The Cult at The Wellmont

original article from The Aquarian

MONTCLAIR, NJ- I remember first buying the album Love by The Cult. It wasn’t 1985, but I probably did have too much hairspray and eyeliner on at the time. I knew a couple of their hits and liked Ian Astbury’s ruffled shirts, so I figured it’d be a good filler record to have in my collection. Instead of lumping it with the rest of the fillers that made few trips to my turntable, it ended up getting listened to repeatedly. So when I saw that The Cult was playing their entire Love album at The Wellmont Theatre, I was curious to see what these guys sound like after forming 26 years ago.

No opening band? Awesome! Starting the show close to an hour and a half late? Eh! I wished there was an opening band instead of hearing the same five songs on loop over the speakers. I did however enjoy listening to the grandpa Goths talk about seeing Southern Death Cult “back in the day.” It sucks being born around three decades too late.

They did a great job playing through Love. “Hollow Man” sounded enormous and the crowd roared once “She Sells Sanctuary” started. Pleasing fans with other hits such as “Fire Woman” and “Wild Flower, The Cult played a solid set of guitar howls, crooning vocals, and sultry bass lines. Ian Astbury looked like “L.A. Women” era Jim Morrison with his grizzly beard, but his vocals haven’t aged a bit. Even though he looks nothing like he did in the ‘80s, he did have on leather gloves and a raccoon tail hanging by his hip. Guitarist Duffy blew me away with his echoed solos and white holy body guitar that looked bigger than he was.
Though I was expecting Astbury’s infamous tribal hip shakes, instead he complained about how the concrete stage was giving him pain from his recent hip surgery and commanding the Wellmont to use the stage lights instead of the spotlight. What a rock star! The psychedelic video in the backdrop of nature, people, and trippy effects made the show better and livened up the lack of movement from the band. By the end of the show, Astbury threw the tambourine he was playing into the crowd, Duffy threw a bunch of picks, and the overpriced beer fueled crowd went nuts over them. Let’s hear it for big hair, leather, and combat boots!

According to Ian Astbury, there are rumors of The Cult going into the studio soon, so hopefully they’ll have a new album out within the next year or two.

FOR VIDEOS OF THE SHOW.... CLICK HERE!!!!

Celebrating 75 Years!

Music Country in Cliffside Park, NJ will be celebrating their 75th anniversary on Friday Aug. 14 by having a little party with music.

If you're interested in records, tapes, CDs, comics, old memorabilia, they have a lot of great things in this store and the prices are pretty fair. The people who own it are extremely nice and the cat who is usually on the counter is sweet too.

728 Anderson Ave.
Cliffside Park, NJ 07010

Come out and support one of the oldest independent record shops in NJ!

photo by: Michelle's House of Disco

Murder by Death, An Albatross, The Gossip at Maxwells

Murder by Death- I did hear really good rumors about this band, though I've never listened to their music, so I was curious to see how they sounded like. All of the sudden see an electric cello and the usual instruments accompanied by band members come on stage, who all looked pretty mysterious. They started off with intensity, then brought it down a bit by not having as much cello, but then blew everyones ears off with the last song. I don't know if I would like the band if they didn't have the cello in it, but regardless, I enjoyed their set a lot and would def. see them again.

An Albatross- I've already heard some of their music and thought it was alright. Once they got up onstage, I felt chaos creeping up the walls of Maxwell's. The music starts and they start this "pit", which was pretty much people moving around or doing their own little hipster dances. The lead singer wore eyeliner, had long black hair, cowboy boots, and had his hand down his pants for most of the show. He then starts to kiss these boys in front of the crowd saying, "i want your sex".. After their set, the singer goes into the crowd and starts making out with some girl. This is the type of band that you'd appreciate more after seeing them live, but they're music is eh...

The Gossip- When people start pushing little by little to get to the front, you know it's going to be good, but this show was a little different. I've seen the gossip twice before and it wasn't their greatest. Beth didn't strip and the crowd wasn't dancing enough. Wasn't too energetic either. We danced our asses off regardless, but people would just stand there. How could you stand still to the gossip??? Seems like the Gossip is going to change a lot now that they're getting more popular, but I still enjoy them for the time being.

murder by death photo by Christian Fuehrer, an albatross photo by Bryan Bruchman, the gossip photo by Ian Mackinnon