The Cure: Classic or Dud?

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/im_alive._im_dead_the_cure_in_concert_1984

Two 1984 gigs, one from Glasgow and one from Munich. The Glasgow set list is similar to the Concert set.

I was at that Glasgow show, I think. (Well, I was at a Glasgow show in 84, and I doubt there was more than one.)

Certainly Concert features one of the best set lists—probably the very best—of any Cure tour before or since.

lol, how many Cure tours since have featured a consistent set list at all?

Concert is great, but it was before Kiss Me, Disintegration and Wish so I think many tours had amazing setlists after too.

lol, how many Cure tours since have featured a consistent set list at all?

There was a time when you knew they were just about done when you heard the opening keyboards for 'A Forest.' This was from about 1990-2004.

Just sayin'.

ok now tell us the order of all the other songs they played

Well, if you heard 'The Walk' you could bet that 'Let's Go to Bed' was next. Same with 'Inbetween Days' and 'Just Like Heaven.'

Shake Dog Shake to open, Piggy in the Mirror or Six Different Ways somewhere early, couple from Pornography, then Primary / Charlotte / The Walk somewhere, A Forest, 10:15, Killing an Arab, done.
I think I'm showing my age.

The Wish tour setlists were the most rigid ones they've had - otherwise, yeah you can always expect a couple of curveballs per show

Behold! 4:14 Scream

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/feb/03/the-cure-new-album-live-dvd-trilogy-shows-2014

I hope they don't keep that title

also WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I wonder if there's any allusion there to Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis? Exciting news, anyway.

Huh, is this featuring the keyboard-free four-piece version of the band? I didn't like that line-up live much.

yeah I dunno any news from The Cure is exciting, esp when it comes to recording - but I'm a bit disappointed these will just be eftovers from 4:13 released 5 years later. C'mon how about getting back in the studio?
Live DVDs OTOH...

Well I'd been wanting to hear that other set of songs since they announced it, they kept talking about a second album. They definitely have had a weird/relaxed rest on their laurels career for the last few years, though -- though they pulled it off really well, based on all the various live shows and broadcasts and etc.

Any updates on the reissue series?

They definitely have had a weird/relaxed rest on their laurels career for the last few years

Indeed. I'm a bit surprised RS has seemingly accepted for teh Cure to become solely a nostalgia act. A bit disheartening considering how well Depeche Mode - their most obvious peers - have managed their twilight years.

Well, what's interesting to me is that Smith hasn't NOT been doing stuff -- he's on a seemingly endless round of one-offs, collaborations, remakes, etc. Maybe he just wants to do that.

I'm a bit surprised RS has seemingly accepted for teh Cure to become solely a nostalgia act. A bit disheartening considering how well Depeche Mode - their most obvious peers - have managed their twilight years.

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 3 February 2014 17:44 (1 hour ago) Permalink

Yeah, Depeche Mode have managed their twilight years quite well, but at the same time it's arguable that Depeche's situation has a lot to do with the fact that they never fail to do a mammoth tour every time they release an album. If one was to judge Depeche's last 7 years or so based on recorded output alone, the opinion of whether they've managed their twilight years or not would depend upon how much of an obsessive hardcore fan you are. It goes without saying that I love Depeche Mode, and at their very best they're incredible. They're still able to go around the world touring (as are The Cure) and pack the venues, but their recorded output isn't what it once was, I'll admit. In spite of that, I'll still follow them regardless, and I am exactly the same with The Cure.

I like dp's last couple a lot better than the cure's. Which I maybe listened to once. DPs I listened to at least twice, maybe three or four.

Xp Well I wasn't talking about tours but simply that DM post-peak albums >>> Cure albums (and I consider myself first and foremost a hardcore Cure fan)

I'm probably in the minority thinking that DM's last 5 albums or so are pretty much on par with the rest of their albums (Playing the Angel being a career highlight IMO) but beyond that - DM just seems to have maintained a pretty steady path, releasing a decent album ever 4 years and touring behind it. I don't see them doing trilogy shows or festival tours for the time being

Yeah, they've pretty well spent this century working on becoming a great goddamn live band through and through, with one standout album in Playing and good albums in general otherwise. I get a sense Dave really takes his second chance at life very seriously but also from I can tell exuberantly, and the fact he seems to have gotten better as a singer/performer is helping as Martin's voice, originally a key saving grace when Dave ran himself too ragged, is starting to audibly give ground. Handy, really.

But to turn back to the subject at hand -- Robert and the band, in whatever formation, seem to just keep on keeping on. That Lollapalooza live set last year was A+.

Jesus H, this setlist!

Shake Dog Shake
Kyoto Song (First time since 2008)
A Night Like This
alt.end
Wailing Wall (First time since 1984)
Bananafishbones
The Caterpillar
The Walk
A Man Inside My Mouth (Live debut)
Close to Me
Lullaby
High
Birdmad Girl
Just Like Heaven
Pictures of You
Before Three
Lovesong
Like Cockatoos (First time since 2004)
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
Want
The Hungry Ghost
One Hundred Years
Give Me It

Encore:
The Empty World (First time since 1984)
Charlotte Sometimes
Primary
The Top

Encore 2:
Dressing Up
Piggy in the Mirror (First time since 1997)
Never Enough
Wrong Number

Encore 3:
Three Imaginary Boys
M
Play for Today
A Forest

Encore 4:
The Lovecats
Let’s Go to Bed
Why Can’t I Be You?
Boys Don’t Cry
Hey You! (First time since 2004)

A Man Inside My Mouth (Live debut)

wau

oh man

Everything about that set list is great.

is Lol back?? seems weird doing the Lol n Bob album without him.

The Top is pretty much Robert solo, he wrote and played everything exept for the drumms.

"Wailing Wall" !!

So it looks like 4:14 Scream hasn't appeared yet!

Knew those shows would be great. Gutted...

I'm looking for the 3-bluray box already. They ARE recording this, right?

whoa.

"Wailing Wall" !!

i would have loved to have been at that show, wow what a set-list!

The only album that doesn't seem to be represented is Bloodflowers

I do like how "The Hungry Ghost" seems to be becoming a standard choice for them.

Always thought that The Hungry Ghost sounded like it should've been on the Head on the Door. It would've fitted in well.

London gigs up on d1m3 now

Not a member. Will this trickle down to other places?

"So it looks like 4:14 Scream hasn't appeared yet!"

I'm happy not hearing anything new from them frankly.

Grinch

Yeah despite all the disillusions I will never not be excited about prospects of new Cure music

"Hungry Ghost" was a good one and I thought the last album was generally fun, so I'm looking forward to the next album.

I think Smith said he wasn't that bothered about creating new music, so I doubt there will be much more.

So I was watching this documentary on YouTube, and it was interviews with British Cure fans talking about why the Cure are so "important", "influential", etc. I think that to their millions of fans they are canonical, but there just seems to be something about them that irks rock canon types. Part of me thinks perhaps it is their diverse fan base and the way they reached American suburbia in a way that "important" groups didn't. And what is so WRONG about suburban mopey kids anyway? There will always be that personality that will never be accepted by cynical critic types. But why is cynicism / drug addiction / urban street cred so necessary to be regarded as "important"? Are music critics really fantasists, and being a suburban fanboy or fangirl just not part of that?

Any thoughts / writings on this would be appreciated.

there just seems to be something about them that irks rock canon types

The lipstick.

It is weird that so many bands that were dismissed by the hetero macho rock crew back in the day have been completely embraced, but not the Cure. It's kind of a cool thing about them that they remain so divisive even as they are becoming the Grateful Dead of their era.

I like it when grandmothers drop the Cure's name or when I hear them at the drug store.

At 2x speed, this reads like affectionate parody. Live the dancing:

http://youtu.be/v4osvtUlrEc

Anyone see this silhouette and think robert smith looked like some weird monster with an elephant dicknose?

http://www.8ball.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/700x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/T/h/The_cure_-_robert_silhouette_-_wht_girls_cu.jpg

Still not sure exactly what's going on with his hands here. They look so weird an big.

I always liked that photo in the earlier versions.