The Cult fires up Club Regent

TicketMOMster review: The Cult @ Club Regent Event Centre

Surprisingly, this was my first concert at Club Regent Event Centre. I liked the venue until I realized the seats weren’t staggered or elevated enough. I discovered this shortly after a woman with a bee hive hairdo sat in front of my husband and completely blocked the centre of the stage. Luckily, she moved just before the show started.

I don’t drink and I didn’t have to go to the washroom, but my husband said the lines were crazy for both amenities. Oh well, for the most part I found the venue comfortable.

I LOVE seeing local bands open shows and tonight it was Yes We Mystic. I’ve seen Yes We Mystic once before at The Burt and I thought they were really interesting.

Local radio personality extraordinaire, Howard Mandshein introduced the band and called their brand of music ‘art rock’.

When the band took the stage, I noticed they were missing members. Apparently, the band was asked to concentrate less on the ‘art’ of their music and more on the ‘rock’, so they left two members behind; which I thought was unfair.

I wouldn’t say the band excels at ‘rock’, but they do ‘art rock’ really well and it’s unfortunate the crowd couldn’t see them in all their glory. I missed the ambience of their sound. They gave it a good shot, they were obviously working for it, as I don’t remember drummer Jordan Ottenson’s stick snapping in two at The Burt.

But I’m not sure how the crowd felt about them. There was a lot of talking and one audience member close to me clapped before their last song. Concerts bring out all the rude people.

Good effort guys, I hope everyone at that show eventually discovers what you really sound like.

I never realized how many recognizable guitar riffs The Cult have created in their career. The first riff belonged to Wild Flower. The crowd reacted favourably to that tune, clapping and yelling along with it.

During that song, I discovered that singer Ian Astbury’s voice is different; he doesn’t carry notes like he used to. That’s not something that shocks me or ruins a show for me.

I imagine singing in a rock band is not an easy job, especially if you’re forcing your voice or using it in ways that may not be completely comfortable. Ian’s voice may be different than before, but in my opinion, it’s still a unique rock voice.

The band played a lot of newer songs, but it was the old favourites that got everyone going. L’il Devil was super rockin’, Sweet Soul Sister had the crowd singing and She Sells Sanctuary got everyone moving.

It was Fire Woman though, that was the hit of the night. The crowd still went wild for it even though we carried the “FIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRE” for Ian.

At one point Ian said something about Toronto which apparently irritated the crowd, because they booed quite loudly. I didn’t hear exactly what he said, but he followed that comment with another about baseball which I don’t think went over well either. This resulted in him having to back pedal a little at the start of the encore. Oops!

The band gave a bunch of swag to a kid in the front section of the theatre and then the encore started with GOAT and ended with Love Removal Machine.

After the show I ran into a few friends who didn’t have a lot of positive things to say about it. It wasn’t my most favourite show on the face of the earth either, but I really enjoyed watching the band and listening to a theatre full of hard rock. Yay for date nights!

TicketMOMster is a Rock and Jazz-loving Mom; single-handedly keeping Ticketmaster alive in Winnipeg. Follow her musical journey here: www.facebook.com/TicketMOMsters