Cruel World/ L.A. Trip: Part 1
I went to Cruel World Festival and Los Angeles about two weeks ago. It was a fun time and I got really relaxed away from Spokane. The minus is an obviously sick local was coughing it up at the Spokane airport gate in Seattle and I got his bad cold that lasted a week. May his insides rot.
Cruel World…I met up with cool Twitch people. I had not met any of them except my usual Twitch concert buddy AV. It was great seeing them in the flesh and seeing the people behind the Twitch chat names.
I will talk about Cruel World now and go set by set on how I felt about the performances and music.
We got there a bit late because we forgot it was at 11:00 a.m. start and thought it started at 11:30. It was a bit of a maze to get to the correct parking that we paid for ahead of time. We paid for GA+ and found it was really all we needed as we went through the day. VIP is a bit of a rip off and they corral you in a fenced area very off to the side from the stage. But, back to the beginning of this festival review.
We got there and through the gates, put stuff in our locker (again something we prepaid for), and started getting the lay of the festival by wandering around. We bumped into two Twitch people we knew and wandered on to the meet-up point we arranged before time for all the people. People filtered over and we talked and got photos. It was fun and the highlight was meeting a Twitch friend who is rather secretive about who he is and who actually showed up to CW. Yes, he is in the photo above.
After that we all broke off and headed into the “what bands we want to see schedule.” First up for me was General Public.
General Public: I was curious to see how it would sound with Ranking Roger being dead. He is a missed figure in alternative music. It turned out Dave Wakeling did a wonderful set with help from his band. His hype man was amazing. They covered the big hits and then slipped into some English Beat songs. He sounded really good and I was glad I got to see them. It was fun to see obvious grandmas skanking to the beat in the crowd.
The Faint: Their sound was SHIT. Whoever did sound for them was awful. The bass was blown out and the vocals too low. They put on a good stage show and tried their best but the bad sound just ruined their set and made me feel for them.
Gary Numan: I had seen Numan in 2022 in Spokane and loved him. He has a lot of energy and really throws himself into the performances he puts on. He was playing The Pleasure Principle and I found it lacking. It was too retro in sound and too synth heavy. He was still throwing himself into the performance but the music choice sort of…deadened the impact. It did not help his vocals were too low and when he had his daughters sing backup? You could not even hear them. Not even on videos on Youtube of the song. That was a big moment for him and bad sound ruined it really. It was not a bad performance, just lacking power and bad vocal level in the sound mix.
The Jesus and Mary Chain: They were AMAZING. They also had low vocals and lead singer was having to yell sing until he told them to turn the “fucking vocals up” about 3 songs in to the set. Then it was amazing. It was all I had hoped it would be and they were my pick for band I had to see that day. I actually bought a Cruel World Festival pass to see this band. Just on the fact they were in the lineup. They played some of their new songs and a lot of the ones from the 90s. They were definitely worth a view and I saw them from 20 rows of people back which is amazing when the people in the crowd extended way back to a line of trees.
Simple Minds: This band was my favorite band when I was 14 and they had their moment in the US with Alive & Kicking and all the songs from that album that song was on. Most people who went to Cruel World cite this set as one of the best of the festivals. I agree but for a different reason than they do. They thought they “sounded amazing.” I admit Jim Kerr had some “hearing himself issues” (more shitty sound on vocals issues) and he sort of lost steam near the end of the set. But…the crowd was SO INTO THE SET. They danced, they cheered, they sang along, and they helped Kerr keep energy up. There were some hardcore fans there and everyone was there to enjoy. We managed to only be about 30 rows of people back from the stage. The crowd extended beyond tree line and over to the entry gates. It was huge. Simple Minds simply should have been on the main stage and not the “Sad Girls” stage. They extended “Don’t You Forget About Me” with crowd singing along as their closer and everyone was fully into it. Simple Minds are to tour the US next year and I think they will do well in mid-sized venues. So, get to see them when they tour.
I then missed Placebo because I was in the GA+ bathroom line. AV and I sat in the GA+ lounge afterward and watched Interpol from there since we had straight eyeline to the stage/screens and great sound to hear them from the distance we were at.
Interpol: They were amazing! They sounded very tight as a band and vocals were good. Their stage presence was wonderful. They had black/white video feed of them on stage on the big screens. They sounded almost exactly like the albums they have put out. I would definitely see them on their own headlining a show.
Av and I started trekking the distance to the main stage to see headliners Duran Duran. People seemed shocked I was not opting for Tones on Tail. Yeah, Tones On Tail have one album…Duran Duran have decades of music. I was a Durannie when I was 12/13 years old. Hardcore. I had never see them and this was probably my only chance. I was going to take it before Duran Duran completely declined in performance level. Speaking of performance levels…
On our trek we caught the last two songs of Blondie’s set. It was CRINGE bad. The band was tight, sounded great, and on point. Debbie Harry? Her voice is GONE. She got lost in the sauce during “Dreaming” and just sort of hooted and hollered “Dreammmmin” as the band tried to get her back to the place she needed to be. She then offhandedly said it was a “Special Cruel World mix” as an excuse when the song finally ended. The last song was making me want to go on stage and carefully lead her off…like you would if grandma started singing at a family event and was very bad. I am sorry…I know she is a icon and has done amazing music. The history of the band and her is rich but, she needs to retire. She is tarnishing her legacy. I was glad when she stopped singing and AV was like “Yeah, we made a great decision missing this. We saw Glen Matlock on his own in San Diego and he was great, this was not.”
We got prime position pretty close enough to stage without getting crushed by the crowd for Duran Duran and waited. All the Hot Topic Mall Goths cleared off to Tones On Tail and the Duran Duran fans took their places. They had a huge crowd and many you could tell loved them for decades and were finally seeing them. So much Duran Duran merch was around in the form of tee shirts.
Duran Duran: Then they started? They opened with my favorite Duran Duran song, “The Chauffeur.” They were so professional and the stage performance was great. The band was tight and the lead singer, Simon le Bon, was fun. He put a lot of energy into the performance while still coming across as very dorky. Which made him fun. They did a lot of songs like “Careless Memories” and “A View To A Kill” that I did not expect them to. We had a fun moment when a guy who had been yelling “Re Re Re Flex” between songs finally got his wish and they played “The Reflex.” You could tell it was jam since he was a kid and he LOST HIS SHIT. He sang it so LOUD he was all we heard in our section, while he was filming Duran Duran performing it. It was not annoying but instead rather amusing and touching because you could tell it was his song. It was a good band performance and I do not regret seeing Duran Duran instead of Tones On Tail who merely played for about 40 minutes.
Other Cruel World impressions?
It is a huge trek from the two smaller stages to the main stage. You walk the length of a golf course, where it is held. I understand it is this way so music does not bleed into one another as the stages all have bands on them. So, if you plan to go in the future? Be aware.
The food? Lots offered and it is decent. It also is a bit pricey. Eat when it is not busy...you get your food faster and the lines are smaller. That is what we did after Gary Numan and before Jesus and Mary Chain started. They do offer alcohol, but I opted out even after getting the wrist band to be able to drink. It was warm outside and it just seemed like a bad mix…large packed crowds with lots of standing AND alcohol. But I am sure the drink offerings were good.
There is NO SHADE. Wear a hat. Carry a parasol (what is allowed in the rules of what you can bring in). Wear sunblock. Be aware there IS NO SHADE. If you cannot walk a long distance and need to sit at times? You will HAVE NO SHADE. I can not stress this enough. THERE IS NO SHADE.
Overall, after three years (as of 2024) they are pretty good at ironing the kinks out and it ran very smoothly as a festival. They seem to learn from issues they may have. I do think VIP access is a rip off and GA+ is the highest I would go on level for passes. I don’t need to “cut in the merch line” which is what most people seemed to want iVIP for…that and chairs. The place VIPs stand during sets is bullshit as well since it is off to the side so the rest of the crowd has better front stage access. AV and I started calling the VIP pass the “Boomer Pass” because it seemed to cater to their pampered expectations.
The getting out of the venue afterward was annoying, mostly because we forgot where we parked, it was dark, poorly lit, and looked totally different without light. I was totally tired and beyond being able to deal so had a bit of a meltdown for a few minutes. It passed though. We found the car.
Who do I think they should try to get for next year?
THE PRETENDERS (100% they should!)
Franz Ferdinand
The Hives
The GoGos
They need to dip into 90s bands a bit as well. Yeah, yeah, “but the 80s is where it is at.” There were more Gen X people there and we were in our prime concert attendance in the 90s. Time to dip into that. Have some 80s bands like The Pretenders and the like but start catering to the Gen Xers who are the majority of the concert attendees now. I enjoy a good 80s band but for every good performance like Simple Minds or Duran Duran you get crap like Blondie (Debbie Harry…please just stop.) and the disaster that was Siouxsie Sioux in 2023. Start to change a little with the demographic. Bring in 90s bands that Gen X love. Yes, many still can draw crowds to their own concerts but they would have fun at Cruel World and pick up new fans.
But, but, it will upset the Boomers. So fucking what? They are in the attendance decline. They cannot walk the length of the venue easily. They hug the scrawny shade from the few scrawny trees and look miserable. They leave early. It is time to cater to the attendees who want to hear good music from bands they love.
I would go again depending on what bands they have for next year and if I have the time/money. I had a great time at Cruel World.