The Cult (support: Jonathan Hulten)
Friday, July 26, 2024
Opatija / Ljetna pozornica / Croatia
Just a year after touring Europe behind their still-relevant latest studio album “Under The Midnight Sun,” The Cult headed back out across the old continent. This year marks 40 years of the band’s existence — at least under the name The Cult. They actually started out in 1983 as Death Cult, then trimmed the name the following year. They’re enjoying their cult status. Just like the name commands. Since 2024 is a milestone year in terms of the band’s activity, The Cult gave their tour the suitably numbered name “8424.”
After a really great experience catching the band last year when we saw them in Zagreb (ŠRC Šalata, RockLine concert review), The Cult once again chose to visit our southern neighbor — this time settling by the sea. Specifically in Opatija! The Ljetna pozornica venue is a ‘hot spot’ for live events there every year, running from July through August. Given that the band had visited Zagreb at the end of June last year, you might have expected The Cult to draw less interest than the year before. Wrong. The devoted crowd once again showed their great loyalty to the band, and you could count around 3,500 attendees at the venue — with a solid contingent of fans who had raced to Kvarner from Slovenia and Italy. That was no doubt also driven by the setlist The Cult put together in keeping with their anniversary celebrations. 40 years of the band! 40 years since the debut “Dreamtime” was released. That album delivered a handful of gems, with more than half the setlist taken up by material from the first four albums. That was the heart of the show — and the focus of everyone who came to soak up the sound of these one-of-a-kind rock darklings. The era when the band carved their way upward with ambition, freshness and unique energy — becoming an indelible part of the rock map — came alive again in Opatija.
At half past eight in the evening, the dark, enigmatic Swedish musician Jonathan Hultén warmed up the crowd. The singer-songwriter given to a kind of folk-rock sermonizing played for about half an hour: acoustic guitar in hand, surrounded by flowers, an enormous headpiece ‘basket,’ and a pink throne on which he sat while performing his original material. Certainly an artist completely out of step with the headliners in style and substance, yet his yearning vocal melancholy must have touched a soul or two in the crowd — most of whom were still filing into the venue at that point.
The Cult hit the stage at half past nine and played for just over an hour and twenty minutes — in line with their usual live practice. Keyboardist Mike Mangan was absent this time, though: the band performed as a quartet. Picturesquely draped in dark clothing — the one and only shamanic rock’n’roll medicine man Ian Astbury (vocals, percussion), the indispensable other half of the band and his ‘dark’ kindred spirit Billy Duffy (guitar), plus the excellent rhythm section of John Tempesta (drums, percussion) and Charlie Jones (bass). Four dark silhouettes, plenty of fog, a combination of red, white, and blue light, with very little — or almost no — illumination on their faces. The usual ritual. Each at their own end of the stage. Astbury walked over toward Duffy a few times but always kept his distance. Ian (bandana firmly in place, as ever) truly crowned the show with an outstanding vocal performance this time. He was very good in Zagreb last year too, but Ian Astbury’s vocal contribution tonight definitively surpassed the Zagreb show — from start to finish. Powerful and authoritative at every single moment, including the grand finale in the classic She Sells Sanctuary. For Ian, whom we’ve seen in poor vocal form before — or more precisely, in poor vocal spirits — you could comfortably reach for the word ‘ferocious’ tonight.
Duffy also put in a solid shift on the crowd-working front, firing up the audience on his side of the stage. At the end of the third song — Wild Flower (album “Electric,” 1987) — Duffy let rip with his right hand in the famous ‘windmill’ move (or was it Pete Townshend’s?), mirroring the iconic cover of the “Sonic Temple” album. These small tricks from a notoriously static band — where stage moves are concerned — proved extremely effective throughout the show, whipping up the fired-up crowd that was reveling in classic after classic. In the candy department, alongside the mandatory iron-setlist staples (Rain, Sweet Soul Sister, Fire Woman, Love Removal Machine, She Sells Sanctuary), the standout was the first (obligatory) encore — Brother Wolf, Sister Moon, which the band hadn’t played live in years. The real surprise, though, was Resurrection Joe from the debut “Dreamtime” (1984), which the band hadn’t performed live since 1986. Fuel was added to the fire by the reintegration of the long-missed “Sonic Temple” classic Edie (Ciao Baby). The ballad was performed on stage by just Ian and Billy — acoustic style.
Once again Ian tossed a few tambourines into the crowd, although the specific layout of the venue meant he had to hurl the instruments further than usual to reach the front row — there’s about 7 metres of completely empty space between the stage and the first row, which is the one and only drawback of the Ljetna pozornica. While the band often gives the impression of not particularly caring about the audience, that’s not actually the case. Nothing escapes Astbury’s notice — even if he comes across on stage as someone seemingly impervious to everything around him, that’s not the reality (we know how he can vent his foul mood when it strikes, as we experienced in Zagreb in 2009). In Opatija, the band radiated a very good vibe. Astbury thanked the crowd at the very end of a bombastically delivered show — accompanied, on top of everything, by excellent sound — and introduced every member of the band.
The band is brilliantly tight. Drummer John Tempesta certainly didn’t go unnoticed during the show, landing a few explosive transition rolls. Duffy stays loyal to his Gretsch Falcon and his black Gibson Les Paul. He went through quite a few Falcons during the show (the guitar tech was continuously tuning them throughout the performance and handing them back after every song). The bass lines kicked! They had a ‘bottom end’ you could feel. And Ian? As already said, the key ingredient of The Cult’s show in Opatija — the one that made this concert truly eruptive in every sense!
Short and sweet. The magnificent The Cult. No tricks. Just straight-up. With the buzz and energy that had Opatija going off, the band’s eighties output remains the faithful’s ‘holy grail’ — and so it will stay. The crowd fell into something like a trance more than once. A hypnotic state. The band’s ‘drive’ functioned flawlessly this time, and Astbury is an exceptional magnet regardless. After the form on display at this Opatija show, you want to see The Cult like this again as soon as possible! This journey through a cross-section of the band’s career delivered in full and satisfied the hearts of the crowd. The audience simply refused to leave the stage area — and that went on for a good while after the band had waved goodbye and marched backstage. The best events are the ones where you expect nothing, or where expectations are modest. And The Cult took that ‘modesty’ and raised it higher — considerably higher! The only shame is that the album “Ceremony,” which carries bitter memories for the band, remains untouched in the setlist.
Author: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photography: Aleš Podbrežnik
The Cult – setlist:
1. In the Clouds
2. Rise
3. Wild Flower
4. Star
5. Mirror
6. The Witch
7. The Phoenix
8. Resurrection Joe
9. Edie (Ciao Baby)
10. Sweet Soul Sister
11. Lucifer
12. Fire Woman
13. Rain
14. Spiritwalker
15. Love Removal Machine
—encore—
16. Brother Wolf, Sister Moon
17. She Sells Sanctuary
