Long Hair Don't Care

Cults
Triple Rock Social Club
October 6, 2011

Ok. They are better on disc than live. And the sound mix was really bad for the first couple of songs (what do bands think sound checks are for?) And if they played for 45 minutes from start to finish, i'll be surprised (would a cover have killed them?). And the guys in the band are kinda sorry looking (but i'm biased against long haired guys, so that could just be me).

But whatever, because as soon as the lights went down and the band came on stage, I only had eyes for Madeline (well, other than the drunk chick in front of us, but only because i didn't want to be a wall pancake). I can't really quantify what she did (Madeline, not the drunk chick) that so enamored me of her. In fact, you could easily make the argument that the performance was maybe only serviceable with the band sorta bored, Madeline's vocals all over the place (and the guitarists barely above hearing threshold) and although she has a lot of presence packed into her tiny frame, the band as a whole kinda didn't.... But in Madeline...i was rapt.

In retrospect, i kinda think it was the crowd. They had the religion and they just poured it out. Every song (and pretty much every song on their debut EP is great), it was Love, Love, Love. The band felt it, Madeline sent it back out (the rest of the long hairs really didn't care) and the crowd amplified the love and hit transmit. In retrospect, i can't say whether it was justified or not, but it was sure there when i was there. Something perhaps indefinable, but something special and a shared experience greater than the sum of its individual parts. I guess that's the appeal of cults and that Cults performance certainly qualified.