4Tour World Tour 2007 - 08 
 

August 4th, 2007 - Perth, Australia (Challenge Stadium)


Tape (intro), Open, Fascination Street, A Strange Day, The Blood, alt.end, The Walk, The End of the World, Lovesong, Pictures of You, Lullaby, Hot Hot Hot, Push, Inbetween Days, Friday I'm In Love, Just Like Heaven, Primary, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, The Kiss, Shake Dog Shake, Us Or Them, Never Enough, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Wrong Number, One Hundred Years, End

1st Encore: At Night, M, Play For Today, A Forest
2nd Encore: Let's Go To Bed, Close To Me, Why Can't I Be You?
3rd 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

Sound Check: The Baby Screams, How Beautiful You Are, Primary, Open

Show was about 3 hours and 10 minutes


(Thanks to Jo for the ticket scan and setlist)

 
Photos

COF - Getty Images (search for Cure Perth)



Videos

Open - Pictures of You - Lullaby - A Forest - Close To Me - Boys Don't Cry 




 Reviews



BOB GAUDING
The Cure
Challenge Stadium
Saturday, August 4th 2007
 
With futuristic lighting of gigantic proportions and a cinematic bent to their music, the sights and sounds coming from the stage were like a scene from Close Encounters as the four men clad in black ripped into Open. The crowd didn't have to wait too long to hear one of the jewels in The Cure's crown as Fascination Street weaved its ethereal web around the venue.

Age hasn't altered one of music's most recognisable frontman's look, and Robert Smith presented himself as teased and un-tanned as he was in his
youth, giving a polite 'thank you' to the audience as Strange Days, The Blood, alt.end, The Walk and The End of The World were aired in quick
succession. Even from behind his guitar the enigmatic figure still managed to move around the stage with the grace of a cat.
The polite claps drew to grins and fervent applause as Lovesong was unleashed and disturbed a few dry eyes, with the divine and clear sounding Pictures of You rounding out an early highlight, and seeing the crowd finding themselves finally warmed up for the occasion. A walk through more moody territory with Lullaby and Hot Hot Hot!!! showed the diversity of the experienced quartet.

The sweet Push had people moving, and they continued to do so as the ante was upped with the acoustic strum of Inbetween Days, the saccharine
Friday I'm In Love and the uber-cool Just Like Heaven before the 'pop' songs were put on the back shelf in favour of an atmospheric Primary that filled the auditorium menacingly.

Porl Thompson attempted to replicate keyboard lines with his guitar - an approach that worked well on some occasions and suffered on others. The
ecletic and mournful soundscapes continued the remainer of the set with The Kiss, Shake Dog Shake, Never Enough, Wrong Number and One Hundred Years making up the bulk of the remaining set.

With people expecting to hear some of the older classics during the encore, the band confounded things a little with At Night, a superb run through M with a crimson backdrop on the big screen behind the stage, Play for Today and finally the moment many had been waiting for - A Forest.
Smith dispensed with his guitar and swayed on the side of the stage for Let's Go To Bed. The inclusion of a keyboard on Close to Me would have been a bonus but there is no denying the song's hum-ability. A rousing Why Can't I Be You sans-dance routine then signalled the band's second
farewell of the evening.

With the curfew not yet reached a third encore was allowed and the band thoroughly outdid themselves. Three Imaginary Boys eased the band into a
pacy Fire in Cairo, a sparkling version of Boys Don't Cry and an epic Jumping Someone Else's Train. Grinding Halt held sway until the appropriately titled 10.15 Saturday Night and an undeniable take on Killing An Arab rounded out the most impressive setlist seen in these parts for a long time.

- Chris Havercroft (X-Press Magazine)


Cure find remedy for ageing
6th August 2007, 7:45 WST

I’ve been a Cure fan for more years than I care to remember but — I have to admit — I was a little anxious about a three-hour Cure concert. Would my ears (and the rest of my body) cope? Would Robert Smith and his fellow bandmates have the stamina to toss out killer tune after killer tune, without the momentum waning?
 
The answer to all of these questions was yes — and no. After three hours, my body was sore — but it was mostly from dancing. And despite a very definite lull mid-stream, the Cure had the sell-out audience in the palm of their hand by show’s close, reeling off a mind-boggling catalogue of greatest hits while still managing to please the trainspotting album-track fanatics, who — me included — would argue that much of the Cure’s best work lies outside their impressive roster of Top 10 hits.
 
Smith, bassist Simon Gallup and guitarist Porl Thompson may be powering through their 40s (drummer Jason Cooper is a relative newcomer, having been with the band since the mid-90s), but age certainly doesn’t seem to have wearied them. Years of playing together has honed them into an incredibly tight live band, and their reputation — for playing blistering sets with a quality of live musicianship to match their studio albums — was more than lived up to on Saturday night, despite an occasionally muddy sound.

There was a wonderfully intimate feel to this gig, despite the sports-stadium venue. Smith took a while to address the crowd, eventually admitting that he’d forgotten he was now playing to an English-speaking audience. By this stage, the band had already torn through a choice selection of Cure classics, from the Disintegration trilogy of Lovesong, Pictures of You and Lullaby and early 80s pop oddity The Walk to the gloomy Strange Day and flamenco gem The Blood.
 
It was to be a diverse, and sometimes surprising, setlist. It didn’t always cater to the “best of” Cure fans, and it didn’t always successfully mix up the dirge-rock and pop element of the Cure’s back catalogue. Having the audience up and jumping with In Between Days, Friday I’m in Love, Just Like Heaven and urgent early single Primary, a sweaty Smith announced: “I’m gonna do a slow one now, otherwise I’ll have to play the rest of the set sitting on a stool.”
 
A slow, seductive rendition of the Middle Eastern-flavoured If Only Tonight We Could Sleep segued into a violent, ear-splitting intro to Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, and suddenly we were thrown into a suite of uncomfortable wall-of-sound epics. With the volume cranked up, fluorescent strobe lights moving into blinding mode and Smith letting out his trademark off-key wail, the band lumbered through noisy versions of Shake Dog Shake, Never Enough and Wrong Number that sounded — quite frankly — pretty messy, despite Smith and Thompson’s obvious guitar prowess.
 
If this section of the show demonstrated anything, it’s that the current absence of keyboards in the Cure’s line-up has done nothing to reduce the sheer power of their sound. But I have often preferred some of the band’s minimalist masterpieces to their wall-of-sound gloom anthems, so it was with some relief that, in the first of three encores, Smith changed tack and stripped things right back to basics with stunning versions of early 80s mood pieces At Night, Play for Today and A Forest.
 
Then, for the next half-hour or so, the band ripped through some of their jauntiest classics (Let’s Go to Bed, Close to Me, Why Can’t I Be You) and their oldest (Boys Don’t Cry, Jumping Someone Else’s Train and 10.15 Saturday Night).
 
Smith, looking so much better than recent pictures would have you believe, was in fine form by this stage. I never thought I would enjoy seeing a 40-something man dancing awkwardly in combat pants and makeup, while Simon Gallup, bass guitar slung low around his black-clad knees, still manages to channel the rockabilly-punk cool of a young Joe Strummer with aplomb.
 
The whole thing finished, fittingly enough, with the song that started it all. I had whispered to my friend during the night that I doubted we would hear Killing an Arab. But as any Cure aficionado knows, this song isn’t a call to violence — it’s actually a three-minute condensation of Albert Camus’ classic existentialist novel The Outsider — and so they went ahead and played it anyway, to an ecstatic reception.
 
As Smith left the stage for the final time, he looked genuinely surprised at the crowd’s stomping, arm-flailing ovation. Some bands that have been together for a long time become shadows of their former selves, without the passion or commitment. After 30 years, that’s not an epitaph that can be applied to The Cure.

CONCERT
The Cure
Challenge Stadium
Saturday August 4
Review: Pip Christmass

- The West Australian (I also have a scan of the original article that ran in The West Australian)


The first leg or the Australian tour, the WA fans certinaly wernt dissapointed.
Lighting was spectacular and backing slides were awesome, rich and thick colours.
Especially "the blood", "primary", "the kiss", "wrong number" and "M".
Robert didnt have a lot to say (as usual) although jokingly commented that he only just realised he could speak the language about an hour into the set.
There was a good mix of commercial singles and early classics. Great versions of "seventeen seconds" tracks for the 1st encore.
Porl certinally makes a big difference to their live sound.
Cant wait for the rest of the Australian and NZ tour.

- Aaron


What an incredible concert ! 24 hours later I'm just starting to come down from the high that is experiencing the cure live.
 
Anyone that is remotely thinking of going, beg, borrow, steal a ticket. Do whatever you have to but just get to the nearest show. It is simply
that breathtaking.
 
The set list had everything and more you could ask for. Plenty of "radio staples" ( friday I'm in love. inbetween days, lets go to bed, etc)  to
satisfy the casual fan and plenty of material from 17 seconds and earlier for the long-termers.
 
No keyboards. No problem. Porl Thompson is a demon guitarist. Whether he's picking out the playful melody of "close to me", funking it up for
"Hot Hot Hot", driving "push" towards its glorious finale or tearing through "never enough", the guy is worth the price of admission alone. 
 
After seeing them on the wish tour after having been a fan since "head on the door" I was a little underwhelmed by the dream show in 2000 but
this current set is an absolute cracker !!!  Robert in in top form, trimmed down and engaging.
 
What can be said that hasn't already been said. A 6 song 3rd encore. Incredible. I was praying for the band to end because i was so physically spent and couldn't go on yet praying for them to continue knowing that they may never return to Perth.
 
An amazing experience that will live with me for years to come. I can still close my eyes and transport myself to 24 hours earlier and re-live
moments during the concert that were absolutely thrilling.
 
- Mark


Fantastic show as the others have mentioned. Didn't look at reviews or setlists for earlier shows unlike for the Dream tour. It's the evening of the next day as I write this and have had the songs from the show buzzing through my head all day. To me that is a sign of a great show because sometimes you can see a band play live and the next day you carry on your duties as normal - this was not the case for me today, I have struggled to shake the songs out of my head, even during soccer.
 
For me the songs I wanted to see were Open, Primary (never thought I would see this live) and Shake Dog Shake plus any of the other 36 songs we were treated to. Being in Perth this is only the third time I've seen the Cure so when I  read reviews from smart arses that have seen them thirty times and start winging about them becoming predictable it cheeses me off. These guys need to realise that they are playing to thousands who may not have ever seen them before, as well as some who are lucky enough to have seen them before.
 
I thought the whole show from Open through Killing an Arab was brilliant and whilst I loved the set from the Dream Tour it really is nice to be able to look sideways and see the people in the seated section up and dancing (to be honest I think I only looked during the encores when Robert walked about), but it was great. What I think is really cool about seeing the Cure is that they obviously know that the people that provide them with a living are those that buy their CD's and come to their concerts and to be able to go to a show and here nearly 40 great songs played over more than 3 hours is brilliant value for money, us folk the fans are treated well.
 
Do you think if they broke up for the next 15 years Robert could get really fat and lazy and maybe think something along the lines of " Would it be a surprise if I reformed the Cure? And maybe we could charge say $500 per ticket (i know it's actually $250 now) and play the exact same set of about 19 songs each night and say Friday I'm in Love could last ten minutes and we could carry on for eight of those minutes simply repeating It's Friday, It's Friday, It's Friday and In Between Days could be slowed right down and last 13 minutes and not 3 minutes.
 
 I'm not really having a go at anyone in particular but really if you can think of anyone that might be involved in an auction for front row seats to see a band containing someone who is almost 65 years old, tell them to stop bidding and use the money to buy tickets for one of the Cure's eastern states shows and get a cheap airfare. Even though they may only know the singles that get played on the radio that will still give them an hour and a half of great songs they know.
 
Sorry about the rant, but I think I might feel better now, well really "I should have gone to bed tonight".
 
- Dominic


here is my quick review of the perth show...

they played the baby screams and how beautiful you are during the soundcheck.  it was a bit of the treat for us outside the challenge stadium, the sound was crystal clear all through the building, apart from the buzz of the bass.  it was a late soundcheck, starting at 5 and going until 6.

very long show.  they went on stage at 8:03 and left at 11:18.  the guys were dripping in sweat by fascination street.  it was incredibly gratifying to see tape then open to start the show, possibly the most suitable to any cure show, it was powerfully emotive.

a few stuffups stood out.  robert stuffed up the lyrics in the blood and in close to me.  it was a bit scarey during the blood, it looked like he was going to be in a bad mood the rest of the night.  but they threw themselves into alt.end and were happy again by the walk.  simon kicked over robert's 12 string during wrong number, but the hero guitar tech picked it up and had it retuned in time for deep green sea.

there were lots of best bits for me. seeing porl on stage was just brilliant.  he is the greatest guitarist i have ever ever seen.  he adds his own bits to all the songs, they're like the original but better.  my favourite songs included seeing tape/open, hot hot hot, shake dog shake, never enough, deep green sea, 100 years, end, and the entire second and third encore.  big singalongs to play for today, the set was particularly singles heavy, but i guess thats okay.  the crowd was young, but fun.

we're all in for a treat at the next shows.  they're on fire at the moment.

- Shannon


As with probably a lot of other readers of CoF, I won't pretend to be anything but an unabashed Cure nut. So my objectivity coat & cap is still left checked back at the Challenge stadium as I sit down to write this the day after.

My group of friends were lucky enough to get SMH pre-sale tickets back in June but I'll admit it was a nervous four weeks before the tickets actually arrived and we could see where we'd been allocated. At five tiered rows back from the general admission area, and at a good close angle from and barely foot above stage level our six seats were perfect. Not only for the adults amongst us, but for my friends' daughter, who at 9 years old was making her concert going debut. Her having such cool parents introducing her to a variety of music, and her loving it as she grows proves there is always hope for the younger generation yet.

But to the show itself -

The lads came on about 20 minutes after the ticketed time. The stormy, rolling 'Tape' rose in crescendo before firstly Jasons extreme case of
bed hair rose above the drum kit bringing the crowd to life. Simon strutted out next moments later oozing all of his speechless charisma, then of course Robert with his still-coy-after-all-these-years shuffle and Porl heralding his Australian return to the band with his new pharoah like shaved & tattooed look. It was a powerful moment I think for everyone; My overwhelming sensation was; "They're real and they're here!" (expletives omitted) Without further ado.. "Open" crashed upon us.

Personal moments and recollections -

• "Lullaby" - was pepped up slightly with a few new flourishes.
• "Push" - Such an uplifting song. Of all the times I listen to this on my stereo or mp3 player and hit repeat about 3 times. No such feature live unfortunately…
• "Us and Them" - One of the last albums tracks that's grown on me the most. The Festival DVD did it for me much more so for the album version.
Love that backlit imagery with the red angry ants.
• "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea" - Haunting mocking trapped & tumbling

The 3rd encore bought new life to a good portion of the first album from 1979. Rockier,  edgier and a lot less sparse. The lyrics to "Jumping Someone Else's Train" hold just as true today with all the fads of society rolling on around us.

During "10:15 Saturday Night" I had to laugh when I caught out one of the stern faced security guards briefly bopping away on the spot. Thathe had been the serious professional all evening but that he also looked liked he was going to change into a flaired white jumpsuit after the show for his second job as a Elvis impersonator; already complete with large gold rimmed dark glasses and sideburns big enough to smother small mammals with, just made the moment all the better.

I noticed the lyrics change of "Killing An Arab" to what I'm sure was "Killing Another" for the main chorus line. Is this a sign of the politically correct times - or has Robert just given up trying to explain the whole existentialist thing ? Perhaps a bit of both. I certainly think it still fits the song.

All in all it was a damn rockin' show with little respite throughout. As Jo's review has already stated there was a point where Robert said unless they played a slow one next, he'd need a stool to sit down.  That one slow one was "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep" which ramped straight back up afterwards with "The Kiss"

In my opnion the band hasn't suffered for the lack of keyboards. In fact if I hadn't been a reader of CoF or any articles on the band over the last couple of years - to my technically untrained musical ear I might be able to detect some slight difference in their live sound but I'd doubt I'd be able to say what it was.

I'm lucky enough to be going to the Melbourne show in a week as well. It'll be interesting to see how things evolves as the tour moves along..

Top notch stuff.

- Kymbo


What a great show! So different from Dream Tour show, which for me was wave of sound that wrapped around me like a blanket, this was a wave
that absolutely pummelled me into the ground.  The absence of keyboards and the wash of guitars was hard-hitting. Robert seemed to have left his
black skirt in Singapore, and had returned to his standard black jeans and shirt... and of course, those boots.
 
 From the first bars of "Open", you knew this was going to be a great night."Fascination Street" sounded much edgier as an all-guitar number.
After "Lullaby", "Hot Hot, Hot!!!", "Push", "Inbetween Days", "Friday I'm In Love", "Just Like Heaven" and "Primary" had got the crowd
absolutely jumping Robert said something like "I have to play something slow now, otherwise I will have to play the rest of the show on a
stool". As usual, Robert was not overly chatty but did apologise at one point saying "Sorry, I just realised I haven't been talking much, I
actually forgot that I can speak the language".
 
I find it hard to put my thoughts of the show on paper, so here are a couple of quick comments:
The Blood - great to hear live
Lovesong - a relief for me, as my friend who came with me is not a huge
Cure fan, so it was great that they played her fave song
Hot Hot Hot!!! - Great lights, great sound
Us or Them - Sounded like Robert was spitting venom with his words
Never Enough - Robert stepped from behind the guitar and did his trademark wander across the stage. Porl absolutely ROCKED!
FTEOTDGS - "Put your hands in the sky"
Play for Today - I finally had the chance to sing the "whoa, whoa, whoa" parts - loved it, and loved that the fans in Perth knew to do it!
A Forest - Simon is a Legend!
Wrong Number - Fantastic lighting!! Fantastic version - 1st time I have heard this live, and loved it! The "colour of the music was 'not' too loud"
3rd Encore - What a great set, it had the crowd jumping and my blood pumping - wow!!! "Killing An Arab" was fantastic - it's a song that I never thought that I would get to hear live.
 
What else to say? Really, I just can't find the right words! Let's leave it with, I am trying desperately (but probably, in vain) to talk my husband into letting me go to Melbourne to see them again, it's worth a try.
 
Oops, forgot to mention the merchandise . To be honest, it was VERY disappointing. I think there were 5 or 6 t-shirts (I grabbed a couple, and will take photos and send them through. ). Beyond the t-shirts, there were only a set of 4 badges and the Concert Program - that was it - very disappointing.  Hopefully, it is just an Australian problem - we don't seem to get a lot of the same merchandise as you get in the States.

- Jo


Back