Tag: The Cure

As it got closer to last Sunday I started wondering whether we should have purchased Lollapalooza tickets after all. I even went so far as to check ticket prices on StubHub and Craigslist. There were plenty of tickets to be had for face value and above. $200 to see my favorite band? Yay or nay?

I ended up deciding against it. I just couldn’t bring myself to spend $200 to attend a packed festival (attendance was a record-breaking 300,000 people) on a Sunday night even though Joe had Monday off from work. Picturing having to locate parking and navigate through a sea of people seemed daunting. I felt a bit sad, but then I learned that they planned to stream the concert live (well, turns out it was aired with a 15 minute delay, but still not too shabby). So I set my alarm for 8 PM, since the webcast was scheduled to start at 8:15 PM, and went about my day.

Once 8:00 PM rolled around I was on my computer and loading the website. Actually, I tested it earlier as well and discovered a new-to-me artist called Steve Aoki that I plan to learn more about since I loved his sound. Anyway, I was blown away by the video and sound quality of the webcast: it was phenomenal! Not only that, but they aired The Cure’s act in its entirety. Wow, I was not expecting that! I had a good time reading Twitter updates live during the show, as well as chatting in the comments of my favorite Cure fan site. And I’m so so glad we didn’t actually go because I had better seats at home! And while I think they sounded quite good (although for the love of god, please stop playing Wrong Number at shows, it sounds terrible), they did nearly all pop music for the entire two hours. We got Disintegration and One Hundred Years but that was about it for the deeper stuff. Sorry, but I don’t count Plainsong since they often use it as a dramatic way to open a show.

What I hold against Robert, however, is that he pulled A Forest (as well as Bananafishbones and Hot Hot Hot) from the set-list, which he has seemingly done to Chicago fans since 2000. Seriously, every time they tour, A Forest is played at the majority of shows. Then they come to Chicago, I get all excited thinking they will play it, and they don’t. WTF!??! Don’t they know that’s my favorite Cure song of all time? Don’t they care? I’m starting to feel like it’s some personal slight against Chicago. Damn you Robert Smith!

In case you missed it, here’s the show in its entirety.

Setlist: Plainsong, Pictures of You, Lullaby, High, The End of the World, Lovesong, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, The Walk, Mint Car, Friday I’m In Love, Doing the Unstuck, Trust, Want, Fascination Street, The Hungry Ghost, Wrong Number, One Hundred Years, Disintegration

Encore: The Lovecats, The Caterpillar, Close To Me, Let’s Go To Bed, Why Can’t I Be You?, Boys Don’t Cry.

I made the decision not to buy tickets to see The Cure at Lollapalooza and what did I read today? That Robert Smith apparently said he’s retiring at age 55 which is next year. I sure hope that’s just another empty threat, or he comes out of retirement shortly thereafter, otherwise I’m going to be pretty sad that I passed up my last opportunity to see him live again (tickets are sold out so it’s not like I can get them now even if I wanted to).

I’ve never attended Lollapalooza and had no plans on ever doing so; crowded outdoor festivals in the summer heat hold no appeal to me whatsoever. Then I learned that The Cure is one of the headliners this year. I was eagerly awaiting the official lineup announcement, which came this morning, to find out which day The Cure would be playing and what other bands might be sharing the stage with them.

Much to my dismay, The Cure is playing on Sunday, August 4th. As headliners they will likely be playing in the evening which means we would have to get there early to secure decent seats even though there aren’t any other good bands playing on Sunday (why oh why does New Order have to be playing on Friday???) and we would have to take that Monday off or suffer the consequences of lack of sleep (I’m going to assume for the moment that I’ll have a job by then). Basically we’d be trekking downtown in the heat and battling the crowds to pay $200+ just to see The Cure. Needless to say, as much as I love that band I’m leaning towards not going.

Making a final decision would be so much easier if I knew whether The Cure plans on touring the U.S. anytime soon. If so I wouldn’t hesitate to skip their Lollapalooza appearance. As it stands now there’s a 25% chance I’ll be begrudgingly purchasing tickets on Wednesday.

This weekend I actually purchased a few CDs from the used book store. I got 2 double cd sets, 3 regular cds, and 3 singles for $12. Not too shabby, although so far one double set has proved to be disappointing. But I still enjoy having a physical CD as opposed to downloading tracks, particularly if there’s more than two songs I want to hear.

That’s why I love the library. It’s try before you buy. And when I was there the other day I was playing a little game where I pick a CD from a band I’ve never heard of before based on the cover art being interesting. This one just happened to be “A Beautiful Lie” by 30 Seconds to Mars. I started listening to it today and I’m really getting into it. I recognized the song, “The Kill” from the radio, but the real excitement was the track “Was It A Dream?”. It reminded me of another band… and then the following track contained the lyrics “Maybe tonight we can forget about it all. It could be just like heaven.” Gee, you think they’re Cure fans?

 

Speaking of The Cure, their new album comes out tomorrow. I’ve been itching to order it from Amazon.com but didn’t want it shipped separately from a few other items I’m planning on getting so that order will be placed tomorrow. I can wait to hear it because quite frankly after buying and listening to all the singles my expectations are low. I’d love for them to prove me wrong, of course.

My music recommendations for the week:

A Beautiful Lie by 30 Seconds to Mars
4:13 Dream by The Cure
Enter by Russian Circles
Big Beach Boutique II by Fatboy Slim