Back in Brussels, back from London and from a show that I would have not missed for the world. And I’m honestly still recovering from the experience.

This has been my 18th Cure concert, and in my personal ranking it got all 5 stars, along with 3 other shows in the list: Taormina 2005 and NY 2008 (Madison Square Garden + Radio City Hall).

I actually did expect it to be a great show, just like anybody else, but I knew from my previous experience that disappointment (of different kind of degree) is still a possible thing, even when it comes to Cure shows. For example, I saw the band playing Royal Albert Hall back in 2006 and even if I considered the show to be very very good, the performance didn’t meet my expectations, for whatever reason that was.

This is just to say that my review here will be as honest as it can possibly be and will not be influenced in any way by my love for the band and their music, or by the feeling of privilege for having managed to get one precious ticket, that psychotic morning when tickets got sold out the very minute they actually got on sale (for me the magic happened after the 413th “reload” of the official tickets web page, and at that moment I felt rewarded by some divine, mysterious blessing, of course).

As a start, I’d say that as soon as Robert got on stage and thanked everybody for being there and stated that he would talk later, I realized he was in the perfect mood to output a very enjoyable performance, and it was more his tone than his words to indicate that. During the whole concert, in fact, he has been exceptionally chatty, and I can’t remember another concert where he talked so much and felt at ease doing so (before the first encore he even talked about his problems of talking in front of an audience, actually).

I was wondering how it would feel to hear “10:15 Saturday Night” as the concert opener, since it’s usually played in the encore sets, and it reveled to be a great one to start the show. The crowd has been responsive from the very first note. The next song, “Accuracy”, reveled the… well, the “accuracy” of the sound, funnily enough for me. I felt the bass vibrating inside of me and the drums felt very powerful. Robert’s voice was so strong and clear at the same time. Perfection, in all its aspects was among us, that night.

“Grinding Halt” had rocked as always, and it was another song that felt weird to be heard so soon in the setlist. But than, the whole show was supposed to be unusual, and a beautiful kind of unusual it proved to be along the way.

I always loved “Another Day” and I never thought I could ever hear it at a live performance, so this was the first on my top-awaited song list.

“Subway Song” has been obviously one of the weirdest songs of the night. Again, beautifully weird, in all its simplicity and strange compositions.

“Foxy Lady” was very rocky, and I particularly enjoyed it, while Fire In Cairo” got people to dance and move more than in other songs. I sense that girls particularly like this song. Am I wrong?

Two other songs that were on my top-awaited song list and that I never thought I’d hear live were “Object” and “It’s Not You“, because they’re also some of my favorites of the first album. Well, checked! Ah…

“Three Imaginary Boys” was great as always. Here’s a personal thing: every time I see a live performance of a song that was played in “Cure In Orange”, I’m always moved, because that concert (In Orange) is kind of engraved in my blood, so I can’t help the feeling.

They played the short, retro-sounding-jazzy “The Weedy Burton” at the end of the first set, and at the end of it Robert went “We didn’t follow that particular career, pal!”, which was so funny. (I wonder if he came up with that line right there and than or he thought about it earlier).

And then, the 17 Seconds set, with Roger joining the band. It was nice seeing him up there again. “A Reflection” played the perfect role as an intro for “Play For Today” and the rest of the songs of that album. Another so-awaited song, for me, was “Secrets”. I was really looking forward to hear this one, and the performance respected the intimacy evoked by the song itself.

I always loved the version of “In Your House” from the Paris live album. It was the first time I heard it live, and really enjoyed it.

“Three” was actually transformed into “Forever“, I guess. Were the words the same as at the Sidney concerts? I am going to check that out. I really like the vibe of the song, but I felt a little bit frustrated by the absence of the long instrumental part that is so typical of “Forever,” with its powerful escalation.

“A Forest” was the always great “A Forest“, and the crowd responded very much to it. Even for this one, I would have liked to hear the long version, but sadly for me they don’t do that anymore, do they?

“M” rocked all the way thought, like it always does.

“At Night” was a song that really surprised me with its intensity during the 4Tour. This Reflections version was very nice, but slightly less intense for me.

“17 Seconds” was another one that I always wanted to hear live. And it was a great version, exactly like I did imagine it to be: escalating, controlled power (some weird mix that probably just The Cure are able to output).

“The Holy Hour” opened the Faith set, and for me it was surprisingly amazing! It has been one of the highlight of the night, if not the one that I preferred above all.

Another one that got me the same intense feeling was “Other Voices”. I did hear it at the NY concert at the Radio City Hall in 2008, but this version was far better.

During “Primary” Robert screwed up some lyrics, but managed to recover several times. It doesn’t really matter to me, the song was still great. Also if, yeah, those last years got slower that I’d like it to be.

“All Cats Are Grey” has been one of my favorite songs from the Faith album for long time, so I was really looking to hear it live. It was very suggestive, beautiful and dark. Robert used his soft-mode voice and it was perfectly in line with the song. Actually, all of the above is valid for “The Funeral Party” as well, if I think about it.

“Doubt” was the psychedelic bit of the Faith album that I enjoyed so much, and “The Drowning Man” was beautiful like the other versions I saw at other concerts.

“Faith” is always one of my favorites, always so emotional. But like for “Three/Forever” and “A Forest”, I miss a longer instrumental portion that was played at some time periods (Cure In Orange ?).

Now, before passing on to the encores sets, I’d like to pause on the song-to-song review and say that the concert as a whole has been an amazing experience. It felt more like a Cure party, with the band celebrating by playing their music for the invited attenders, and I got the same exact feeling during the Taormina show in 2005 in the ancient greek theater in Sicily. The atmosphere was filled with excitement, and there was a special connection between the band and the public. I have to say that the venue, with the fact that there was some crowd behind the stage, has pretty much contributed to emanate this party-feeling on a visual level, because the band is surrounded by people all around tha stage. And it’s a configuration that I prefer to the classic stage set where the band is like in a box and the public is in front or just sideway. The lights were also perfect for the show, with their minimalism emphasized by the fake smoke.

That been said, let’s go on with the encores, shound we?

The Three Imaginary Boys encore was delirious, of course. I read that some don’t appreciate “World War” so much, but I do. It doesn’t sound very Cure-ish, of course, so what? It feels like a rock cover of some 70′s band. Except, the band IS The Cure itself. I like it, very much (but than, I like this kind of old rock stuff).

“I’m Cold” is, again, one that was on my top list. I never thought to hear it live. It’s ecstatic! I have the impression that “Plastic Passion” is a Robert’s favorite, don’t know why. I also like it very much.

“Boys Don’t Cry” was the crowd-mover for excellence, as usual.

“Killing An Arab” is always one of my favorite song at Cure concerts (Cure In Orange effect, again!). This version was a little less psychedelic than previous live versions, for my regret. But still very enjoyable. As others mentioned, Robert got over the “Killing Another” thing and for the first time in years he sang the original “killing an arab”, which I prefer, because I don’t think that he needs to go over and over again with playing politically-correct, when we know what the song is about and got nothing to do with racism and all. So, let it be “killing an arab”, and that’s it!

I enjoyed the “Jumping Someone Else’s Train/Another Journey By Train” duo on from 1980 bootlegs so much for years, so hear this live was just a dream!

The other encore set was very weird, and agin, weirdly beautiful, with the two slow-psychedelic “Descent” and “Splintered In her Head“. And than the time for “Charlotte Sometimes” came. This is one of my most-favorite Cure song at all. I love every single version of it, and for years I couldn’t get it to hear it live. They would perform it the concert before or after the one I attended, and that mede me mad. I than had the chance to hear it live in New York in 2008, for the double concert, finally. But, this version here, the Reflections one, was much better and it evoked more the original feeling of the song: soft, dreamy, sensational.

The following “The Hanging Garden” was nicely powerful. Of course, when you hear it live you want to stop everything and say “Ok, now, please, just play the whole Pornography and than we can go home!”. But that chapter in Cure history had been written already (and I hand the chance to attend the Brussels show for Trilogy, so be it).

The next set of encores where the singles from “Japanese Whispers”, and I honestly don’t know if it’s a nice way to end the concert or they just don’t fit in the context. But then, they’re part of the historic timeline of the band, so it make sense to have them there. The one of the three I enjoyed the most was “The Lovecats“, because Robert get very playful performing it, and Roger’s jazzy keys were perfect!

I secretly hoped for a last exceptional encore, that in my head would be performed only on this London show for the Reflections Tour. Yeah, I am talking about “Shake Dog Shake”, but that didn’t happen. But Robert throw us his tease: “We’ll see you again for the next three!”, suggesting that another trilogy concept will (or could) be released at some point, with The Top, The Head On The Door and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, which would be just too awesome!

Anyway, one note from me goes on the tickets madness for this concert. With all the crazy sold out thing, the arena’s floor was empty for a quarter, at the very least. I was thinking of those who couldn’t get a ticket right away and gave up attending the concert, and I was watching all this free space under me, and thought of all the nonsense that happens because of greed and shit like that, and how much this saddens me.

Well, that aside, what else to say?

Oh, yeah, I am seated in Stalls J, first row (and it’s an exceptional view) and at 4 or 5 meters from me I saw somebody gaining his seat and I go “Oh, this is Tim burton!”, and than I go “Oh, no, must be somebody who looked like him”, and I keep trying to figure out if it’s him or not, only to find out on the internet that it was him, after all. The simple anecdote, the presence of a genius whom creations are somehow Cure-related, just adds a layer of uniqueness to this show. And it has been, indeed, a very unique show, in all its aspects.

In a few words, if I should resume the whole review in a phrase, I could safely say that this concert has been an epic, memorable milestone in the history of The Cure and I am happy to have been there and had witnessed it, and I will remember it forever as one of my best Cure moments of all time.

And with that said, I hope you enjoyed my personal review of the concert.

Cheers to you all,

Gian.

Just thought I would post to show my face and say HELLO to the many curefans already signed up!

If this doesn’t look like another Cure forum of blog, it’s because it isn’t. It surely doesn’t even feels like one, right?

I know that this project has been actually abandoned at some time, and that I let it sleep at some point, but I truly hope that this version will meet everybody’s enthusiasm. All the work I’ve put behind it, has been done for you, because Cureuphoria, this place, is above all YOURS, so go ahead and use it.

Keep in mind that everything in here will evolve, if you let it live!

And remember, the best way to have fun with it, is to get your friends, your Curemates, involved!

It’s all up to you now…