25 November 2024 – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane – words by Tarynne Ambrosi – pictures by Bec Harbour
Picture this if you will. The year is 1989, month November. On tv – Germany! The Berlin Wall is coming down. Boring!! As a 12 year old, I have entirely better things to do, like play the hot new game ‘paper boy’ (at my friend Jen’s house and at 13 Jen could shred on a guitar like no other and was the absolute coolest person I had ever met) now on cassette and listen to my favourite band – The Cult! That summer was made perfect because of the discovery of Sonic Temple. And boy, was it on repeat. No skips! Every song on this album was a classic in the making. Perfection!
Cut to – Monday 25 November 2024 and I am now finally getting to see one of my very first obsession bands live, in person for the first time. 12 year old me is screaming – bloody screaming! 35 years in the making and it’s here. The Cult did not disappoint.
Support act: Mayatrix and The Psychics – Singer Moana Mayatrix has great stage presence out the gate. The moment the band walked out on stage there was a confidence that there were here to do a job and they were going to get it done with panache.
Mayatrix and The Psychics – Fortitude Music Hall – photos by Bec Harbour
With their seamless blend of genre-defying hypnotic industrial rock, psychedelia, trip-hop. From dreamy soaring vocals to an almost animalistic wailing (think Yoko Ono). There were heavy bass driven tracks which really reminded me of Kyuss back in the day – however, what I was struck by is the spoken word / theatrical aspect of the set. It felt a little ‘Rock Eisteddfod meets after school special’ and really wasn’t my cup of tea in the 6th song.
All songs are painted with the same sonic strokes – they have a distinct sound and live quite serviceably in that wheelhouse. Great support act for The Cult and compliment The Cults body of work well. Would love the see them go TikTok famous on witchtok or something worthy of their talents. All in all, great band and would absolutely recommend. These guys are going to age like fine wine.
The Cult – Man Vs Tambourine
The audience is mostly made up of mature punters, elder metal heads and goths and I must say, for as jam packed as the Fortitude Music Hall was, everyone was very civilised.
With the lights down – we hear ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ – Apocalypse Now, we wait.
The Cult take to the stage at 9:20pm and kick off the Sold Out 18 song set with ‘In The Clouds’ and ‘Rise’. It became apparent quickly that tonights gig had two running themes, energy and death to the tambourine. I’m here for it (and yes, I will be keeping a running tally on the assaults to the tambourine).
Pinks and purple lights flood the stage as the first notes of ‘Wildflower’ sound and a cheer around the room. Several mobile phones go up and maybe this is just my opinion here, but filming a concert on your phone is like filming fireworks. Enough already and try to be present in the moment. Nobody wants to see your blurry/dark/inaudible concert videos of 20 – 30 seconds of a song. Ok rant over.
The Cult – Fortitude Music Hall – photos by Bec Harbour
There hasn’t been much banter from the stage just yet, just high voltage jumps, kicks, dancing / shadow boxing and singing from Astbury. All other members of the band are on their marks and there they will stay for the show.
We move on to ‘The Witch’, the sound quality live was brilliant. The audio is punchy and loud but beautifully clear, this goes for the entire show. Kudos to the techs.
Now we get a little banter from Astbury – I always enjoy what a band wishes to communicate to their audience. And we learn this is ’51 shows deep in the tour and they are going to give us everything they have’. They do deliver on this promise. Along with the tambourine bouncing about 2 feet in the air after possibly causing an injury to Astbury’s hand. The dangers of the job are ever present.
I’d just like to point a little something out here – during the 9th track to be played (‘Resurrection Joe’) – Two roadies took half a song to figure out how to operate the fan, like something out of spinal tap (I love these sorts of interactions on stage). By the end of the track the crowd had loosened up a little and were getting in to the swing of things dancing and cheer. The fan onstage is also on!
The Cult – Fortitude Music Hall – photos by Bec Harbour
Astbury spots a fan in the front row wearing an INXS shirt and mentions Michael was a good friend of his and he was speaking to him in the week before he passed. He then dedicated ‘Ciao Edie’ to his friend. Beautifully performed, stripped back and so heartfelt.
We pick up the tempo again with ‘Sweet Soul Sister’, Astbury’s age comes through with vocals on this track and the belting notes are paired back to hitting key vocal sign posts through the song. ‘FireWoman’! My goodness – this was my song. This is the one I was waiting for.. it was perfect. Once again, 12 year old me is screaming!! Thank you for creating this song and thank you for playing this song at the Brisbane gig! Nuff said.
Don’t think for a moment I’ve forgotten the mistreated tambourine. During ‘Rain’, Astbury throws the instrument down so hard it bounced and then yeeted straight off the stage in to the crowd.
The Cult – Fortitude Music Hall – photos by Bec Harbour
Getting to the end of the gig here and we have ‘Spiritwalker’ and ‘Love Removal Machine’, delivered with gusto. We wait for about 5 minutes between the last song and the encore. The crowd is cheering and hollering ‘encore’.
The night ended with ‘Brother Wolf, Sister Moon’ and of course ‘She Sells Sanctuary’. What a bloody fantastic show at the Fortitude Music Hall. Kudos must go to the staff at the venue, as busy and full as it was – everything was done with ease and there were no over zealous security personnel. As a female, I felt safe there and because I did, I had an even better time.
Dream realised – I have now seen The Cult live. I can now cross this off my bucket list and can only encourage you, if you ever are fortunate enough to catch a gig. Do it!
