Starting in England in the early ‘80s as kind of a post-punk-goth-rock thing under such monikers as Southern Death Cult or just Death Cult, the song stylings of Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy eventually morphed into something more rock n’ roll oriented, a hard rock and metal revival of loud, crunching guitars and pelvic thrust energy. By the time their 1989 album Sonic Temple came out, The Cult were cruising on their stateside success, touring with the likes of stadium acts like Aerosmith and Metallica, and racking up a ton of radio play with their fist-pumping single “Fire Woman.”
I didn’t get to see them back then. I was ten.
The band would eventually break up in the ‘90s, get back together, go on hiatus again, reunite, reassemble, reconvene, and so on, but remained completely off my radar, despite “Fire Woman” holding a place of prominence in the car stereos of my friends and me.
I still didn’t see them. Honestly, I don’t even know if they ever came to Texas.
And then in 2012, they played a free show at the Waterloo Records day party during the South by Southwest music festival.
And I still didn’t get to see them…but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
Evidently, I was not the only one jonesing for a little Cult action, the trek west through downtown Austin from another music venue I’d spent the early afternoon at allowing way too much time to pass, and way too much valuable space to fill up at Waterloo. The day party at capacity, a fenced in lot of asses and elbows, I was forced to move on, the prospect of listening on the other side of the barrier proving to be too depressing. I ended up going to eat some Cajun food down the street instead.
And rocking “Fire Woman” forever more.
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