Sunday, May 18, 2008

The Cure - 10:15, Saturday Night?

A few years ago, at the onset of 2006, I took stock of the shows I had attended and the bands I had seen. At that time, there were 3 bands I hadn’t seen that I regretted not having seen. These were three bands/artists who I had liked for a very long time and heard great things about live performances but just hadn’t gotten around to seeing them for various reasons.

Last year, 2007, I saw that all three had announced tours – Bjork to backup her new album “Volta”, Rage Against The Machine for no obvious reason, and The Cure to backup the (as of yet) untitled new record. In one year, I could single handedly check-off my live music wishlist!

Around the summer time, sadly, The Cure cancelled their tour and rescheduled for 2008 – vowing to revisit their plans and create an even better experience for the fans.

And so, last night, after a long wait, my list was completed, as The Cure indeed came back around and played in Chicago.

And played indeed. For 3 hours, across a main set and 3 encores, they took stock of their entire career and went all the way back to the beginning, and I mean ALL the way back to the late 70s, and their first 3 singles – “Killing An Arab”, “Boys Don’t Cry”, and “Jumping Someone Else’s Train”. No frills. Just the four of them playing the music – Robert Smith, Porl Thompson on guitar (back after a long absence), Simon Gallup on bass, and [relative newcomer] Jason Cooper on drums. No synthesizers, save for the occasional backdrop such as on “Close To Me” and very little in the way of lights and visuals.

While the older songs thrilled most of us fans, a few new songs gave us a glimpse of what to expect on the forthcoming album, supposedly due in the fall. And in between (pun fully intended), they threw in almost all the pop songs that made them famous, including one stretch of “Lovesong”, “Pictures Of You” and “Lullaby” (all from “Disintegration”) and a second exhilarating stretch of “Friday I’m In Love”, “In Between Days”, and “Just Like Heaven” in a row (how’s that for piling it on)?

Robert apologized several times for what he perceived to be a lackluster performance due to vocal problems, but, from my vantage point, it sounded exactly as I hoped it would.

And now that the whistle is wet, I get to see them again in NYC in 2 months!

Set:
1. Plainsong
2. Prayers For Rain
3. alt.end
4. A Night Like This
5. The Walk
6. The End Of The World
7. Lovesong
8. Pictures Of You
9. Lullaby
10. The Perfect Boy (new)
11. From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
12. Hot Hot Hot!!!
13. Sleep When I’m Dead (new)
14. Push
15. Friday I’m In Love
16. In Between Days
17. Just Like Heaven
18. Primary
19. Never Enough
20. The Only One (new)
21. Wrong Number
22. One Hundred Years
23. Disintegration

Encore 1 (“Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me”):
1. In Only Tonight We Could Sleep
2. The Kiss

Encore 2:
1. The Lovecats
2. Freak Show (new)
3. Close To Me
4. Why Can’t I Be You?

Encore 3 (Where It All Started):
1. Boy’s Don’t Cry (second single)
2. Jumping Someone Else’s Train (third single)
3. Grinding Halt (third track, first album)
4. 10.15 Saturday Night (first track, first album)
5. Killing An Arab (first single)

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