| glasgow explicit moments 25/04/1982 |
| the figurehead m in your house cold the drowning man a short-term effect the hanging garden siamese twins other voices three imaginary boys primary one hundred years play for today a forest pornography 10.15 saturday night killing an arab forever |
| the cure plays in glasgow during the fourteen explicit moments tour of 1982... this two-disc set has got decent sound--not bad at all for 1982--and considering the quality of recording equipment at the time, and that the cure weren't the biggest band in the world...just one of the best. the mix of instruments and robert's vocals is good, the sound just has some extra tape noise/hiss--not overpowering, just certainly heard in the mix...but even so, this gets pretty decent grades for 1982--pretty good--it's stable and steady so nothing jumps out. just turn it up a bit. and after a few notes of the intro music (titled "airlock") robert simply says "hello" and they start "the figurehead." certainly not the same band from 1979/1980...much darker. and after a strong opener, "m" and "in your house" come next...both are successfully grey and downbeat. even though the band is only two years and two albums removed, from the "seventeen seconds" album, "m"and "in your house" both feel more detached and grey than ever... "cold" follows, stark keyboards and drums for the most part...not too bad, but not as good as later/fuller performances. |
| after "cold," comes "the drowning man," which continues to impress (in both 1981 and 1982) w/live performances w/the early period line-up of the band. they always get the mood going for it w/a nice wash of sounds...and it always seems to work. a trio of "pornography" songs follow..."a short-term effect" is first, and the band sounds good--it has a great steady thump of a beat, as does "the hanging garden." "the hanging garden" is actually pretty good too, it hangs together well...not perfectly done, but the attitude is there! the last of these three from "pornography" is "siamese twins," and again, it's not perfect--but excellent mood. miles and miles away from the cure of "boys don't cry" and "fire in cairo." "other voices" follows, and is always good to hear in live shows...most versions seem to be really good, and this one is as well. it must have sounded great in the crowd! then "three imaginary boys" (good) and the first real single of the night (finally!) w/"primary." some of the mood gets pushed aside for "primary," as it actually gets things really moving...a slight (very slight) complaint about the recording here, as "primary" seems to get louder and then softer as it goes on. but it's just a minor complaint. "one hundred years" is next, and luckily the mix is good...the drum machine isn't too loud or too soft, just about right for a good mix. a solid, if unremarkable, performance...followed by a well-rehearsed and ready "play for today," then w/"a forest." "a forest" is good (even if robert continually messes up/around w/the intro guitar parts) and energetic...it moves well, and the ending is always cool. "pornography" closes the set w/lots of good, angry noise. "10.15 saturday night" gets the crowd going for the encore, and "killing an arab" keeps up the pace--both are good performances, nothing special to note...just good. the volume goes up and own a bit again (like earlier w/"primary"), but this is just some back-and-forth...a little annoying, but not a recording killer. from there, the boys go into another version of "forever," starting w/some freak-out guitar work from robert...and lots of lyrics that don't seem to be readily recognizable--it's a good work-out, getting faster...then slower...then, unfortunately, fading out (!!) w/robert coming back in w/more vocals =\ this is a good set from the fourteen explicit moments tour, but given that either/or/both "m" and "a l'olympia" are must have sets (and they are!!) it's hard to say where other 1982 performances measure up. this certainly doesn't touch those recordings, but is worth having and trading for--a good pick-up and a good listen. |