The Cure - Wembley Arena, 20/03/2008

**Donachiel** · 22-03-2008, 19:40

Well, they're all a lot fatter, a little older and slower, but The Cure are still able to churn out a damn fine concert. Yes, they're back. And in a time that is seeing so many old bands do comeback tours, it's business as usual for The Cure. They even have an album - delayed from last year - out soon (but who knows when 4:13 will arrive). The line up has changed so often, that who knows who was a founding member or not, but the current line up is a least comprised of long time, if not important, members. This is also the first time since 1990 that the band has been a four piece, with Smith, Gallup, Thompson and Cooper the current line up (still no Lol)

I was a little worried about this one. The usual things: Location of seats, view of the stage. But Wembley Arena isn't too bad wherever you sit, it's not that big really. From where we're sat (still pretty far back) we do manage a passable view of the stage. But I'm expecting a lot of smoke and darkness, so what does it matter?

As usual, I don't bother with the support. But when we finally get to our seats our first surprise is how deserted the Arena is, surely this is a "Sell Out" show. Everyone it seems had the same idea as me - arrive late. The second shock comes in the distinct lack of back-combed, hair-sprayed, dyed-black, big-hair; that has become the trade mark of lead singer Robert Smith. It seems a lot of The Cure fans have grown up now; ditched the teen angst and got themselves jobs, families and all the rest of what comes with adulthood. But The Cure have a carer that spans four decades, they have fans from all age groups, and it was good to see so many mingle in a common joy.

The Arena starts to pack as soon as the stage backdrop lights up with stars and the light sound of bells, that can only be the intro to 'Plainsong'. And as the Arena erupts into the sounds of guitars and drums, so too do the audience. As Robert Smith sings the soul-full lyrics, in his own unmistakable and teen-angst ridden style, I can't help but feel a little chocked. I mean, this is 'The Cure' and they wrote the book on pretty much all the music I adored. They had a heavy influence on Rock, Punk, New Romantics, New Wave and of course Gothic Rock. Even now, many new bands cite The Cure as an influence, with bands like Bloc Party even sounding like them.

As you'd expect from a band who's back catalogue spans four decades, the music is vast and covers many of their 'periods'. Yet they manage to pull the whole show together and not make it sound like a best of album. The entire show passed an immense three and a half hours, with three encores (not bad for a bunch of old guys on the brink of 50). There were also some surprises, that made good sense to me in the end. for starters, they seemed to play most of their biggest hits early on. This left the last encore as an entire set of older songs, which seemed to round the night of nicely.

Sorry Mr M*, you missed a blinder there. But don't worry, I found a home for your tickets on ebay.

(which reminds me, I hope you and your daughter liked the show Dornrooster)

Setlist
plainsong
prayers for rain
a strange day
alt.end
a night like this
the end of the world
lovesong
to wish impossible things
pictures of you, lullaby
from the edge of the deep green sea
hot hot hot!!!
please project
the walk
push
friday i'm in love
inbetween days
just like heaven
primary
a boy i never knew
shake dog shake
never enough
wrong number
one hundred years
disintegration

First Encore: at night, m, play for today, a forest,
Second Encore: the lovecats, let's go to bed, freak show, close to me, why can't i be you?,
Third Encore: three imaginary boys, fire in cairo, boys don't cry, jumping someone else's train, grinding halt, 10:15 saturday night, killing an arab