(Thanks to Olivier for the setlist and ticket scan)

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COF - Bart - Bram


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 Reviews

Now that I have seen all the setlists from the tour it is clear Antwerp had not the best setlist. Paris was had a much better setlist with of course Faith. But still the concert in Antwerp was their best I have seen so far.(The trilogy show could have been better If they played another album than Bloodflowers). All the people around me were also very enthusiastic and happy. Some guy thanked god that he could still witness this at his age. Even the press was very positive.
 
What a contrast with the last two concerts i went to (Lokeren 2005 and Werchter 2004) where people were extremely bored and almost angry with
the performance. After these two shows I already feared that the Cure was no more. But now they are back and have never played so well. Why
was it so good:
 
The setlist : They played almost all the hits; People can wine about them playing Friday and other poppy songs but 60% of the audience is there for the hits. And it is a lot more fun to be surrounded by happy people than by people bored by song they don't know. The encores were also amazing especially the TIB encore, a lot of people, even those seated were dancing and singing along. But perhaps they could throw out Wrong number and Never Enough and replace it by The Kiss or faith.
 
The performance : everything was played very well and very tight. They rocked and they never played so good as this concert. Keyboards were not
missed on most songs. Plainsong actually sounded amazing. two exceptions: Inbetween days and Just like Heaven. They would have been better with
keyboards. highlights : FTEOTDGS, Push, One Hundred Years and the first two encores with especially Killing an Arab. They band enjoyed themselves : Robert dancing and even playing the kazoo. Some find it ridiculous, the crowd loved it.
 
The cure has shown that they are still one the best bands in the world. Hopefully the new album will only confirm this. i could only hope it will be better than the last 3 ones
 
- Jurgen


My brother and I travelled out from England on the Friday morning, with the six months of anticipation almost at an end.  I had bought the tickets late on the Saturday night that they went on sale and my French not being as good as it should have been, being a little worse for wear – and desperate for a ticket to somewhere – Wembley sold out! – I booked seating tickets in what appeared to be the very back of the Sportpaleis.  So on arrival at the venue in mid-afternoon we took a good look around outside and tried to convince ourselves it wasn’t that big and it would be alright before adjourning to the bar opposite the venue where the talk was all about Paris!!  As the crowd built outside the Sportpaleis, we went in search of some standing tickets to no avail but just before the doors opened, we spoke to a local girl selling seating tickets who told us it was not usually a problem to stand with seating tickets…. We chanced it, had our tickets scanned at the door and promptly walked straight into the auditorium – about five rows from the from in front of Porl’s part of the stage!  People who came in a little later said tickets were being checked and as we looked back at where our seats were – we could not believe our luck!

65Daysodstatic were ok – I will give credit to their drummer who was very energetic but all their numbers were a bit “samey.” 

Then the climax of six months waiting… the opening notes of Plainsong as the Cure took the stage.  The sound was amazing, loud enough to “feel” but not so loud as to lose any clarity and wow can this iteration of the band play!  Prayers for Rain followed sublimely sung by Robert and then the beautiful strains of Strange Day and a thumping rendition of Alt End – sung with gusto by Robert and finished with an “but of course they didn’t!” TEOTW followed and then Lovesong which was again note perfect.  To Wish Impossible Things followed and at this point I realised just how static the Belgian crowd were.  Not only were the seats still seated (man were we lucky!) but even the floor hadn’t moved yet.  From the Edge… changed that – on the floor at least, with the band really kicking into gear!  Pictures came next and this was a real highlight of the show – absolutely crystal clear and note perfect then Lullaby with the legendary Robert moves and then the Walk.  Now I’ve read people on COF slating the band for playing this but it worked much better without the keys.  It has mutated into a really rocky track and of course that has to be testament to the genius that is Porl!  He plays those incredible guitars (white with what must be his own art in black on them) so effortlessly and yet gets such incredible sounds and tunes from them!  HotHotHot – again reworked as a rockier song and now the place is jumping!  Robert then joked he was going to play something “you might not know the words to” which was Please Project but he called it something else.  It sounded like quite a funny song and nowhere near as bad as I have read about!  Robert stood at the front of the stage grinning as he played the Push intro and declared “at last I can play this legitimately” before Friday.  By now the floor was jumping and the crowd was treated Inbetween Days, the re-worked – (how does he make it sound so good?) JLH and Primary before ABINK which was another highlight for me.  Robert sings it with such feeling, it is beautifully simple and it brought a lump to my throat!  Robert “performed” Never enough with a radio mic leaving Porl and Simon to make the noise, called out “hello” four times to the crowd before hearing “wrong number” come back at him on the tape and then they (Simon in particular) powered through 100 Years and Disintegration.

A short break before incredible renditions of At night and M and then we all got to play our “part” in a Play For Today! And Robert and Simon thrashed their way through the close of Aforest – Porl looking up at us and saying “I’m Done” before leaving them to it on stage! By this point the whole place was on its feet and gasping for more….

….the five song “old skool” encore was great, truly powerful except for Porl not being plugged in for the started of Jumpin’ (I think – something was up!)  Then the third encore and Robert took up the radio mic again.  His performance of Freakshow was hilarious - he was almost rolling around on the floor and when someone threw a kazoo on to the stage during Close To Me he sheepishly picked it up and played it into the mic, firstly where he was at the exreme left of the stage, then in Porl’s ear and finally he did the trumpet part centre stage.  They finished with WCIBY – which of course was simply elegant!

We waited for Faith – but not tonight! 

So the show was shorter than Paris – so what, they did three hours and blew us all away!  The lighting and the projections at the back of the stage added to the feel of the show but the only the music mattered.  This was my fourth Cure concert in 17 years and by far the best.  I love this Cure incarnation.  I love the fact that they are enjoying the shows so much and that they continue to evoke every possible emotion in the crowd!  Thank you!

- Rob


A lot has allready been said in the other reviews, this is what i would like to add.
First of all: I've nothing negative to say on this show  :-)
The last time I saw them was in Lokeren (august 10th 2005, Belgium) - I saw them approx. 10 times.
 
The songs:
Plainsong stays the perfect opening song and makes my eyes wet (together with Pictures OY). A bit sad is that Robert has to play the guitar very
soon after the song starts and now he can't take his time anymore greeting the audience from every corner of the stage: that long awaited magic moment when you see him back after a couple of years!
 
Then a couple of songs where you just watch the show and sing along. Observing the group having fun. The End OTW impressed me. I've always
felt something 'wrong' with the melody that Robert sings but now he's changed it a bit and now the melody of his voice fits better with the melody of the guitars I think. 
 
Then time for some dancing, first calm and funky and then more and more slam dancing (HHH, The Walk, Push, Friday,In Between Days, JLH). But
still calmer than the concerts in the 80's. Now there where 20-25 people moshing, then everybody was (in my memories...   ;-)  )
 
A Boy I Never Knew: Wow! Briliant song! And Robert singing it a lot, alone, with the acoustic guitar.
 
Then a couple of songs where Porl can freak out on his gorgious, self-designed white guitars. What a good guitar player and a fenomenal artist and musician he is! Robert letting him free to improvise and play great solo's. In fact, these songs are mainly Porls songs... As I was standing at the 4th or 5th row, just between Porl en Bob, I could see a glimpse of his impressive tattoos. They start around his right nipple and then continue over his chest, his lower back, the left side of his head, his arms, hands and leggs. And Porl is not as cool as Laurent wrote in the first review. When you're so close in front of the stage, you have eye contact with the band and there is a lot of interaction and smiling between the audience, Bob and Porl. But when Porls playing his important guitar parts, his eyes are closed and then he's completely 'in' his music. He was wearing a transparant shirt and legging + a long black skirt + impressive boots with long sharp nails all around.
 
Simon was at the other side of the stage and you all know how he plays and acts during the shows: a great and unique bass player. As you could
see on previous shows, his hair has turned black again.
 
Jason was playing very good and concentrated, he has an important job maintaining the rythm.
 
The 'kazoo-moment' during Close To Me came after a fan had thrown a kazoo to Robert. He pics it up and 'asks' (with his hands) while singing, if he should play it. Everybody screems YES and he start playing it: Perfect! Afterwards he keeps the orange kazoo and hopefully he uses it again because it sounds great!
 
On another moment he stretches his arms to the crowd as if he wants to jump, but then he shakes 'no' and plays the scary, embarassed boy...
 
The light show was nice, as always. And a lot of images where added on the screen. During the intro of plainsong you see stars coming closer as if you're traveling into spance, during POY you see a picture of Mary I think. During M, a huge "M", During Lullaby a big spider, During 100 Years there are lots of B/W pictures shown of wars in Europe and China, with executions and so,... it creates a very special atmosphere... brrr...
 
At last something about taking pictures. I was hoping to see more pictures of the show on COF. Apparently, security allows taking digital
pictures (without flashing). Where is the time that security jumped suddenly in the audience trying to grab a camera they had spotted. I didn't knew, otherwise I would have taken mine. Each bandmember has a white spot on the ground (stage) in front of them and it must be possible to take really nice pictures and close ups. I should have taken mine... I count on you,fans, who are going to see the next shows!
 
After the second encore, we're still shouting for more and then Robert makes the sign that he will go asking the rest of the band for 'one more
song'...  :-)
 
Enjoy the next shows folks, it's great! And although I printed out the setlists of the last 4 shows, and despite they're for 80 percent the same, they have made an excellent choice of songs. As someone said before: they're a band, not a jukebox. They have hundreds of songs but they must rehearse them also to be able to play them correct. It's normal that they can't play them all... 
 
So, take care and have fun!
 
- Roel


After letting myself cool down for a day, it's time to share some thoughts on The Cure's performance in Antwerp, 2 days ago.

Starting off with a little summary of the event, let say that The Cure came, saw and conquered Antwerp's Sportpaleis.

When i first heard my favourite band would be coming to the Sportpaleis, i was a bit dissapointed. Not by the fact that they came to Belgium once
again, obviously not, but by the venue, which has a reputation of... well... basically just plain sucking as far as concerts are concerned.
"Sportpaleis", as you might have guessed, can loosely be translated by "Palace of Sports", which would indicate, quite correctly, that the primary use of this venue is for sports events. It looks a bit like a giant green metal can, and what's worse, it also sounds like one. Great was my surprise when, after an almost unbearably stressful 30 minutes inbetween 65 Days of Static, who i believe did a great job warming everyone up as the venue slowly filled with people, and The Cure, i found out when the band hit the stage that the sound was actually really, /really/ good. I stood at the center, right in front of Robert, at approximatly maybe 25 meters from the stage, and the sound was, taking the abysmal acoustics of the venue into account, pretty much as perfect as one could get it. So first of all, a big and sincere thank you to the sound crew. And also thanks for playing My Bloody Valentine
inbetween the two shows! Only upped the excitement…

The gig itself was awesome. It took me about 3 songs to really get into it, and you could feel the arena slowly fill itself with that special, almost tangible, Cure atmosphere. It felt a bit like breathing underwater, for as far as one can ever know how it feels to breath underwater. Except for some irritating nitwits who tried to push there way all the way to the front while the gig had already started (why do there always have to be suck f… at every concert?), the crowd was really great. A bit static during the first songs, but quickly getting more and more active, and singing along more and louder as the gig went on. And unlike Lokeren 2005, there were a lot of hands going up during FTEOTDGS once again (that was really one lame crowd, back there). During some songs, towards the end of the evening, people were getting active all the way up to the last rows of the balcony, and I saw “seated” people dancing.

The setlist was a rather “uplifting” one, i thought. Not so much long, doom-laden songs, as was to be expected judging from the setlists of the
previous gigs on this tour. I couldn’t care less… I thought i would care more, but after having seen the gig, I really don’t. Robert was in über form, happy, smiling, sprawling some un-understandable words into the mic inbetween songs (i remember understanding “finally… time for some fucking weirdness” right before they played “Friday I’m In Love” though), singing spot on,… It was really great seeing him enjoy himself so much. Porl, as usual, didn’t move a muscle in his face during the entire concert. Simon kept jumping making love to his bass, also as usual, but never boring to watch, and Jason was hid away behind his kit. Simon seemed a bit pissed though, as he left stage after “Why can’t I be you”, the last song of the gig, quite violently throwing his bass away. It seems as if his bass didn’t work the way it should during that song. Lots of “umpah-umpah” from the bass drum, but no clearly distinguishable bass line… I remember how Robert deactivated Simon’s pedals as he left the stage some time later. No clue what went wrong.

Some songs sounded a bit weird. During “Jumping someone else’s train” for instance, i had the impression Porl forgot his part, and was just playing “Boys don’t cry” instead (I’m probably wrong, though) :) And “Why can’t I be you” was pretty weird also, but again, that might partially have been due to the problems with the bass. “Please Project” didn’t sound half as bad as i thought it would, judging from the YouTube vids i saw, but i still believe the lyrics sound like a bad joke. Sounds to me like the twin brother of the horrendously uninspired “I Don’t Know (What’s Going On)” from last album. “A Boy I Never Knew” is a great track, and, beat me with a baseball bat if you like, “Freak Show” is really excellent. Reminds me of “Open”, go figure… And i’m really glad to finally have heard “To Wish Impossible Things” live. Very good versions of “One Hundred Years” and “Disintegration” also, even if i can’t help but feel that the original feelings that led Robert to write those songs have been, for the greatest part, buried away. Doesn’t matter, the songs don’t get any less good because of that! He moved on, and judging from a lot of recent comments and outlets i’m afraid a lot of Cure fans still haven’t, and probably should.

Anyway, the show was brilliant. Great performances, a band in amazing shape, really good atmosphere, and everyone, band and audience alike,
seemed to have a blast. Those 3 hours definitely felt like less. Lately, a lot of people have been pissing on the band because they believe the setlists look too much the same from gig to gig, but 90% (or even more!) of the people who go see The Cure don’t care what the band has played so far during the tour leg, and one could hardly blame them. They don’t check Chainofflowers 20 times a day, probably even don’t know the site exists, have never heard of this obscure “Olivier” dude who keeps posting setlists as they happen along, and only want to have a good time during the one time they go out and see the band play, and that’s exactly what The Cure has given them last friday. It’s easy to piss on a band because they don’t play the tracks you’d like them to play (“why don’t they ever play “Burn”, or “A Foolish Arrangement”, or “The Top”, or “New Day”, or…”, feel free to fill in some more B-sides, soundtrack titles, and hardly ever played live tracks from the early albums), but it’s just unfair to expect that from any band. First of all, they’re not a jukebox, and second, seriously, the crowd consists of more than just hardcore Cure fans, and they deserve to be entertained just as much as you do. Believe me, their tickets cost just as much as yours. Sometimes, i feel we Cure fans are way too spoiled, and act like brats…

As i was standing in the entrance, after the gig, a Bulgarian fan came up to me, asking me if she could take my picture, because “you look like a real Cure fan, all the others are just…”. Dear girl, if you’re reading this, thanks, you made the evening even more unforgettable than it already was!

The concert confirmed my believe that there will never, ever in my lifetime be any band like The Cure again. They are unique, and are the only ones who can make me feel the way they do. Yes, sometimes Robert does weird things, sais weird things, and makes some possibly even weirder featuring choices, but that doesn’t change a damn thing about the fact that they are as unique a band as one could get. If the new album happens to suck, so be it… Live, they still are rock solid, and Disintegration won’t sound any bit less good. And I still believe the album won’t suck ;)

When tickets went on sale for this event, the sister of a friend of mine ordered our tickets. But what he forgot to tell me, was that she ordered
seated places. As i said to myself, and to him and everybody else who cared to listen, there was absolutely no way in Hell i was going to sit still during a Cure concert, i bought myself an arena place as soon as i could. I’m glad i did, ‘cause if i hadn’t, i’d still be banging my head against the wall out of sheer frustration right now…

- Laurent

 
I would like to write a little review as well;
there where a lot of people (22.000) and the atmosphere was very good. All for one group "the cure".
The sound of it all wasn't bad and roberts voice was powerfull.
A lot of hits past by ... and the setlist wasn't that different than they played until now,.... but that DOESN'T MATTER AT ALL.... it was a good show and i (we) have to say thank you very mutch and see you again...later.
Yeah and also succes for them futher on the tour,....
 
- Bert

After the madness of Paris, this show will be not the best of the 4 tour...
The Cure good, but an "automatic" show.
Simon very "punk"....in front of people not very wake up....on the last pop encore..
1979 encore : not very well play.
The voice  Robert very good on the main set..
pop song close to me with Robert on a kazoo (like "the walk" unplugged 1991) and have fun with porl..
again lot of people , this show is like lisboa....
bonus again for this show....
i think Paris and Rome will be the show summum....waiting wembley

- Years go by