Cure Concert

What a fantastic show (not that I expected anything less)! 3 hours of Cure-filled goodness.

Here’s the setlist. I bolded the songs I enjoyed.

Plainsong, Prayers For Rain, alt.end, A Night Like This, The Walk, The End of the World, Lovesong, Pictures of You, Lullaby, The Perfect Boy, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Hot Hot Hot, Sleep When I’m Dead, Push, Friday I’m in Love, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven, Primary, Never Enough, The Only One, Wrong Number, One Hundred Years, Disintegration

1st encore: If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, The Kiss
2nd encore: Lovecats, Freakshow, Close To Me, Why Can’t I Be You?
3rd encore: Boys Don’t Cry, Jumping Someone Else’s Train, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab.

Total = 34 songs.

Once again, I got screwed out of my Seventeen Seconds encore, but more on that later.

I was peeved on the way to the venue after seeing this, but once we got there and I saw where our seats were, I quickly got over it. For some reason I thought we were higher up and further back than we actually ended up. Our line of sight was quite excellent (other than the red-head who danced the whole time a few rows ahead, but I ended up sliding over to the empty seat on my left so I could still see Robert). We were close to the aisle too which made my frequent trips to the bathroom easier. I also gave into the evil that is Allstate Arena concessions and got a $4.50 bottle of water (which they put in a plastic cup, thus being even more wasteful) and $3.75 pretzel.

Oh and before I forget to document this, it is fucking FREEZING inside the arena. I almost felt sorry for the hootchie girls in their tank tops and capris, but not really. Who wears heels to a concert? Seriously. I had on jeans and my beloved Let’s Go To Bed t-shirt that Joe bought me when we were first dating after I lamented how I hesitated buying it from The Clubhouse the one time I saw it and the next time I went there it was gone. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually worn a Cure shirt to a Cure concert before so that was kinda cool. But I digress.

Even though dear Robert did NOT play my favorite song in the whole world, A Forest, which he played at the majority of the other shows, I still really enjoyed myself, particularly when a group of their faster more pop-like songs began with Friday I’m In Love. First off, the hearts from the single’s cover that spun around on the screens were so cute and they seemed to dance along to the music. Secondly, everyone was singing along even more so than any other Cure show I’ve been to (and this marks #5). The energy was just amazing! Check out this video someone posted over at YouTube.

That being said, I was a little disappointed in the second half of the show. Don’t get me wrong, it was still good, just not as good as the first half. Plus Robert completely butchered Disintegration. I mean, it was god awful. Clearly the worst song of the night and I love love love that song! After the song Robert said some words to the effect of something being “fucking awful” but I can’t make out a word that man says so I’m not sure if he was referring to the song or his voice since I read that he was having vocal problems. Wrong Number wasn’t too hot either and I don’t know why he seems to always play If Only Tonight We Could Sleep because that is one of my least favorite songs of the band’s and didn’t they realize I was there? ;)

The encores were a bit disappointing too as I was hoping for the classic Seventeen Seconds lineup – Play For Today, M, and my beloved aforementioned A Forest. I don’t get all the hub-bub over Lovecats but I seemed to be the only one as the audience went ape-shit over it. Once they got to the third and final encore, which were songs from Three Imaginary Boys and Boys Don’t Cry, I knew I wasn’t going to get my wish. Jumping Someone Else’s Train was pretty bad-ass, though!

Despite my moments of “what the fuck?” and slight disappointment, I’d still say it was an amazing show. The light effects alone were awesome and really tied well to the music. Their playing was impressive considering they no longer have a keyboard player. I love The Cure live and as long as they keep playing, I’ll keep paying Ticketbastard insane prices to see them.

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Side note: We managed to avoid the hour-long trying to get the fuck out of the parking lot fiasco by parking in the back away from where everyone else was directed to park. I believe everyone used the South entrance while we used the North. I made my last trip to the bathroom during 10:15 Saturday Night and we stood in the concourse to listen to Killing An Arab. Once Robert said goodnight, we high-tailed it out of there and were one of the first cars out of the lot, nearly behind what we think might have been The Cure’s tour bus! It had a police escort and was headed to the airport so I can’t imagine who else it was. If it was in fact them, I’m impressed with how quickly they got out of there.