The Cult In Minneapolis, MN

I was in pure Les Paul guitar bliss at the Cult show at First Avenue last night. Billy Duffy gets the most perfect sound out of that guitar of his. It's my favorite sound in the world.

Three of us left for Minneapolis from work at noon yesterday. We got out of town before 2pm and made great time getting to our hotel and in the room before 6pm. We had heard there was a Hard Rock Cafe across the street from First Avenue so we decided to make it our dining stop. We headed out, figured out where both places were and paid for our parking. As we got a block away from the parking lot, the guy with the tickets realized that HE LEFT THE TICKETS AT THE HOTEL!! What a friend! We hopped back in the car, drove the 6 blocks to the hotel and made him run up to the 4th floor to retrieve the tickets. He put us about 30 minutes behind. Fortunately, the lady at the parking lot remembered us and let us in without paying again.

The Hard Rock is a pretty cool place. I've never been to one before so I was checking out the walls to see what souvenirs they had. There were guitars from Bon Jovi, Steven Tyler, and Bono on the wall as well as drum heads, gold and silver records, and even a shirt and vest from Bob Dylan. The food was expensive, but good. I had the pulled pork (I've been in the mood for barbecue a lot lately! Maybe it's my anxiousness for summer.) and even had the Chocolate Peanut Butter Sundae for dessert. I'm kind of wishing I had some extra cash for a souvenir, but I think I'll probably see some more shows there since it is closer than Kansas City. Oh, and Minneapolis really looks like a city, as opposed to Des Moines.

We got to the venue in time to chill out, literally, for a while before letting us in at 8pm. It was VERY cold since they had just had a blizzard that shut some things down a few days before. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground. We were early enough to get FRONT AND CENTER for this Cult show. They were also recording it live as part of the Instant Live CD's that you can purchase after the show. I had to have this since it was only $25.

The show itself was great. There was no opening band so The Cult went on at 9:15pm to a packed house. This is the venue that Prince filmed Purple Rain in so it is a decent sized club with a nice stage and some great history. We heard the strains of A Clockwork Orange and then the band came out to L'il Devil. The rocked right through Sweet Soul Sister, the Witch, and Peace Dog before Ian had much to say in between songs. He chastised some of the guys for not rocking out as hard as the two girls next to us in front of the stage. It didn't take long for the band to really look like they were having fun and really feeding off the energy of the crowd and it only picked up steam as the show went on. The set consisted of the following:

L'il Devil
Sweet Soul Sister
The Witch
Peace Dog
Revolution
Spiritwalker
In The Clouds
Wonderland
Brother Wolf
Gone
Rise
Rain
Fire Woman
Wildflower
War

The first encore was:

Edie (acoustic)
Electric Ocean
Sanctuary

The second encore:

Love Removal Machine

The intensity of the show spilled over into a stage diver late in the set, but seemed to be at its height during Fire Woman. There were several highlights such as their bass player Chris playing an electric upright bass, the acoustic beginning to their encore with Edie, and the sense of humor both Billy and Ian displayed when talking to us between songs. They were grateful for the large turnout and really seemed to be running on all 8 cylinders during this show. The band was tight with rhythms grooving by John Tempesta and Chris and the awesome crunch and color of Billy's playing.

After the show, we hung out a bit to get our Instant Live CD's and see if we might get some autographs. As I was heading for the restroom, I happened to see Ian signing some things by the stage. I ran back to get one of the friends and we all 3 got autographs from Ian and Billy and got a few words to them of gratitude for putting on such a great show and looking toward the future with new music. I told one of the friends that I had to get the drumstick that John tossed me signed before we left. As we headed outside to see if Johnny T. was on the bus, this particular friend though we had no chance of meeting Tempesta, but then got shocked when we met the tour manager and he led us back into the venue through the back to find JT. We couldn't find him inside so the manager tried calling JT's cell phone. After not getting an answer, he told us that eventually JT had to come out to the bus so we were welcome to hang around until then. My negative friend still hung outside waiting, but was about to give up as I headed back to the front of the venue. As I was walking to the building John Tempesta happened to be walking toward me. He saw that I had his drumstick and I struck up conversation with him about the show. He stopped and my friends came running up to get their CD's signed. Once we finished visiting with John, it was time to head back to the hotel. Rock N Roll Mission Accomplished!

We were rocked by a band I have always liked, but have never been a huge fan of. Now I'm a much bigger fan and will see them any time they are in the area. They are great guys with good humor and really enjoy what they are doing. It's infectious in a good way. Check them out on tour when you have the opportunity and get the Instant Live CD so you can relive your memory any time. We checked mine out in the car on the way back from Minnesota today and it was a great quality recording of last night's show. Hopefully these guys will get some new music out soon and keep making things fresh and new with new tours as well.