I love The Cure. They have been my all time favorite artists since I was about 15, and over the last 20 years no one has topped them in my book. So, you have to imagine my excitement when this past May, they announced that they were playing a “Reflections” show which consisted of their first three albums performed back to back and included appearances by one of the band’s original duos, Lol Tolhurst, and former keyboardist Roger O’Donnell.
This was to be a monumental show for any Cure fan, not to mention that The Cure’s second album, Seventeen Seconds, is my favorite Cure album and hearing it live from start to finished would be wonderful for me. However, here was the catch, the show was only being performed for three nights . . . in Australia! Hmmm . . . Australia . . .
I’ve always wanted to visit the land down under and what better excuse then to see The Cure, after all, this would not be the first time I had traveled great lengths to see this band. Not only have I seen every tour since Disintegration but one—and there was a GOOD reason for missing that show—I have seen them at every festival in my area in addition to shows in Florida, Philadelphia, New York, Las Vegas, and… London. Yes, I went to London to see The Cure. So, why not Australia?
Well, after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to pass on this show to Australia and just told myself, “They will bring this Stateside!” Six months later, I got the news; the Cure was going to perform only two sets of shows in the US: Los Angeles and New York City. The day tickets went on sale, I picked up tickets for two of the NYC shows and planned my (much closer than Australia) trip to New York.
The Cure Reflections was performed at The Beacon Theater, the sister theater to Radio City Music Hall. This is an intimate venue which seats less than 3,000 people. I was able to attend two nights of this weekend performance and must say that I enjoyed the second night better than the first. The sound for the second night seemed a bit better and they had much more energy on stage.
However, one thing I noticed at both shows is that the band seemed to “wake up” when performing their third album, Faith. I was quite surprised because I thought Seventeen Seconds would have been most monumental for me, but after hearing “All Cats are Gray,” “The Funeral Party,” and the closing song, “Faith,” I had changed my opinion! The second nights’ performance was also a favorite for any real Cure fan because they performed “Caterpillar” and “Doing the Hansa,” which has rarely been performed in the Cure’s years of playing live.
Traveling to see The Cure is always money well spent for me. I love seeing this band as much as I can but I also get to meet up with friends who I only get to see at Cure shows, not to mention I get to do a little sight-seeing. At the end of the third show, friends of mine who attended said Robert ended the show by stating, “We’ll see you next year!”
I have no doubt in my mind that The Cure will continue to play live for as long as they can. Their shows are always about 3 hours long and it is apparent by their stage energy that they truly enjoy performing live together. So, I will eagerly await the announcement of the next Cure show.
The question is where will I be seeing them next?
Photos by Shantel Mitchell
