First of all, allow me to graphically depict my closeness to the Cure last night (to scale):
me
person #1
person #2
person #3
person #4
person #5
person #6
person #7
------barrier------------------
---------barrier----------------
robert smith
Although person #2 had an annoying habit of being taller than me, by a few songs in, everything had pretty much evened out and I had a really good line of sight despite my smallness.
My review of same
The Cure - Molson Amphitheatre, Aug. 9
After twenty six years, even fans tend to think of Robert Smith as THE personification of angst, gloom, and too many cheeseburgers and lager. Last nights show in Toronto captured those elements, but also showed how much more the band is capable of being.
The Cure have a few advantages over many bands on tour this summer. Firstly, they have an extensive back catalogue of songs that Smith is more than willing to plunder. Unlike that other 80s mainstay Depeche Mode, the band isn't ashamed of their earlier material. They tore through gleeful pop hits like Just Like Heaven and In Between Days, and even went all the wat back to Play for Today and One Hundred Years. Rarity 'Forever' finished the encore.
Secondly, the Cure are still releasing really good music. Current single 'The End of the World' is as good as anything from Standing on a Beach. The lengthy 'Promise', which closed the show proper, created a vast wall of sound unlike anything this Cure fan would have imagined, and MUST be seen live to be fully appreciated. (In 'Promise', they have found a closer with the same power as plainsong has as an opener). The strength of their later work makes it enjoyable to listen to a show made up of material heavily weighted to their post-1990 releases (by far the most well represented albums were current album THE CURE and DISINTEGRATION).
Although supported by several opening acts, the night belonged to only original Cure member Robert Smith. For a goth pioneer who has threatened to break up the band permanently for several years, Smith was in top form and was, dare I say it, even having fun. Wandering around the stage with an enigmatic smile on his face, hamming it up with creepy spider gestures during Lullaby, or quietly conferring with his bass player, Smith captured and held the attention of legions of his adoring fans.
The festival, which featured seven bands on two stages, ran like clockwork. Each band started within a few minutes of their appointed times, and the Cure's set clocked in at exactly 1 hour, 58 minutes (I checked). Sadly, the venue itself did not match the efficiency of the show's organizers and crew. Although the 16,000 capacity theatre has excellent lines of sight, concertgoers complained that there was insufficient time to travel between main and secondary stage without missing portions of a group's set (or, for those on the lawn or in the pit, giving up choice real estate). Egress from the show, shortly after 11 p.m. was slow, and at times seemed to nearly grind to a halt.
[because I used music reviewer style for this, I had to put in one error. Disintegration was released in 1989]
*****
In other news, one of my roommates is moving out. Apparently we are going to be able to take over the lease at the same (really cheap!) rate. I wish he had told us a little sooner, because we are across the street from the University and it would be easy to rent to a student, but school starts in like, three weeks! And the market here has gotten really renter/buyer friendly (well, relatively) over the last few months (more than I have seen in years).
My roommate was a decent guy and was OK to live with. But he was the messy one (I'm not saying that me or the other roommate were very neat, in fact we can be pretty bad, but he was definitely the worst). So if we get an OK roommate it should be really good!
me
person #1
person #2
person #3
person #4
person #5
person #6
person #7
------barrier------------------
---------barrier----------------
robert smith
Although person #2 had an annoying habit of being taller than me, by a few songs in, everything had pretty much evened out and I had a really good line of sight despite my smallness.
My review of same
The Cure - Molson Amphitheatre, Aug. 9
After twenty six years, even fans tend to think of Robert Smith as THE personification of angst, gloom, and too many cheeseburgers and lager. Last nights show in Toronto captured those elements, but also showed how much more the band is capable of being.
The Cure have a few advantages over many bands on tour this summer. Firstly, they have an extensive back catalogue of songs that Smith is more than willing to plunder. Unlike that other 80s mainstay Depeche Mode, the band isn't ashamed of their earlier material. They tore through gleeful pop hits like Just Like Heaven and In Between Days, and even went all the wat back to Play for Today and One Hundred Years. Rarity 'Forever' finished the encore.
Secondly, the Cure are still releasing really good music. Current single 'The End of the World' is as good as anything from Standing on a Beach. The lengthy 'Promise', which closed the show proper, created a vast wall of sound unlike anything this Cure fan would have imagined, and MUST be seen live to be fully appreciated. (In 'Promise', they have found a closer with the same power as plainsong has as an opener). The strength of their later work makes it enjoyable to listen to a show made up of material heavily weighted to their post-1990 releases (by far the most well represented albums were current album THE CURE and DISINTEGRATION).
Although supported by several opening acts, the night belonged to only original Cure member Robert Smith. For a goth pioneer who has threatened to break up the band permanently for several years, Smith was in top form and was, dare I say it, even having fun. Wandering around the stage with an enigmatic smile on his face, hamming it up with creepy spider gestures during Lullaby, or quietly conferring with his bass player, Smith captured and held the attention of legions of his adoring fans.
The festival, which featured seven bands on two stages, ran like clockwork. Each band started within a few minutes of their appointed times, and the Cure's set clocked in at exactly 1 hour, 58 minutes (I checked). Sadly, the venue itself did not match the efficiency of the show's organizers and crew. Although the 16,000 capacity theatre has excellent lines of sight, concertgoers complained that there was insufficient time to travel between main and secondary stage without missing portions of a group's set (or, for those on the lawn or in the pit, giving up choice real estate). Egress from the show, shortly after 11 p.m. was slow, and at times seemed to nearly grind to a halt.
[because I used music reviewer style for this, I had to put in one error. Disintegration was released in 1989]
*****
In other news, one of my roommates is moving out. Apparently we are going to be able to take over the lease at the same (really cheap!) rate. I wish he had told us a little sooner, because we are across the street from the University and it would be easy to rent to a student, but school starts in like, three weeks! And the market here has gotten really renter/buyer friendly (well, relatively) over the last few months (more than I have seen in years).
My roommate was a decent guy and was OK to live with. But he was the messy one (I'm not saying that me or the other roommate were very neat, in fact we can be pretty bad, but he was definitely the worst). So if we get an OK roommate it should be really good!
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
My roommate is an intern with Planetary Geology, so she can't use that phrase. She can, however, tell people she's studying rock from Mars.