4Tour World Tour 2007 - 08
Tape (intro), Open, Fascination
Street, alt.end, The Blood, A Night Like This, The Walk, The End of
the World, Lovesong, The Figurehead, Kyoto Song, Hot Hot Hot, A Strange
Day, Push, Inbetween
Days, Friday I'm In Love, Just
Like Heaven, Primary, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, The Kiss,
Shake Dog Shake, Pictures of You, Lullaby, Never Enough, From
the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Wrong
Number, One Hundred Years, Shiver
and Shake, End
1st Encore: Let's Go To Bed, Close To Me, Why Can't
I Be You?
2nd Encore: A Forest, Boys Don't Cry
Show was about 3 hours.
(Thanks to Chris for the setlist and to Karoline,
Jack and Jon for the ticket scan)
We just got back to Washington, DC from
the Hong Kong Cure gig (after a weird, aborted 2 hour trip to Macau the
day after the show). It was a
long, exhausting trip (and we saw at least one other person on the
flight back to New Jersey with a tour short on!), but as this was the
absolute best Cure show I've seen in any country (the count is getting high
now) and was completely worth every mile, dollar, and pound of sweat given
to get there.
Before I get into specific details, I need to mention the best part
of the show: The music mixing and arrangement. After having spent years
with many of their older songs (particularly from Wish) sounding tinny
and hollow (Edge of the Deep Green Sea, for instance), this concert finally
felt full, deep, and powerful every single song. We had seen them at
the Ultra music fest in Miami (our first Porl show) and the sound was
mixed...better....but for me, Hong Kong is where they finally hit their
stride. The difference in clarity and depth was night and day. If
you haven't gotten your tickets for the show nearest to you, get them
now. :)
So, about the show:
The Asia World arena was fantastically easy to get to and felt pristine.
We arrived about an hour early to get into the GA waiting line and were
happy to only have maybe 30 people ahead of us (by the time they let us
in, there were only triple that many - but more on that later). When we
were ultimately let in, it was a no-fuss affair. No pockets were checked
and no bags searched. A number of people opted not to bring cameras and were
a little bit disappointed to know that they would've been allowed in. My
wife and I ended up bringing not-too-subtle equipment in, but later ran into
the Catch-22 of the recording situation there: If your equipment -looked-
low-end, you could've recorded the whole concert end to end. But the floor
security in front of the stage was -all- about finding anything that looked
too "serious".
Once in, we really got to see how huge the Arena was. What was concerning
about the size was that until about 15-20 minutes before the Cure came
on, the place was -empty-. I mean, there couldn't have been 300 people
in the whole place. We (center floor, 3-5 rows back) felt fairly bad for
the poor people who were all the way in the back of the arena! Luckily for
us, though, that lack of a "crushing" feeling let us get to know some of
the people around us a little better (in our immediate vicinity, I think
Hong Kong natives were the minority. We had tons of people around from Australia,
Japan, and even others from the US). Ultimately though, you could see that
the show was respectably attended, if nowhere near to sold out.
The band came out to Tape (intro) and began with Open. I knew immediately
that it was going to be a great sounding set - it was the best rendition
of Open I've heard! Robert looked as good as I've seen him in a long time
and I think the past 3 shows I've seen them at, he's consistently looked
better each time. The band seems to be developing a somewhat consistent
"uniform" in a way. Jason's hair getting "poofier" all the time, Simon keeping
with his "Im back in the 80's again" look that he's had since he grew his
hair back. Porl and Robert were dressed similarly, with Robert sporting
a heavy canvas-looking wrap around his legs and waist (in addition to the
pants below) with 4 (3?) stars on the wrap and the shirt. Porl had a semi-transparent
skirt/wrap around him as well and it looked a lot like Robert's getup but
with thinner cloth.
I can't relate back every single song, but Fascination Street was
well, well done and you (well, I at least) didn't notice any lack of
keyboards. The guitar keyboard-replacement arrangements have seemed to
have really developed since Ultra. Wrong Number was crazy powerful
(better than the other couple of times I'd heard it), although much of
the audience seemed not to have heard it before (or at least they didnt
recognize it). I've also never been a huge fan of lullaby live, but the
new version of it is much much more interesting. Listen closely to it next
time you hear it live!
The band all seemed to be in a good mood. Robert was lively and
genuinely playful and engaged throughout the show. Porl and Simon kissed
behind Robert's back at some point early on and I think I saw Robert
hug Porl after whispering something to him later on.
As for song selection in general, I'm not a good judge of that anymore
but it seemed to work for the audience, who were actually was so
hopping-excited that I think their bouncing actually lifted me (6'5")
off the ground a few times. Wow. The only bad experience was one or two
drunken (and deodorantless) Aussie guys who had had a little too
much beer for their good or ours. That said, it was the friendliest
and most
mellow crowd experience I've had since Coachella a couple of years
ago - it was neat to see so many people so genuinely excited to be there.
- Jack (Jofny)
I was waiting to go inside and could make out the sound check,
which consisted of "the figurehead", "play for today", "grinding halt"
and "jumping someone Else's train".
The doors finally opened, i ran in and was lucky enough to secure
a spot on the dance floor on the rail in front of Simon.
The crowd took a while to build up, at first i thought it would
be a disappointing turnout. But the venue gradually filled up.
Over all the show was excellent, perfect sound quality and lighting.
"Kyoto song" and "lets go to bed" were particular highlights. Robert
strolled around the stage and gased at every section of the crowd.
Lullaby and just like heaven suffered a little without keyboards
i felt. Never the less, Porl did a fantastic job on guitar duties. He
is sporting some new body ink too i didn't know he had. Reminded me a
bit of Kerry King.
The crowd really started to get going when "push" started. The pick
slide Robert did on "IOTWCS" was awesome, it went for ages and echoed
through the whole venue.
"Never enough" and "wrong number" sounded great too, intricate guitar
parts and use of delays etc sounded great.
Flashing lights were spectacular.
Does anyone know if Schecter made a 12 string model of Porls guitar?
It looked like he was using a 12 string version of his signature model
on "shake dog shake".
Really looking foward to the Australian and NZ concerts.
- Aaron
After I came home from Fuji Rock Festival (FRF) in the early Saturday
morning, I packed my baggage, and the very next day I flew to Hong Kong
for my second The Cure Show in my life.
On the day of the concert, I went to the venue two hours before
the opening time. About 20 people were already waiting in line in front
of the door to the bowl (the standing zone).
The door opened at 7pm. At this moment, only a handful of people
were there inside the arena. Even after 30 minutes, most of the seats
were yet to be occupied. To be honest, I was disappointed and sad seeing
a lot of empty seats and vast space in the bowl. I was glad 50 - 60% of
the arena was filled at last. I think it wasn't a bad deal. I've heard even
Oasis couldn't sell much tickets when they performed in the Asia World
Expo last year.
The setlist for the Hong Kong show was quite similar to the one
for FRF. They didn't play any new materials from their forthcoming new
album. However, there was a big surprise! They played old masterpieces
like Primary, The Figurehead and A Strange Days which I'd never thought
they
would play during the show. They were simply amazing!
To me, this night's performance was better than the one at FRF.
The members seemed more relaxing. I was really amazed to see Robert always
smiling at the audience. He must have been in a very good mood since he
embarked on the tour. Oh, not only Robert. I saw Porl smiled and waved at
the fans, and even Simon had attractive smiles sometimes. (Oh yes, Simon
was gorgeously sexy with his long spiky hair!)
The show ended around 11pm, and I burst into tears. They were tears
of joy and tears of sorrow. Sorrow for not seeing The Cure again for years.
(I can't wait another 23 years anymore!) I still have mixed feelings
of excitement, joy, sadness and emptiness.
I also miss the great fans I met at the show. They were so friendly
and enthusiastic! I believe I couldn't have such a wonderful intimate
moment without them. I wish I could meet them again in one of The Cure shows
someday.
- Junko
It's the first time I ever seen a Cure
concert, and I've never been to Hong kong before, although it's only
2 hours drive. It is said that HK is a shopping heaven, and there's Disneyland,
and the ocean park… All of which don't interest me much, but this time
– it's The Cure!
We arrived almost two hours earlier, so we sat down and had a
cup of coffee at the café right outside the arena, where there
is an entrance door to the arena, but of course it was closed. And we
could hear The Cure rehearsing inside quite clear, which made me very
excited. I went up to the door and put my ears close to the slot, it
was even clearer. During that time two guys sat down at the table next
to ours, and suddenly they walked to the door and opened it, surprisingly
the door was not locked, and at once the muffled music blew out like waves.
The two went in, door closed, I held my curiosity and stuck to my chair.
After a while a security guard came out that door, later the two walked
out escorted by a couple of working crew behind, I laughed all the while
watching this, and one of the two made faces to me.
More and more people came to the arena, and most of them
bought a Cure T-Shirt right at the spot and dressed in it. 40 minutes
before the show,
we thought maybe it was about time to enter the arena, but we
were told that those with standing zone tickets should enter downstairs.
Until then did we know that it was a bit late, the most front rows were
crowded with people already.
The
Arena is rather massive, although there were thousands (my guess)
of Cure fans, it was still half-empty. We waited until about 20:30p.m.,
the
roadies kept tuning the gear onstage, and one of them placed four
bottles of drinks somewhere near the drums, the front part of the standing
zone was full of people, and then the band showed up, with fans screaming
and haling. At the beginning it felt still rather cool, because of the
air conditioning.
The first song was "Open", the whole arena began to heat up, everybody
started dancing along to the rhythm, Robert wore a black shirt, black
skirt (?) and a pair of black trousers, with a few beautiful chains
both on the neck and the right wrist. During the two and a half hours
he drank all the bottles of drinks, while Simon drank only one which
looked quite like beer, the other two never drank anything. At the most
front stood a boy whose hair was messed up like Robert, and he wore a self-made
T-shirt with a large number and photos of The Cure, which looked quite
like the one Robert once wore in a photo. The fans went mad, especially
when they played catchy songs like "Friday I'm In Love" etc. Simon was all
sweaty wet on stage. Robert sang "I can lose myself in Chinese art and
Chinese girls…" He messed his hair with his hands quickly at least twice,
and danced a little like a child and rolled his eyes occasionally, which
made me laugh… When the show was over and I finally began to walk out the
arena, I found my legs almost numb because of the long time jumping and
dancing, and my neck was stiff and ached and hardly could move because I
kept looking up at the stage…
- Karoline
Just a quick background on
me, I am originally from Australia and as I wrote before, I have been
following the band for over 20 years now and have seen them live many
times. As this was the first time that the band has played HK I was expecting
a fairly "singles" based set list which of course would please the fans
who may have never seen the band before, where as I was just hoping that
they may slip in at least one new song, not to be.
So I thought I would base this review as seen from a fan who
may be watching their first or second cure gig. So please feel free to
edit the review as
you wish. I will be going to the Brisbane gig so hope to give
you a more die hard fans' point of view.
Cure in Hong Kong
Last night The Cure played Hong Kong for the very first time,
and they did not disappoint.
An ecstatic crowed greeted the band as they started with Open
and straight into Fascination Street after a quick " hello" from Robert.
alt.end was
followed by a great version of The blood with Porl playing an
extended solo, what a treat !!!!
I thought that with the cure embarking on what we hope is a
world tour that they might use this gig as a bit if a warm up but they
were right on the
money and really sounding good. The Walk, The End Of the World
and Lovesong had the crowd out of their seats. The Figurehead was next
with Robert singing " I can lose myself in Chinese art and Chinese girls".
Kyoto Song, Hot Hot Hot and another classic from Pornography,
A Strange Day. By now the band really seemed to be enjoying themselves
and were smiling a lot, what a difference it makes having Porl back !!!
Next was Push, what an amazing song this is played live, great
drumming from Jason. An orgy of singles followed with the biggest surprise
of the night, Primary. Robert then said he was "going to slow things down"
with If Only Tonight we Could Sleep, but that pace didn't last long and
we were carried away by the intensity of The Kiss and Shake Dog Shake
(Simon playing bass was going off !!! ) after these two songs I thought
the band would be heading off stage for a well deserved break but no they
just kept going and going, to my delight!!!! Pictures of You, Lullaby,
Never Enough, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Wrong Number, One Hundred
Years, and Shiver and Shake all followed, by now the band hand us so hooked
that I didn't realise that they had been playing for almost two hours and
twenty minutes !!!!!!
Then Robert proclaimed " one more ( big gasp ) I think this
is the longest set we have ever played!!!!! " last song of the set,
End.
Encore
No one was leaving, we wanted more, and the band responded with
Let's go to Bed, Close to Me, and Why Can't I Be You.
I couldn't believe it, how can you play Close to Me live, without
Keyboards? Of course, because you have Porl on guitar, brilliant !
Meanwhile Robert was walking around, dancing, singing, smiling
and just having a great time!
2nd Encore
A Forest and the crowd favourite of the night Boys don't Cry
Wow, what a gig, after the show I really felt like the band
had given their all. They played with such enthusiasm and delight!!!!!
Thanks to the band for making it to Hong Kong, please come back
!
If anyone thought that The Cure were slowing down, think again
!!!!!
- Chris
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