The Cult @ Hampton Beach Casino

[music | The Bruisers]

You will find a long-winded post on The Cult show at Hampton Beach Casino

I love the casino, for general admission shows anyway. The house PA is really good, the floor bounces just enough, and you can get right up front. I can say I've never been to a bad show there. That includes both Godsmack and Limp Bizkit, so that's saying something (Disclaimer: LB was just after their first record came out, and it was a super fun show. There was no indication of the assholery to come, so screw all who will make fun of me. Oh yeah, and Godsmack was in support of LB).

Brand New Sin started things off with a really short, but very strong set. They sounded half New England and half Southern Rock. Again, it was a short set, but we liked them well enough. They're on the Jagermeister mix CD that Jager was handing out at the show.

Then it was Action-Action. This is a rather typical "Indie Rock" group from NY. I didn't have any specific problems with them, but I still ran out to smoke anyway. A large part of the crowd kind of super-hated them, because you could sort of put it on the level of Death Cab opening for, I dunno, THE CULT. Different crowds. This might not have been the most well thought out support plan, but I think enough people liked them to definitely make it worthwhile. For our part, we were not among the group that super hated them. In another context, I think I would have been more into it than I was though.

It's rare that we go to straight-ahead guitar driven Rock Star type shows, in fact, Natalie and I both made the same comment on our way out of Hampton. Really, I'd have to say Chris Cornell, and then this were about the only shows we've gone to this whole year that fit that. And sometimes it's just what the doctor ordered. The crowd was not terribly energetic, but what can you expect, we're all getting older. I was one of the "young punk kids" it would seem. Unfortunately, Ian Astbury wouldn't shut up about this fact. He blamed it on everyone watching too much TV.

I would, for my part, blame people like me and Natalie. People who listen to music 24/7 and average several shows a month. It takes a lot of energy to make me really want to move around a whole lot. The last pit I was in was over a year ago at Ministry, the next will probably be at Mighty Mighty Bosstones. There was no one there tonight that was really doing more than bouncing along. I thought people were plenty appreciative though.

The entire crowd was singing along with many of the songs, everyone was doing their little metalhead bounce, we were all alternating freezing cold from outside, and too hot because we were all dressed warm, and it's not like we didn't all pay $35 to go see them. Ian should feel plenty appreciated.

We could not have hoped for more from the music though. They sounded great, played almost everything I would have wanted, and Ian at least was energetic and pretty chatty. Ian's chattiness was largely "why are you people so restrained" and "you're jaded, you know there's an encore, kind of ruins the surprise doesn't it" blah blah. I kind of thought he was going to say "here's your surprise, no encore fuckers", but didn't happen. That would have been pretty funny.

Toward the end of the show, I decided to make it my fun game to pick two people that each band member resembled. One cool guy, and one, well, not so much. You pick which is which, the first one is definitely a gimme:

Ian Astbury -> Jim Morrison / Steven Tyler (organic albino bee honey on frozen Eggo's? Please...)

Billy Duffy -> Gerard Depardieu / Gary Cole

John Tempesta -> Anthony Cumia / Brian O'Halloran

Mike Dimkitch -> Woody Allen / Adam Ant (Elvis Costello?)

Chris Wyse -> I don't know... Brad Pitt as Earley from Kalifornia? / Paul Raven (but maybe because they both play bass?)

All right, I ran out of steam there at the end.

Since we were about 5 people back from the stage, I decided to let the Worst Camera Phone in the World ride again. I was actually pleasantly surprised this time. Most of the pictures are of Billy Duffy only since that's where we were, and I know my limitations with the RAZR:

I believe those were all from She Sells Sanctuary and Love Removal Machine. I figured they would suck worse than they did, and I like to listen and watch more than I like to screw with my idiot phone. I really wish more artists would encourage cameras (No Flash Rule of course).