The Cult at Capitol Theatre
photo by P Squared

The Cult celebrated 30 years of 'A Sonic Temple' at Capitol Theatre (pics, setlist)

The Cult‘s 1989 album A Sonic Temple was the band’s big U.S. breakthrough, taking the onetime goths fully into straight-up muscular hard rock with singles like “Fire Woman” and “Sweet Soul Sister.” (They were already mostly there thanks to 1987’s Rick Rubin-produced Electric.) Having just put out a 30th anniversary deluxe edition of the album, The Cult are also celebrating the album on tour and wrap up a three NYC-area show run tonight (12/10) at Long Island’s Paramount.

We caught The Cult’s second NYC-area show, Saturday at Port Chester’s Capitol Theatre, where frontman Ian Astbury greeted the crowd with a site-specific joke –“Hi, we’re the Grateful Dead” — and then told the crowd it was all business. Then he, guitarist Billy Duffy and the rest of the band got down to work. The Cult didn’t play the album in full, but they did perform the lion’s share of the record, including the aforementioned singles, plus other ’80s-era classics like “Love Removal Machine,” “Rain” and “She Sells Sanctuary.” They sounded great and Billy Duffy in particular was on fire at The Cap.

Pictures from the whole night, including ones of openers Spirit Animal, are in the gallery above and a picture of the Cap setlist is below.

The Cult at Capitol Theatre

photos by P Squared