Thursday 10 April 2008

The Cure: Live Review

THE CURE
Wembley Arena – March 20th


It has been four long years since The Cure released their last album, an eponymously-titled effort produced by Ross Robinson that won over fans and critics alike, thus throwing the group back into the limelight and earning them a well-deserved critical appraisal. However, in true Cure fashion, the band decided to re-evaluate itself at such a career height. They did so and this culminated in keyboardist Roger O’Donnell (a member from 87-89 and then from 1995) and guitarist Perry Bamonte (1990 onwards) being unceremoniously (or so it seemed) ejected and the return of legendary Cure six-stringer Porl Thompson. 2008 will see the release of their new album, an album which, given the current lineup, could well be the archetypal Cure record.

Tonight sees the four piece air three new songs that could well find their way onto the record. And in time-honoured fashion, if these tunes are anything to go by, then the new album will be in an opposite vein to “The Cure.” Whereas that album was a dark, brooding and often vicious opus, the new songs point to a much poppier and upbeat direction. Indeed, we get a rare rendition of “The Lovecats” alongside the likes of “Friday I’m In Love”, “Let’s Go To Bed”, “The Walk”, “Close To Me” and “Never Enough”, the style of which being a clear influence on one of the new songs aired.

The band’s return to a much poppier sound is ironic given the choice of support. 65daysofstatic, here to promote their latest album, would have fitted in better touring with The Cure on “The Cure” or “Bloodflowers” tours, the latter album being hugely influenced by the post-rock stylings of Mogwai et al. Tonight, they play a blistering set which is only marred by the poor arena acoustics of Wembley which threatens to hamper the headline band’s set as well.

And during said set, we do get plenty of ‘the other side’ of The Cure. Epic noise rock beasts such as “One Hundred Years”, “Shake Dog Shake” and “The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea” (a real highlight) go down a storm but it is the encores that really provide the melancholic euphoria you might associate with The Cure. One encore sees songs from “Seventeen Seconds”, the band’s second album, get played in quick succession, ending of course with “A Forest”. And the final encore sees about nine songs (the best ones, basically) from the era of their first album. “Fire In Cairo”, “Grinding Halt” and “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” get to make rare appearances before everything is rounded off beautifully with “10.15 Saturday Night” and “Killing An Arab”. The overall effect is one of the group’s entire career being rounded off and, together with the fact that the songs from the new album sounded absolutely textbook Cure (as well as featuring the definitive lineup), it makes you question how much longer the group may be around. On tonight’s evidence, it seems as if they’re setting themselves up to go out on a high, which in itself is a double-edged sword. This writer believes that the group is far from being a spent force and anybody in attendance tonight could vouch for that.

Mumtaz Mitchell

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