Artist: The Cure
Venue: Frank Erwin
Center
Location: Austin, Texas
Date: 13 Friday 2016
Opening Act: The
Twilight Sad
The Twlight Sad's
setlist (thanks to here):
1. There's a Girl in
the Corner
2. Last January
3. I Became a
Prostitute
4. I Could Give You All
That You Don't Want
5. Cold Days From the
Birdhouse
6. It Never Was the
Same
7. And She Would Darken
the Memory
The Cure's setlist:
01. Out of This World
01. Out of This World
02. Pictures of You
03. Closedown
04. A Night Like This
05. All I Want
06. Push
07. Last Dance
08. Lovesong
09. Just Like Heaven
10. This Twilight
Garden
11. Lullaby
12. Fascination Street
13. Screw
14. The End of the
World
15. Want
16. Us or Them
17. The Hungry Ghost
18. Prayers for Rain
19. Bloodflowers
Encore 1:
20. Step Into the Light
21. Shake Dog Shake
22. Never Enough
23. Wrong Number
Encore 2:
24. Hot Hot Hot!!!
25. Close to Me
26. The Exploding Boy
27. In Between Days
28. Doing the Unstuck
29. Friday I'm in Love
Encore 3:
30. Burn
31. It Can Never Be the
Same
Encore 4:
32. A Forest
33. Boys Don't Cry
The Twilight Sad
are a Scottish band merging post-punk roots inspired by the likes of
The Cure with a more contemporary indie rock sound and effects-laden
guitar straight from the shoegazing canon. Despite the scheduled set
time of 7:30pm (already fairly early), they actually went on ten
minutes early.
That was a first for me. I liked the keyboards and vocals, and the
guitar was great, but the drums were loud and overpowered the other
instruments, especially the bass. This could have just been a product
of where I was sitting, but it worked against them. On the slower and
more open sections where the drums were less intense, the rest of the
instruments became much clearer and distinct, which made me wish they
all sounded like that. I had trouble understanding the vocalist, but
I still liked the general direction of the songs. Robert
Smith has made his fondness of the band well-known, and it's easy to
understand why.
[The Cure.]
I've
seen The Cure
twice before: a disappointing show during 2008 in Kansas City when Robert Smith was sick, and a
better, albeit abbreviated, headlining set at Austin City Limits Festival in 2013. This
time, my expectations were tempered by my previous experiences, but I
was still
hoping
for a solid, full set to make up for those
shortcomings.
As
usual, the setlist was a mix of material from throughout their long
history, but most biased towards their most popular and critically
acclaimed era, spanning roughly 1985 through 1989
(i.e., The Head on
the Door;
Kiss Me, Kiss Me,
Kiss Me;
and Disintegration).
They don't play much from their last two albums or their somewhat
maligned Wild Mood
Swings
from 1996, but the songs they do pick from those tend to be the same
choices every time, and it speaks plenty about the mediocrity of the
production of those albums that the songs in question sound much
better when performed live. "The End of the World" was
never a very good song, but "Want" and "The Hungry
Ghost" actually fit right in with the rest of the material. Even
"Us or Them" turned out decently.
Otherwise,
they consistently
do
a great job of appeasing both casual and diehard fans. They
played just about all of their big hits, but they also played a
wealth of deep album cuts ("Closedown", "All I Want",
and "Screw" were somewhat unexpected delights), a few
really old songs ("Shake Dog Shake", "A Forest",
"Boys Don't Cry"), two new songs, and even two b-sides.
Other
special treats were
"Burn", a
grand, looming song
from the soundtrack of The
Crow,
and
two superior cuts from Bloodflowers,
their last great album.
I could always ask for more of the really old material, but they
played so many great songs, including a lot of surprising choices,
that it wouldn't be fair to complain about the setlist. It
is kind of ridiculous that they played over half the songs from
Disintegration,
but
I doubt anyone is going to argue about that.
Both
of the b-sides were excellent songs that sometimes make one wonder
how songs that good could end up left as flipsides. "This
Twilight Garden", a b-side of "High" from 1992, is
a dreamy, darkly pretty song that was better than half of the songs
that actually were on Wish,
and
"The Exploding Boy", a b-side of "In Between Days"
from 1985, is
an uptempo number that is almost as good as the a-side. These
are the
type of songs that make Join
the Dots
(the b-sides and rarities collection from 2004) worth owning.
Both
new songs were reasonably good, if not outstanding. "Step Into
the Light" was somewhat by the numbers, but "It Can Never
Be the Same" was more sprawling and had more depth to it. I'm
curious
if these are from the large set of unfinished songs from the 4:13
Dream
sessions or if they are more recent compositions. More importantly,
does this imply that The Cure are finally readying a new album for
release? (It's only been eight years!)
I'm
glad that The Cure tour as a five-piece again. The Cure without a
keyboardist isn't really The Cure (unless they are playing Three
Imaginary Boys), and Roger
O'Donnell has proven himself an integral member of the band, so I'm
glad he is back in the fold. However, Reeves Gabrels still strikes me
as an unsuitable replacement for Porl/Pearl Thompson. Reeves'
guitarwork is too flashy and aggressive for The Cure; these songs
demand melody, grace, subtlety, and careful tonality, not blazing,
roaring solos. When Reeves played the songs by the numbers, they
worked fine, but when he stepped out into his own ground, such as
in "Wrong Number" or
the solo in "A Night Like This", the songs suffered from
his showmanship. "Shake Dog Shake" and "Never Enough"
fared somewhat better;
his wild abandon mostly worked with the unrestrained energy of both
songs.
Drummer
Jason Cooper tends to be overlooked, but he plays the parts of his
predecessor drummers with effortless ease. All of the little drum
flourishes of "Prayers for Rain" were right where they
should be, and the toms-heavy parts of songs like "Closedown"
were right on the mark. Similarly,
it can also be easy to forget
that Simon Gallup's bass
contributions are fundamental to the sound of the band, but on stage,
he was visibly driving every single song.
His bass was
pleasantly prominent without being overwhelming, and
he
was
also the only member that really moved
around on stage much.
Robert
Smith's instrumental work is as solid as ever, and he still took a
few solos, such as in "Lovesong", "Prayers for Rain",
and "A Forest".
He even brought out a flute for the intro to "Burn". His
vocals aren't quite what they once were, but he mostly avoided the
squealing, yelping style that has characterized the last two albums,
the re-recorded vocals on some of the demos on the older album reissues, and the
last Cure concert I saw. Actually, this was probably the best vocal
performance I've heard from him in a long time. The only noticeably
weak moment was at the end of "In Between Days", when it
became obvious that Robert couldn't hit the final notes of the
"without you" line in the higher octave. He didn't even try
and instead sung them in the lower range used for the rest of the
song.
[What a great way to waste electricity during the
encore break.]
It's
amazing that the Cure can still sell out stadiums despite not having
released an album in eight years, and it's not like their last two
albums were particularly good, either. I
suppose the fact that they have enough strong back-catalog material
to play incredibly long sets that vary significantly from night to
night is probably a big part of their draw. It certainly worked for
me. Even with a few weak songs and the occasionally indulgent
guitarwork from Gabrels, this was the Cure concert I wish I'd seen
back in 2008.
Scores:
The Twilight Sad: B-
The Cure: A-
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