But the songs and the singing were more than enough.Īnd then, Cruel Nature struck. They didn’t go in much for stagecraft: There were some thin wisps of dry ice but the video screens were off and there were no back projections, as McCulloch stood stock still throughout.
#ECOBEE WEATHER POP FULL#
Most of the Bunnymen’s songs traffic in windswept romanticism full of elemental imagery. On songs like “Rescue,” Ian McCulloch’s sonorous baritone recalls Jim Morrison at his most majestic.
But they are delivered with such drive and dazzle, the effect is uplifting. They were as powerful a live band as ever, with singer Jon King exerting himself so vigorously he had to sit on the monitor at the front of the stage between songs to catch his breath.ĭrifting nearer the dark side, Echo & the Bunnymen have songs about death (“The Cutter”) and despair (“All My Colours”). Then there’s Gang of Four, whose bleakness, inspired by the ravages of capitalism, is quite different from goth’s, and who offset it with a grim resoluteness. Both hail from Sheffield in the northeast of England, an original bastion of goth, but have no truck with miserabilism, writing songs (“Tears Are Not Enough” and “Blind Youth,” respectively) that are militantly optimistic. Billy Idol is looking a little craggy these days and the rebel-sneer lip doesn’t curl like it used to, but he was in fine voice and roused the second-stage crowd with hits like “Dancing With Myself” and “Rebel Yell,” interspersed with consummate showman patter.ĪBC and the Human League also come from that early MTV moment of the Second British Invasion: post-punk artists who glossed up and crossed over.
Still boyish-looking at 65, Glenn Tilbrook sang the group’s post-Beatles classics like “Pulling Mussels From a Shell” with ageless sweetness. Squeeze (a last-minute replacement for Adam Ant) sounded as cheery and ebullient as ever. Not everyone attending Cruel World was a goth, and angst wasn’t the only thing on the menu. Despite the ungodly appearance, it’s probably the most gentle of youth subcultures: visually a kick in the eye, but in truth, it’s goths and their emo descendants who are often victims of violence rather than the other way around. It’s a forbidding look that also suggests the forbidden - a taste for sin and kink, with a hint of demonic cruelty. The heavy black eyeliner and white-face makeup, the holey fishnets and ratted hair - these also serve as a beacon to fellow misfits, a way of finding your tribe while scaring off the normals. It’s a perennially seductive style whose sepulchral glamour appeals as an alternative to mainstream ideals of blondness and tanned health - especially in SoCal. Before the term goth settled into place, the emerging movement was briefly known as “positive punk.” That might seem an odd adjective given the dark worldview, but the positive part is the element of dress-up and cosplay, the sheer effort that goes into self-beautification. The key to goth’s transgenerational appeal is its odd blend of glum and glam. Many even brought morose, awkward teenagers of their own.
#ECOBEE WEATHER POP SKIN#
Yet most of this largely middle-aged crowd must surely now be well-adjusted and comfortable in their skin (not to mention comfortably off, given ticket prices that range from $159 to $799). The connection between the bands and their fans was forged during adolescence, that time when sensitive souls start having deep thoughts.
“Cruel” is a more timeless, existentialist accusation about a sadness inherent to life itself. In goth, the cruelty of the world doesn’t have a political dimension: It’s not a reference to economic inequality or the literally hateful policies being enacted all around the country.
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