27/07/1983
in your house
m
the drowning man
cold
siamese twins
primary
three imaginary boys
at night tape/speed flaws
one hundred years tape/speed flaws
play for today
10.15 saturday night
killing an arab
a forest
pornography
and an interesting show! the sound isn't too bad either--it's kinda got some louder/distorted stuff going on w/really loud drums, but not too much--it's still very very listenable, and worthwhile cause it's a different cure and a different show...
the band are a four-piece for this one, w/robert and laurence joined by andy on drums and phil on bass...the first real show w/a different line-up. and after a good version of "the figurehead," robert apologizes for being "under-rehearsed."
but things are pretty good really, good performances of older stuff done by a new cure. just different...phil messes up the bass line on the first chorus of "m," but recovers quickly.
"siamese twins" gets off to a shaky start--andy doesn't start the song off w/the right drums!! the drums aren't awful, or too far removed from the "siamese twins" drum parts--but they just sound kinda off, making everyone sound very tentative (especially robert coming in w/his first vocal/lyric!!) until about half way thru the verse...then it starts to feel like "siamese twins." interesting...and scary...you feel them hanging in for the ride!
phil had this to say about the warm-up shows (all thanks and apologies to the authors/publishers of the "ten imaginary years" book...consider this free advertisement!! buy that book!!)...
"we played two warm-up dates--one in bournemouth and one in bath and we'd only been rehearsing for a week so they were horrible. i was playing the wrong basslines, andy was playing the wrong drums but, strangely enough, it didn't seem to annoy robert at all."
much better is the following performance of "primary," which is stronger and more confident--good one.
some fools (actually funny this time) yell for "killing an arab," then for "killing a forest," and then finally "killing three imaginary boys." but "three imaginary boys" comes next--it's good and features some strange keyboard/synth sounds in the middle.
robert claims that they've "only had four days rehearsal" when some audience members shout out requests for--of all things--"do the hansa." instead of "do the hansa," the audience gets "at night." there are some taping/recording flaws here...some distortion of the source tapes, slowing down and messing up the play-back speed...so "at night" is pretty hard to listen to--and unfortunately, so is the performance of "one hundred years" that comes next. it suffers from some similar flaws in the recording...but this is probably one of the first live performances w/out the drum machine, and andy does some different things w/the beat here and there--an interesting listen if you can make it thru the flaws.
"play for today" suffers from the same intro problems as "siamese twins," andy doesn't quite know where to put the drum/percussive effect...and it makes everyone hesitant, but they all get locked in--and as a bonus, the taping flaw seems to have gone away as well--or at least it's hard to find/hear! and "10.15 saturday night" comes next, more familiar to the band and to the crowd as well--good performance/good reaction. "killing an arab" is good too, even if andy plays all the drum patterns slightly off =\ still good and fun, even if he plays right on thru the ending bass line.
lots of back and forth between robert and the crowd before "a forest," because people are yelling for different songs...robert even says "we can't play 'boys don't cry'" before the intro of "a forest." robert (of all people in the band for this gig!) misses some notes in the guitar line, but everything turns out really well. it gets better and it's quite good...then "pornography" ends the show, robert even suggests that the crowd make noises because they didn't bring the tape (of the backwards/speaking stuff). but actually, this tunout to be very very good--nice and noisy--even if the changes aren't quite all there, they're aren't any changes at all =) no-one changes from the original \pattern!!
this is pretty cool for a unique little show--a warm-up date featuring the four-piece line-up from 1983. not sure if this is a must-have based on the recording itself, but as a document of a band in transition...