26/08/1980
play for today
three imaginary boys
fire in cairo
in your house different lyrics
10.15 saturday night
at night see review!!
accuracy
boys don't cry
plastic passion see review!!
m
grinding halt
a forest
subway song
i'm cold
killing an arab
meathook
another day
play for today
and this recording is ok--good not great. there's a decent mix of instruments/vocals and stuff, but it's just steady and really good--just not quite great. during some parts of the recording, the crowd noise gets more audible (talking etc during songs) but this is a pretty solid and stable recording.
the band however, sounds like they were very much on top of things--good versions of "seventeen seconds" and "play for today" kick things off...and the performance of "three imaginary boys" is good as well...the overall mood is nice.
a slightly more pop "fire in cairo" changes things up a bit...and then the mood goes back again when robert starts the guitar parts for "in your house," and then ad-libs some different lyrics. the words are just totally different.
"you chase me around, follow me....you wish i knew the right words to say...over and over and over again...(something i can't figure out)...you know it really makes no difference (repeated)...slip up behind, (??) if only i wished..."
and then finally "i drown at night in your house, pretending to swim" at the very last...just very different/strange!!
"at night" comes next--not exactly from the top of the charts--but performed with enough attitude to keep the cure going. and robert addresses the crowd kinda directly with this ad-libbed lyric change...
"sunk deep in the night i sink in the night...i wish i was singing in a cardboard box."
excellent!! fucking excellent little dig at the aussie crowd, a laugh..and robert goes further by announcing that "this song means a lot more as it goes on....six weeks in...." as he starts playing the guitar into for "accuracy." the 1980 australian tour was supposed to be only seven or eight shows....and they ended up playing twenty-four. they were also very unhappy w/matthieu, a very trying time to be sure.
but "boys don't cry" changes the mood and makes everyone happy for about two or three mintues of perfect pop. a good performance as well, and the crowd responds in kind--which makes for a good "plastic passion!" it kicks really hard, good one and robert seems to sing it really well this night until near the end when robert starts half-singing/half-screaming "aaaaahhhh.....mac what are you doing to me?"
apparently the lights/stage-lighting went all out (and mac was the lighting person) because after "plastic passion," robert says "well, i take it that the lights have blown...so this is going to be the bleakest set that you've ever seen, this is called 'm.'"
and so the cure plays on...robert plays some interesting stuff on the guitar during the outro to "m," which is kinda cool. "grinding halt" next--good and solid--but the following version of "a forest" is much better all the way round. aggressive playing from everyone (simon's bass really drives things home as soon as he kicks in) makes it really good--the boys were obviously reacting to the crowd, and it worked cause "a forest" was by far the best performance of the night....and it got an amazingly good reaction.
"subway song" opens the encores...ok, but "it's not you" is better and pretty cool. not often performed live--so interesting to find here--and the next song is "killing an arab" to end the show until...
they come back to play...."meathook." robert says something about how demented the night was, and they play "meathook." "another day" is ok, but an extremely odd choice for an encore...and the boys go all the way back to "play for today" to end the night. robert doesn't sing the second verse at all, he just leaves the words out totally until he jumps back in with "play...for today."
an interesting recording!! at first listen, it didn't register...but as a complete show, as a complete listen--it's totally worth the time/effort to pick up. maybe a cure must-have just for the unique "in-show happenings," maybe not...but interesting and totally listenable.