The Cult – 27 June 2025 (Poble Espanyol, Barcelona)

Many attendees arrived early at the Poble Espanyol venue wearing black tour T-shirts displaying dates from the last four decades, demonstrating the popularity of the British band The Cult in Spain, despite their regular visits to Madrid and Barcelona, including in June 2023.

The Cult, Barcelona 2025 – Photo taken by Meritxell Rosell for Indieofilo^©

The concert began with a selection of the band’s most powerful songs, including ‘In The Claus‘ and ‘Rise‘, which are from their less well-received albums. The setlist, which featured a range of their songs, made it clear from the start that something was wrong with the sound. The guitar and drums were both too loud, and it seemed like they were competing with each other to be the main focus of the song. The first gift for those avid fans of Bradford’s radio hits would arrive with ‘Wild Flower‘, although the British band would again opt for lesser songs such as ‘Hollow Man‘, “War” or even ‘C.O.T.A.‘ from their Death Cult era, which failed to engage the audience.

Ian Astbury of The Cult, Barcelona 2025 – Photo taken by Meritxell Rosell for Indieofilo^©

If the relationship between the two great totems of the band, Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy, had been better on stage, or if they had interacted with the audience at all, some of the less brilliant moments in the first half of the concert would have been ‘camouflaged’. For better or worse, though, The Cult have displayed this distant attitude for years. In the second half of the show, they played some of their timeless hits, such as ‘Rain‘ and the highly acclaimed ‘She Sells Sanctuary‘, closing a concert that lasted just over an hour.

With most of the audience still indignant about the short length of the concert, the British band returned to the stage to perform ‘Fire Woman‘ and ‘Love Removal Machine‘, arguably the best-sounding songs of the night. However, these did little to calm the audience, who had expected much more from the British band.

The Cult, Barcelona 2025 – Photo taken by Meritxell Rosell for Indieofilo^©

There was little more to say about a concert that offered little in terms of music or audience interaction, particularly from the two original band members. Duffy, in particular, seemed to only mind his own business from the beginning, focusing entirely on his guitar… Alma Festival usually includes ‘rock’ proposals in its programme each year. Comparisons with the great concert that Queens of The Stone Age offered last year on the same stage are odious.