Yesterday evening Jeff and I went to a Cure concert. It was initially supposed to be two weekends ago (as part of the Curiosa Festival), but it got postponed because Robert Smith had to go back to London for a few days. I was actually pretty excited about the change, because new location was much closer to home, and it was just the Cure (no other bands, not even an opening act), so they were going to play a longer set. I would have been glad to hear the other bands play, but I was really going to see the Cure.
The music was awesome, though nothing more than I would have expected from them. Each song also had a sort of background movie that echoed the imagery in the lyrics and made the performance into a sort of live music video. I'm not usually one for music videos, but the waves crashing behind By the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
really drew me in (wave after wave after wave, it's all for her
). It was cool.
On the other hand, the band kept leaving the stage every few minutes for the last hour of the show, which was very disconcerting. They played for an hour and forty minutes, then left for the first time. They came back, played for another twenty minutes, came back, played another song, left and came back, played two more songs. At that point everyone but Robert Smith left, and he said something like It's about fucking time. How much time have we got left?
and left too, but a couple of seconds later everyone came back onstage, played one more song, and then Robert Smith said That's it
and left for the last time. In all, the show lasted for about 2 hours and 30 minutes.
In retrospect, I guess the last 40-50 minutes were encores, but I felt rather gypped because I had been expecting an extra-long set (we paid $50 for an all-day festival, after all!). I had been led to believe, by the promotions leading up to this concert, that it would be extra-long, and 1h40 before encores isn't extra-long (for the Cure, at least, it isn't). I just wish that Robert Smith had said something when they left the stage, some signal as to whether this was just a break, or the end of the show, or what. As it was, I spent the last hour wondering what the hell was going on and not enjoying the music. It was very jarring.
That was my first and probably my only Cure concert. Next time, I think I'll spend the money on CDs instead.
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