LIVE: The Cult with Jonathan Hultén
The Cult – supported by Jonathan Hultén
The Bristol Beacon (formerly known as the Colston Hall)
27/10/2024
Live Review by Mare Grills
The Bristol Beacon is a fantastic venue in the heart of the beautiful West Country city. Most importantly, the acoustics are amazing. The staff are great and there are loads of places in and around the venue for a pre-gig drink, somewhere to eat, and most importantly if you’re coming in from afar, park. (Bristol Temple Meads train station is probably a half hour walk at most).
This gig is my treat to my baby brother as his birthday present, he’s been a fan since he was fifteen – ever since they started in fact, as this is their 40th Birthday tour. He happily told me the names of the bands and who was in them for all of the tracks that were played as we waited for the gig to begin; a playlist of The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Pete Murphy, Bauhaus et al made him smile.
I hate missing the support bands as very often you find a gem that you didn’t know about before. As we made ourselves comfortable, we pondered the tent in the middle of the stage. It was kind of ephemeral, slightly yurt-like but insubstantial and distinctly odd in the context.
Then the waft of Sage incense stick reached us…we were seated, so there must have been a fair few joss sticks for the aroma to get to us, and then it went dark and the show began.
Jonathan Hultén
To say it was a bit weird is probably an understatement given the headline band we’d come to see. Jonathans’ voice is absolutely phenomenal. He does folk and he does folk extremely well. Formerly a member of Tribulation, a Swedish Death/Black metal band he is now a solo folk performer.
His performance was a moving, enchanting and haunting combination of chanting (in English) and movement. Underlying, and sometimes emphasising, was a soundtrack of birdsong as well as other, musical additions, all adding to the overall performance.
It’s beyond me to describe, so I have added links so you can see/hear for yourselves. If you want to immerse yourself in a wonderful voice, have a listen.
The Cult
Judging by this performance only… they were FABULOUS (OK, I’m a sad Strictly addict).
I saw The Cult for the first time ‘supporting’ Alice Cooper a few years ago when, as I understand it, the ‘joint headliner’ question raised its head and frankly, I was a little disappointed. It could have been because I was so stoked for Alice that I didn’t pay enough attention, but I don’t think so.
This gig however, was immense. The band came on stage to ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ (Wagner 1851) but probably better known now from the film ‘Apocalypse Now’, and that set the tone. The performance was energetic, angsty and vibrant. Ian Astbury (no way is that guy two years older than me, he behaves like a teenager), strutting and kickboxing his way around the stage with a pretty battered (by the end of it) tambourine, Billy Duffy giving it the beans on the guitar.
They began with ‘In the Clouds’ and next up was ‘Rise’, just a great song. I was getting a bit distracted by checking to see if little bro was smiling – I needn’t have worried, he was mouthing all the words and looked like he was enjoying it as much as me.
They played their music from across the decades and it was wonderful.
My song of the night was Edie (Ciao Baby), no drums, not exactly acoustic, but not far off – absolutely sublime, Mr Astbury’s vocals far better than on any of the recordings I’ve heard.
I loved the attempt at the Bristolian accent when Mr A (now speaking with a distinctly American accent) was teasing Mr Duffy…arrrr, he’s from around these parts, apparently he has a ferret! I loved the crowd interaction, especially when security rescued a tambourine from the audience, only for the joyful frontman to give it back. I also loved the fact that there were people in the mosh pit who probably had to ask someone to look after their walking stick for them while they went in.
Obviously ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ was in the encore and again, it was fantastic.
It’s a weird thing when you go to see a band live, when you’ve heard their stuff for most of your adult life on the radio, jukeboxes and films and then live, they just blow you away. When the vocals are so much better than you’ve ever heard on a recording, when the energy just fills you with joy.
For the record, The Cult was a hundred times better than the last time I saw them. I don’t care about the back story, but if they play like this every time they go on stage, I will happily see them again and again.
LINKS
Venue
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