"4:13 Dream" by the Cure

"The Only One" is a cross between the Smiths' "Shakespear's Sister" and, um, "High"

anyone go to San Jose last night? looks like they played "The Blood," "Catch," "A Strange Day," "Doing the Unstuck" and the full, 4-song Seventeen Seconds encore. So jealous...

SO impatient for Saturday.

they've been mixing up the setlist a bit more lately -- I think you're in for a treat, Ned :)

http://media.tumblr.com/HMYQgMDrx9jx6fraqYiPJE1R_500.png

OMG Mookieproof! You won the internet for the day! (That being the Sasquatch fest pic, I think.)

I <3 those Robert smith ALL CAPS UPDATES.

KEEP IT UP ROBERT

YES
NO
HAHA YES I MEAN

MACKRO.MACKRO

So, judging by the setlist, our friend Ned must have had his head blown...

yeh NO SHIT

*whistles idly*

34 songs, six of them new, perfect sound, great performances, Robert looking just fine, way into it crowd, Hollywood Bowl...nah, sucked.

You didn't go the Shrine show?

Trust me, after seeing THAT setlist, I regret not being able to catch that as well. ;-)

Setlist: Intro (Adagio For Strings), Out of This World, Pictures of You, Fascination Street, alt.end, A Strange Day, The End of the World, The Baby Screams, Love Song, Sleep When I'm Dead, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Lullaby, The Perfect Boy, Kyoto Song, The Only One, Push, How Beautiful You Are, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven, Primary, Us or Them, Signal To Noise, One Hundred Years, Bloodflowers

1st encore: Plainsong, Disintegration
2nd encore: "Simon would like to dedicate this next song to Lol and Michael. Says he can play it much better (without them?)" Three Imaginary Boys, Fire In Cairo, Boys Don't Cry, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab
3rd encore: "Cause I'm not sure how to play Happy Birthday, we'll do this instead." Faith!!! (Happy Birthday to Simon mixed in, plus 2Late extra lyrics)

o_0

To put it mildly!

'Faith' from said show. FLAC format so it'll take a bit.

OH MY GOD i said earlier in the thread i would LOVE to see them do Faith. i hate you Ned. make them play Faith in Texas this weekend please. oh and Bloodflowers too. best setlist of the tour, so far.

No, that's the point! I didn't see them do that, so I'm in the same boat!

Been talking with people today who went, though. LOTS of compliments on my shirt, yay me. (Got the black/red striped one.)

Who knew? A review of the Shrine show:

So Cindy and I went off to see The Cure at The Shrine here in Los Angeles last night. Really strong and powerful performances from everybody I thought. This was the first time ive seen the band as a four piece and I have to say I was very impressed.It was truly rockin at the shrine!
One of the highlights for me was how so many of you guys came up to say hello to me afterwards.That made it a great end to a very nice evening! Thanks!

Why quote this -- easy: the identity of the author.

blimey!

That'd explain the second encore intro, just above.

Any idea what the new album will be like? I hope it will be nothing like "The Cure", which was easily their worst ever album.

I would imagine you'd like the new single, no?

the new single's great.

Ned, i see now you went to the Hollywood Bowl. fair enough, still a great show i'm sure. i would kill for that Shrine setlist though, that is gonna be the stuff of legend on this tour.

would have loved to see the shrine OR hollywood bowl show (hi ned!). mind you, i got super-lucky with middle floors close to the stage for the toronto show, which was awesome. are they doing approx 3-hour sets for every show? as others have said, his voice sounded amazing - i was shocked how it really didn't seem to have changed at all.

Toronto Main set: Open, Fascination Street, alt.end, The Walk, 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, Shake Dog Shake, Never Enough, The Only One, Wrong Number, One Hundred Years, End

1st encore: Lovecats, Let's Go To Bed, Freakshow, Close To Me, Why Can't I Be You?
2nd encore: Boys Don't Cry, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab
3rd encore: Play For Today, A Forest.

robert's one and only 'stage trick' during the show - spitting in the air and catching it in his mouth. yuck.

The Cure - Faith - The Shrine Los Angeles, CA 6/1/08

i would kill for that Shrine setlist though, that is gonna be the stuff of legend on this tour.

Yeah, that's all pretty sharp. I won't complain, I got a great show in a great setting.

One more clip:

The Cure @ The Shrine - Bloodflowers (clip)

as others have said, his voice sounded amazing - i was shocked how it really didn't seem to have changed at all.

Sign of that -- his legendary held note on the live version of "Prayers for Rain"? PERFECTLY held on Saturday night, for the same length of time.

Also, I should say without hesitation that "Baby Rag Dog Book," which they ended the main set with at the Bowl, is THE new aggro monster rampage death track from the band. Astoundingly great.

...what was the OLD aggro monster rampage death track??

"Dressing Up"

"Catch"

(Actual potential answers depending on era: "Doubt", "One Hundred Years", "Give Me It", "Shiver and Shake", "Disintegration", "Cut", "Lost", "Us or Them")

You forgot "Trap" and "Watching Me Fall".

"Watching Me Fall" has the guitar squalls but is more self-loathing than rageful. You're right about "Trap" although it also might maybe be too soft...?

"Disintegration" is pretty self-loathing too. In fact, I always thougth "Watching Me Fall" was kind of a sequell or a re-write of "Disintegration" which itself was a re-write of "One Hundred Years". Each one slower and more self-loathing than the one before it.

had to miss this tour since it was all the way in san jose, but hope they come back soon after the album comes out

LRLR, you're right, but somehow "Watching Me Fall" doesn't fully hit the aggro button for me (probably because it is slower, as you mention).

And you're right that "Trap" is a bit soft, but lyrically the first time I heard it I thought "Ah, this is the "angry track" of the album". It reminds me a lot of "Cut".

just watched the entire Trilogy DVD this afternoon, A+++++

LOVE ME LOVE ME LOVE ME, YOU NAIL ME TO THE FLOOR AND PUSH MY GUTS ALL INSIDE OUT

Crossed my mind as well, before "Shiver and Shake"! Ditto "Shake Dog Shake".

Having just relistened to "Baby Rag Dog Book" just now -- it's amazing what you can find out there -- and given the comparative songs above, I would place this one in a "Doubt"/"Shiver and Shake"/"Cut" vein -- Simon's bass starts and carries this whole thing, it's this high-speed grinddown that halfway to an unmelodic Joey Beltram riff and is similarly momentous. And unsurprisingly the recording just can't compete with the pin-against-the-wall feeling of hearing it live.

I'm hoping that is the case; I haven't really caught onto the recordings I've heard.

so it looks like Phoenix got to hear "Want," "The Big Hand" and "The Figurehead" last night -- all songs played the first time on this USA tour... *jealous*

I'll be at the next three: Dallas, Austin, Houston. will report back :)

(I would kill for any of those three in Texas)

Dallas was pretty good last night but I have a feeling it'll get better in Austin and Houston.

New song highlight was "Underneath the Stars," just a breathtaking opener. Lowlight has to be "Freakshow," didn't stand up to the other songs in the pop encore, sandwiched between "Close to Me" and "Let's Go to Bed," tough shoes to fill though.

Other highlights: "Prayers for Rain," "Fascination Street," "Push," "Friday I'm in Love" (it was a Friday night), "Primary" straight into "Shake Dog Shake," "One Hundred Years" and pretty much the entire Three Imaginary Boys encore (aka, 7 songs from that album in a row).

Lowlight from the back catalog: "The Baby Screams," some awful rocked-out version that followed "Wrong Number" and tried to sound exactly like it. Didn't work out.

Overall show grade: A-

Side note: They soundchecked last night with "The Holy Hour," "The Drowning Man" and "Faith" (among others) so hoping those are being practiced/perfected for Austin or Houston...

Bah, "Freakshow" is great, you. SO THERE. And yes, "Underneath the Stars" makes for a wonderful opener -- they'd be fools not to have that start the album.

HELLO
THERE IS NOTHING NEW TO REPORT
WE ARE ON TOUR
HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING THE SHOWS

SO THERE
ROBERT SMITH

HELLO ROBERT WHAT IS IT MAED

Ned -

The Cure - Underneath The Stars - Dallas 06.06.08

xoxoxo