By Lisa Burke
November 20th 2015, The Palladium, Hollywood CA: Last Friday night, and for once in my life, I arrived to a show before any bands had started and was filled with anticipation of a super fun night because I was at the Palladium about to gain my first live experience of Primal Scream and The Cult. Much to my dismay, however, I was in for a wild ride of not quite what I expected.
Drink prices were through the roof and then interestingly, depending on who you ask, there were varying prices for the same beverage. Good thing in 2015 you can buy your ticket on Groupon and save money as I did months ago for this show when they were having a special. Let me preface the horror I’m about to expose you to by saying that I have been to the Palladium before and had a great time, particularly when I saw Megadeth with Testament and Exodus. I probably haven’t been to this venue in about a year-and-a-half, and whether it was the venue that changed or just a bad night for sound in general, I am not sure.
Primal Scream took the stage about 45 minutes after they were supposed to, for whatever reason, and while I do enjoy this band and their talents, I became a bit claustrophobic surrounded by so many people engaged in full-on hipster dance on the dance floor that should be turned into a roller skating rink on off nights as it is the perfect space for it. Once I moved to the outskirts I calmed down a bit, but was still bored as most of their songs are slow and sound like The Black Crows or another song from another band of a similar nature. They played for I believe 45 minutes to an hour which seemed like an eternity to me regardless of their giving it their all, and while the sound system was not great during their set, it was better than when The Cult went on.
Bringing me to my next point, if we are discussing rock n’ roll The Cult is always at the top of my list. I enjoy every single song and can listen to them on repeat for hours without getting tired of it. Ian Astbury has always been a hero to me and I don’t know if I just never realized he’s older now or what, but he walked on stage and I did a double take. I then came to the conclusion that I’m just not a fan of his current haircut. He sings great still, and the band, even though I was missing Matt Sorum’s presence on drums, gave it their all, and if the sound system wasn’t all fuzzed out, they would have sounded great. They played all the great songs except for my favorite ‘Ciao Baby (Edie)’, yet the sound was so bad I couldn’t stand the performance. It got to the point where The Cult was almost ruined for me. At one point, Ian Astbury asks the audience, “How do we sound?” All I wanted to do was scream at the top of my lungs “You sound like shit through the shitty overblown speakers”, but I didn’t want to be inappropriate. All in all, I kept myself as busy as possible to distract from the awfulness by running around the venue, and even going to the outdoor upstairs balcony where it sounded significantly better. Whoever was responsible for sound that night should really never work there again as it would be a blessing to all involved. I didn’t even stay for the encore because I care too much about my ears. I instead booked it to Loaded Rock Bar to catch the last two bands of the night blackened thrash metal band Thorns Of Sin and industrial metal band ‘Spadra’ on a much smaller stage with a very clear and brilliant sound system. Both bands sounded tighter than I’d ever seen them before and put me in my comfort zone once again. My night improved instantly, although I couldn’t really get over being tortured by The Cult’s good songs gone wrong. I really wish I had seen them in their heyday or at least at some venue where they were capable of sounding good. To end my endless rant I’ll say this, you owe me one Palladium, you owe us all and I know you have it in you.
Set List:
01. Horse Nation
02. Rain
03. Nirvana
04. Lucifer
05. Lil’ Devil
06. Dark Energy
07. The Witch
08. Honey From A Knife
09. Gone
10. Wild Flower
11. Wonderland
12. Sweet Soul Sister
13. Fire Woman
14. She Sells Sanctuary
Encore:
15. The Phoenix (with Jerry Cantrell)
16. Love Removal Machine (with Steve Jones)
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