Colin Roberts Photos
The Cult.
On Sunday night The Cult, led by vocalist Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, took their We Own The Night Tour to College Street Music Hall in downtown New Haven. With a plethora of material to choose from, the group — who creatively fused hard rock, new wave and goth in the ’80s and ’90s — played a set of fan favorites, drawing mainly from their trio of late-’80s hit records Love, Electric and Sonic Temple.
Zola Jesus.
Opening act Zola Jesus, the nom de plume of Nika Roza Danilova, kicked the evening off with an intriguing sound blending pop, goth and ambient music with an electronic edge. Noting between songs that it was her first time playing in New Haven, she brought a more cerebral and experimental approach to the show. Accompanied by bass, drums, electronics and a heavily effect-laden violin, Danilova’s powerful voice captured the audience’s attention as she laid complex melodies atop the airy atmospheres the band created. She put on a show as well, moving curiously across the stage in an incantation of contorting modern dance. Zola Jesus may have been a bit outside of the comfort zone of those in attendance, but the skill and intensity that she and her band performed with certainly impressed the audience.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
As the crowd began to fill in, San Francisco-based blues rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took the stage. Playing a heavy, psychedelic take on the style, the band turned up the volume, kicking the speakers to full blast. With an air of mystery — they played mostly in the dark and hardly spoke between songs — the three-piece tore through a set of droning, groovy numbers that had the audience bobbing their heads along. What they lacked in stage presence, they more than made up for sonically with a thick, bass-heavy wall of sound coming from their assortment of hollow-body guitars and vintage speakers. As the band finished up their set, bassist Robert Levon Been made a plea to the audience to stick around, perhaps aware of the high bar they had set for the headliners.
With lights flashing and fog machine blowing, The Cult took the stage to a wave of applause. Opening with “Rise,” from their 2001 reunion album Beyond Good and Evil, the band seemed poised to put on a show, but it appeared to take a while to find their footing. Astbury seemed oddly preoccupied with his tambourine that he kept tossing, dropping, and even tripping over, while the newer, more hired-hand members of the band plodded along in the background. During “Automatic Blues” the singer passed earplugs to a young audience member who didn’t have ear protection, a seemingly nice gesture until he took a moment to publicly shame the parents after the song.
But as the set moved on and the band delved more into its popular songs, both the band and the audience seemed to become more engaged. In “Sweet Soul Sister” Astbury took an opportunity to recite The Doors’ infamous New Haven shout-out “Peace Frog,” to heavy applause, and by the time Duffy started in on the intro to “Fire Woman,” the crowd was ready to hear the hits. While Astbury notably left out some of the high notes, he generally sounded good and became significantly more animated as the evening went on.
After closing the set with “She Sells Sanctuary” — arguably The Cult’s greatest song — the audience members that stuck around, cheering for an encore, were rewarded with “Love Removal Machine.” While the song may not be one of the band’s top hits, it’s a louder, more aggressive number, and a perfect way to end a set that had a slow start on a high note.
