POP MUSIC REVIEWS : A Recognizable Cult Rocks the Palladium

Throughout its long career, the Cult has been haunted by redundancy on record and sludginess on stage.

The redundancy is often pardonable, because when singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy are on the mark, they’re highly effective (if somewhat affected) belting out catchy, overblown dance-metal with enough oblique references to things sexual and spiritual to mask the fact that they’ve been playing variations of the same three songs for about 10 years. That they manage to do so much with so little on their records is what renders their chronic sludginess in concert almost tragic.

But the English group’s show at the Hollywood Palladium on Monday was only moderately sludgy. For the most part the songs were recognizable, and the greatest hits (“Rain,” “She Sells Sanctuary,” “Love Removal Machine”) generally maintained the elasticity and energy of the recorded versions. Other new material, including “Black Sun” and the unrecorded “In the Clouds,” fared better.

Astbury was lively though unfocused, having jettisoned the post apocalyptic cowboy/hippie trappings that made him a Gothic-rock demigod. Perhaps this heralds a phase of exploration, although it might prove unwise for the Cult to stray too far from the well-beaten path to its success.