zagreb they showed considerably more life — especially when it came to connecting with the crowd — than anyone could have expected.
Words: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Rise
2. Sun King
3. King Contrary Man
4. Sweet Soul Sister
5. The Witch
6. Lil’ Devil
7. Aphrodisiac Jacket
8. Vendetta X
9. Phoenix
10. Wild Flower
11. Mirror
12. Spiritwalker
13. Rain
14. She Sells Sanctuary
—encore—
15. Peace Dog
16. Love Removal Machine
