The Cult 11/12/10

So, I went to buy a beer right when I arrived at the Social Distortion show and saw a sign that said "The Cult -- $10."  I thought "what the Hell" and bought one for Friday night with no fees!  Ten bucks is about the max I would pay to see them anyway and I didn't have anything else to do last night.  The opening act, The Black Ryder, was forgettable and their audio was crappy, unless they were going for that kind of sound...  Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of The Cult and pretty much only know the two songs that are still in rotation on FM rock radio, "Fire Woman" and "She Sells Sanctuary."  Well, they performed both of them, although an unrecognizable Ian Astbury seemed reluctant to sing them and was late on his queues during the songs.  Last time I saw pics of Ian was when he was performing with The Doors a few years ago and he looked old, wrinkled, and overweight.  Last night he appeared thinner and has grown a full beard with long hair, I guess maybe to cover up the wrinkles.  I was almost sure it wasn't him at all and figured that was why the tickets were so cheap until I got home and did some searching on the web to find some current photos, and apparently, it was him (I'm still not 100% convinced).  Guitarist Billy Duffy is still a total shredder, but I couldn't tell you who else was on stage, what with their list of current and former band members being longer than my...  well, its pretty long.  I swear the rhythm guitarists' movements were the closest thing I've ever seen to a human puppet.  I kept looking in the rafters to see if there were two guys controlling his bizarre and comical stage presence with strings.  After hearing my two songs, I didn't even bother with the encore which, I found out after my internet searching, only consisted of "Love Removal Machine" in other cities.  So, at least I beat the traffic.