4Tour World Tour 2007 - 08
August 10th, 2007 -
Sydney, Australia (Sydney Entertainment
Centre)
Tape (intro), Open, Fascination Street, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Kyoto Song, The Blood, alt.end, The Walk, The End of the World, Lovesong, A Letter To Elise, Pictures of You, Lullaby, A Strange
Day, The Figurehead, Push, How Beautiful You Are, Inbetween Days, Friday
I'm In Love, Just Like Heaven, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep,
The Kiss, Shake Dog Shake, Never Enough, Wrong Number, One Hundred Years, Shiver and Shake,
End
1st Encore: Plainsong, Disintegration
2nd Encore: Hot Hot Hot, Let's Go To Bed, Close To
Me, Why Can't I Be You?
3rd Encore: A Forest, Boys Don't Cry
(Thanks to Lara for the ticket scan and to everyone who
helped with the setlist)
The Cure: Sydney Entertainment Centre
7:13AM Monday August 13, 2007
By Joanna Hunkin
Original Goth rockers The Cure play Auckland's Vector Arena this Tuesday.
Herald entertainment reporter Joanna Hunkin headed to Sydney to check out
their act
Rock bands are generally not known for the punctuality but with a staggering
three-hour play list to get through Robert Smith does not have time for
stragglers.
The doors opened at 7.45pm and by 8.05pm The Cure were on stage.
Unfortunately, we were still en route to the Sydney Entertainment Centre
so missed the first ten minutes of the show.
At the time we were disappointed. Looking back, we needn't have been.
As the remaining the two hours and 50 minutes taught us, Smith may be
a fascinating, indeed mesmerising performer, but he does have a tendency
to suck the life out of you.
After an hour of watching the Edward Scissorhands look alike, a friend
made the welcome suggestion we adjourn for a drink.
As we joined the winding queue for the bar it became clear we were not
the only ones in need of a reprieve.
If you're not a dedicated Cure fan, familiar with the band's extensive
30-year-old back catalogue, you may want to consider your options before
you fork out $120 to see the show.
Smith chose to steer clear of The Cure's most commercial tracks, playing
a heavily abridged version of Friday I'm in Love and ignoring Lovecats
altogether - despite being the band's first ever top ten hit.
Even if you are a dedicated fan, you may still struggle with the somewhat
self-indulgent three-hour show, comprising 35 tracks and three encores.
To see Smith perform is an experience not to be forgotten.
But an experience that could easily be improved by shortening the play
list and re-investing the saved energy into a culled set.
Likewise, if you're looking for an insight into the man NY Rock called
a "poster child of doom and gloom", you're unlikely to find it.
Other than some mumbled introductions and thank yous, Smith had little
to say to the nearly 10,000 strong crowd.
Still, he has earned a loyal legion of followers - many of whom modelled
themselves directly on the singer - and they were not disappointed.
But for those with a less intense appreciation for the great Mr Smith,
it was a long night, with only moderate rewards.
- New
Zealand Herald
The 2nd Sydney show was equally as good as the first,
great to see slightly different setlists at each show too.
I spoke to a few people that went to the secret show, i gotta say i
was quite irritated from what i heard them say. 2 in particular said the
only Cure songs they knew were "lovecats" and "friday I'm in love". They
also said they only went to the show because it was free. So they were too
stingy to buy tickets for the main shows.
Someone else i spoke to claimed they were a big fan. I asked them what songs
were played and they looked at me vaguely and said "i don't know what songs
they were".
I wonder how many other people were in this boat. Sorry red eye, this is
lame. I would be very surprised if there is anyone else in the country that
has bought more Cure memorabilia from your shop then me in the last decade.
I don't mean to sound spiteful, i just think its a shame that genuine fans
who couldn't get from Brisbane to red eye early enough missed out on the
show because of the likes of the people i spoke to.
Anyway, the main show defiantly stood up to expectations. what a pleasure
to hear "how beautiful you are" that is my favourite song on the kiss me
album. Lights were spectacular as with the other shows.
Still no new songs, or any tracks from "wms" or "bloodflowers".
- Aaron
I've been listening to The Cure for
25 years and saw them in Sydney in 1992, twice in 2000, and last night.
(The Cure, please leave fewer years
between Australian tours!) Last night was the best, most consistent
performance, but wasn't as intense as the Dream concerts because of the
material. 'Tighter than a nun's arsehole,' was how one patron described
the band's performance. They came on stage at about 8:10 PM and left at
about 11:15. The Blood sounded sensational. The Walk took on a surprising,
new funky feel. The Kiss was absolutely blistering; great guitar work!
Robert's voice was in excellent form, something that really stood out
during Hot, Hot, Hot.
Robert was very chatty (even more so than at the Dream concerts),
saying at the end that 'I never thought three hours would be too short.'
He
joked that it was pointless for him to ask how many people had been
to the Thursday night concert, as he couldn't see the response, anyway.
'How many is that? 15 people?' When he introduced How Beautiful You
Are, he said something I didn't quite catch about it being a first in 20
years. He walked around the stage and made large gestures for the benefit
of the crowd during The Walk, Never Enough, Plainsong, Hot Hot Hot, Let's
Go to Bed and Why Can't I Be You?
The band were fantastic; the audience's performance was abysmal.
The people around me wanted to sit still for 3 hours so that they could
drink beer and record the concert on their cam corders and cameras. The
concert hall was lit up by LCD screens. If you want to sit still for hours,
drink beer and watch a screen, please go to a pub, not a Cure concert.
Perhaps these people were more interested in selling their bootleg recordings
than they were in the music. Judging by the amount of noise and people
moving to stand up, the crowd favourites were Lullaby, In Between Days,
Pictures of You and A Forest. Open, Fascination Street, From the Edge of
the Deep Green Sea, Kyoto Song and The Blood were under-appreciated, and
many people were still making it to their seats. Push was the turning point
for crowd reaction.
I wonder why Bloodflowers been scrapped from this tour?
Entertainment Centre staff would not permit people to leave their
seats to dance, but they didn't mind people buying drinks obstructing others'
view and showering them as they came and went, as the venue makes a good
margin on alcohol. They can't say they were moving people for safety's
sake, as frustrated patrons weren't using the stairs or exits for
dancing and the spilt alcohol was more of a hazard. My seat, for which
I signed up to buy an early release ticket at AUD $130, was bad; apart from
being stuck in the passive onlooker zone, there was so much distance from
the stand to stage that the band were 15 cm tall dollies.
Robert seemed to be wearing a grey (faded black?) button-up shirt
over pants with a tunic / kilt section, black and silver chains and chunky
black boots (glad I took binoculars, since my seat sucked!). Simon had
his hair gelled up in a kind of faux-hawk. Chief regrets: not getting
a dance floor ticket because I'm small and standing up only twice because
the person directly behind me remained seated for the entire concert. The
music flowed around and through me, but I had to sit still. I'm neither
young nor energetic, but suppressing that much energy was torture.
I'm hoping some site visitors will tell us all about the My Space
secret show / sound check limited to 100 lucky people (please tell all).
I couldn't collect a wrist band pass from Red Eye on Thursday morning because
I was at work.
Thank you to The Cure for coming back to Australia and giving such
a generous and phenomenal performance.
- Duc Des Esseintes
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