| paris prayer 08/07/1989 |
| plainsong pictures of you closedown the kyoto song a night like this just like heaven last dance fascination street lovesong charlotte sometimes the walk extra intro music a forest inbetween days the same deep water as you prayers for rain disintegration lullaby close to me let's go to bed why can't i be you? medley hot hot hot!!! a strange day three imaginary boys it's not you intro boys don't cry fire in cairo intro homesick untitled faith |
| the cure play paris on the first of two prayer tour shows. and this is a great recording!! super sound--excellent--very very close to being as clean as "entreat!" the only difference is that it's just not quite as polished...just turn up the bass/low end a touch--fucking excellent! and the band is in paris...great setting for the prayer tour, and the boys don't let the audience down at all. sparkling versions of the "disintegration" openers shimmer in the night...even though robert misses a few different six-string bass notes (!!) he can be forgiven. everything works beautifully..."the kyoto song" and "a night like this" are really good, and the crowd sings along very well w/the "oh oh oh, i want to change it all" lines...the normal stuff is still brilliant, but a gentle take of "lovesong" early on is quite nice--good touch. "the walk" features an extra little musical section before robert takes off w/the vocal...it's just the normal verse music w/out robert singing, but interesting--planned or not?!! and "a forest" features a little extra during the synth/guitar intro as well, just a few more repeated phrases before the drums kick things off...this is another good/cool prayer tour version of "a forest" as well--my favorites all seem to be from the prayer tour or the beach party era. just excellent!! |
| "inbetween days" also sounds very good, spirited and fun... and just as three "disintegration" songs open the night, three "disintegration" songs close the set...darkly...this recording is excellent, great sound and everything is almost 100% perfect given that this is the whole paris show. "the same deep water as you" is good, probably the best live performance/recording i've picked up so far--and the "prayers for rain"/"disintegration" one-two punch is always powerful, very strong and full of energy/momentum. the encores are pretty standard prayer tour encores--but again--the sound here is far and away above most recordings...and the band's energy is very high as well--robert attacks most of his vocals w/lots of energy and fun. "lullaby" features some sharp sounding drums and excellent synth sounds, clean and wicked. "close to me" and "let's go to bed" follow right behind, as does "why can't i be you?" (complete with other songs visited within--including "witchcraft," "young at heart," "everybody wants to be a cat," before jumping into "the lovecats" and back).... for some reason, the last disc (starting after "a strange day" w/"three imaginary boys") has slightly poorer sound quality, more noise--some taping hiss, but even still this is a keeper of a recording/show...the second encore starts w/"hot hot hot!!!" which is good fun and great to hear, and like "the same deep water as you" before, this is probably the best live take of "hot hot hot!!!" i've got so far...after "a strange day," robert starts playing alone, just guitar and vocals...playing and old song from way back, "it's not you." he plays and sings just thru the first verse and chorus (excellent) before using the last chord of "it's not you" as the first of chord "three imaginary boys," as the band performs it whole...rawk!! robert then does the same thing playing and singing "fire in cairo" alone, using the last chord of "fire in cairo" as the first chord of "boys don't cry" when they continue--excellent, just fucking excellent. the show ends w/"homesick," "untitled" and "faith." robert changes some of the lyric in "homesick," from "never go home...." to "never break down...never break down and cry..." both "homesick" and "untitled" are good here, nothing especially remarkable....but both good. the night ends w/"faith." the sounds are really brilliant w/robert's six-string bass working in time w/simon, perfect. no extended solos really, no extra lyrics...just "faith." this is a killer show/recording--not perfect but 100% required listening, and this one will probably slow down my reviews cause it'll be in my cd-changer for a long time. a great document from the prayer tour 1989...another powerful example of the band's range and depth. |