The Cult (Photo by Tim Cadiente)
As The Cult celebrates the 30th anniversary of their seminal Sonic Temple album, the British group — led by vocalist Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy — plays The Fillmore Silver Spring on Sunday, Dec. 8. The tour date follows the September release of The Cult: Sonic Temple 30 by Beggars Arkive to mark the anniversary of the seminal album by The Cult.
The setlists for Dec. 8 show draws from The Cult’s 10 studio albums with the centerpiece being a super set focused on the core songs from Sonic Temple, a pivotal album that brought together the alternative and hard rock audiences. The Cult has not performed some of these songs since the album (the band’s fourth) was originally released in 1989. Produced by the legendary Bob Rock, Sonic Temple had four chart-topping singles: “Fire Woman,” “Edie (Ciao Baby),” “Sun King” and “Sweet Soul Sister.” Sonic Temple proved to be an important moment for both the band and the wider rock scene.
Watch the official music video for “Fire Woman” by The Cult on YouTube:
In a recent interview about the album, Ian Astbury explained how the band brought together hard rock and indie rock to create the unique, game-changing sounds on Sonic Temple. “We wanted to retain our core DNA as we went deeper into psych and hard rock influences. It was a complete immersion for me into art, film, music, poetry, and literature, weaving those influences into what was to become Sonic Temple. The band was becoming more popular. We were in uncharted waters. Most of the bands we had come up with had split up or fallen off. We were accelerating. There was no real time to breathe. We were forming new allegiances and breaking the glass ceiling of ‘the indie outsider.’”
As Billy Duffy stated about the tour in a recent interview, “I’d like fans to not only allow themselves a little indulgence into maybe simpler happier times of the late ’80s for a few hours at a ST19 show, but also be happy that the music is now really their possession, not ours, and to do with it what they will.”
The Cult
w/ Spirit Animal
The Fillmore Silver Spring
Sunday, Dec. 8
Doors @ 7pm
$47
All ages