{"id":43021,"date":"2024-10-01T19:48:10","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T23:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=43021"},"modified":"2024-10-31T16:47:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T20:47:17","slug":"review-cults-w-vampire-weekend-td-garden-9-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2024\/10\/01\/review-cults-w-vampire-weekend-td-garden-9-27\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: CULTS W\/ VAMPIRE WEEKEND @ TD GARDEN 9\/27"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Shawn Brackbill<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Review by Olivia Valera<\/span><\/p>\n

My first experience hearing Cults, probably quite similar to most people\u2019s, was some fall day scrolling through Instagram with my best friend from high school. The bedroom pop, nostalgia-drenched song \u201cAlways Forever\u201d launched the band into major success after becoming a viral hit on the social media platform TikTok. The song\u2019s dreamy, romantic sound makes it one of my favorite autumnal listens.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The New York-based band Cults formed in 2010 when guitarist Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin, both San Diego natives, met in the city while both were attending university. The band released their debut, self-titled album in 2011 and slowly built a devoted following while playing big-name festivals such as Lollapalooza and Coachella. This past weekend, they headed to Boston\u2019s TD Garden as the opening band for headliner Vampire Weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n

The huge expanse of TD Garden was sparsely filled with people meandering in as Cults made their way onto the set as a four-piece band. Behind them hung a huge scarlet banner proclaiming themselves a musical presence in their own right – not just as a shuffled-on opener without a claim to their own popularity and followers. They opened with \u201cCry Baby\u201d off of their newest album, \u201cTo the Ghosts,\u201d released at the end of July 2024. The catchy dance-tune is a soft reminder that sometimes, the endless tirade of expressing only our struggles and grief can get old. It ended with a hefty round of applause despite the general emptiness of the venue, the crowd offering encouragement to make up for the lack of volume there to witness their performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The band followed up with their video-game synth, heavy pop song \u201cOnions\u201d by pointing out that they had collaborated with the world-famous, Boston-based pickle company Grillo\u2019s to create new merch for their tour. I cannot confirm whether money was made off this partnership, but I applaud their local appeal scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n

Usually, what I first notice about a live band is aesthetic as it compares to musical genre and general vibe. Beneath muted blue lighting, Follin was dressed head to toe in glittery pastels. Her light blue shorts and suit jacket combo were paired with futuristic silver heels and pink knee-high socks. The ambiance reminded me of the mid-80s cult classic film \u201cThe Never Ending Story.\u201d Cults’ particular brand of dream-pop is heavy on synths and chamber-echo vocal reverb. Notably, many of their songs embrace the ephemeral fully and simply fade out, without a determined end, and go as quickly and lightly as they came.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Their set was interspersed with several songs off of their new album, but also cognizant of fitting in their more well-known hits such as \u201cGilded Lily,\u201d which sounds like it could be the backing for a climactic scene in a dystopian 80\u2019s space action film. It is, perhaps, unsurprising that this one is my favorite, as drama leaks out at every turn. The band finished with \u201cAlways Forever,\u201d an easy crowd appeal, which left a warm impression at the end of their precisely 30-minute set.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It seemed apparent that most of the crowd had not come to watch Cults. The stadium was impressively underfilled, leaving a small huddled group on the floor to try to make up for in sound what the visuals left to be desired. Furthermore, TD Garden does not lend itself to the intimate nature of live music. The band looked overly distant and perhaps a little awkward as they tried their best to interact with the crowd while moving across the wide-expanse of the stage. I think if circumstances had been different\u2013had the entire amphitheater been filled with Cults fans scream-crying every lyric along with the band\u2013their live performance might have made more of an impact on me. Alas, perhaps I just prefer the smaller venue style, where the set can be more stylized, the crowd more passionate and packed in, and the lighting somewhat less sterile.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listening to Cults this past weekend caused a backslide into heavy reminiscence about 2020\u2013 the year I first heard their music. Despite the fever dream and chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, their music also acts as the backdrop of realizing the durability of my friendships as we left childhood together during an uncertain time, suspended in the echo chambers of Follin\u2019s wispy, chiming vocals.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Shawn Brackbill Review by Olivia Valera My first experience hearing Cults, probably quite similar to most people\u2019s, was some fall day scrolling through Instagram with my best friend from high school. The bedroom pop, nostalgia-drenched song \u201cAlways Forever\u201d launched the band into major success after becoming a viral hit on the social media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24057,"featured_media":43022,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[327,219,192],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24057"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44219,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43021\/revisions\/44219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}