The Cure w/ The Twilight Sad at Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul (07 June 2016)
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poster
06/11 – Chicago, IL @ UIC Pavilion
06/14 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre 06/16 – Boston, MA @ Agganis Arena 06/18 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden 06/19 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden 06/20 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden 06/21 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom 06/22 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post 06/24 – Atlanta, GA @ Aaron’s Amphitheater 06/26 – Miami, FL @ Bayfront Park Amphitheater 06/27 – Miami, FL @ Bayfront Park Amphitheater 10/07 – Helsinki, FI @ Hartwall Arena 10/09 – Stockholm, SE @ Ericsson Globe Arena 10/11 – Oslo, NO @ Spektrum 10/12 – Gotenburg, SE @ Scandinavium 10/14 – Copenhagen, DK @ Forum 10/17 – Hamburg, DE @ Barclaycard Arena 10/18 – Berlin, DE @ Mercedes-Benz Arena 10/20 – Lodz, PL @ Atlas Arena 10/22 – Prague, CZ @ O2 Arena 10/24 – Munich, DE @ Olympiahalle 10/26 – Vienna, AT @ Marxhalle 10/27 – Budapest, HR @ Papp Lazlo Sports Arena 10/29 – Bologna, IT @ Unipol Arena 10/30 – Rome, IT @ Palalottomatica 11/01 – Milan, IT @ Mediolanum Forum 11/02 – Milan, IT @ Mediolanum Forum 11/04 – Basel, CH @ St. Jakobshalle 11/06 – Stuttgart, DE @ Hanns-Martin-Shlever Halle 11/07 – Frankfurt, DE @ Festhalle 11/08 – Leipzig, DE @ Arena 11/10 – Cologne, DE @ Lanxess Arena 11/12 – Antwerp, BE @ Sportspaleis 11/13 – Amsterdam, NL @ Ziggo Dome 11/15 – Paris, FR @ AccorHotels Arena 11/17 – Lyon, FR @ Halle Tony Garnier 11/18 – Montpellier, FR @ Park & Suites Arena 11/20 – Madrid, ES @ Barclaycard Center 11/22 – Lisbon, PT @ MEO Arena 11/24 – Bilbao, ES @ BEC 11/26 – Barcelona, ES @ Palau St Jordi 11/29 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Arena 12/01 – London, UK @ SSE Wembley Arena 12/02 – London, UK @ SSE Wembley Arena 12/03 – London, UK @ SSE Wembley Arena All dates with Twilight Sad
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The Twilight Sad
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The evening got started on the right foot, with a band we’ve seen much more recently, Scotland’s The Twilight Sad, still in support of 2014’s Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave (Fat Cat Records).
The group’s last appearance in town was in the 250-person capacity 7th Street Entry, and now they were opening in a hockey arena, though their large and fuzzy sound seemed a better fit than expected.
‘In Nowheres’, played a third of the way in, was particularly strong, with singer James Graham constantly in motion while singing, often jerking about or holding his hands up to the sky.
Graham paused after the song, remarking “This is the point where I try and speak to the crowd… and nobody can understand a word I say because I’m too Scottish!”
Like their contemporaries Glasvegas, We Were Promised Jetpacks, and Frightened Rabbit, there’s the underbelly of a perennial unhappiness to their songs, but through all the noise and wall of sound, a glimmer of redeeming light. Their set ending ‘And She Would Darken the Memory’ from 2007 personifies that notion, as Graham “puts up” with the gloom from the lyrics.
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The Cure
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Amidst local band Low’s music serving as a taped intro, the members of The Cure strode out onto a local stage for the first time in two decades. Though the lineup has changed, the current incarnation is full of veterans to support the somewhat ageless Robert Smith, who still sports his trademark bird’s nest of hair.
Simon Gallup on bass/keys (since 1979); Roger O’Donnell – keys (who first joined in 1987); and Jason Cooper – drums (since 1995) were joined by Reeves Gabrels – guitars/bass (only in the band since 2012 but was David Bowie’s guitarist for the decade-plus previous).
Beginning fittingly with ‘Open’, the setlist each night of the current tour seems to favor one particular album and this night it seemed to be 1987’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, with Smith and co. playing six different songs from the album.
Smith’s words between songs were characteristically minimal, with no mention of not having played locally in so long, and with only a subtle tribute to Prince as he played a purple guitar for the majority of the show (to be auctioned for charity at a later date) on this, what would have been Prince’s 58th birthday. “The pressure of holding a purple guitar is really getting to me” Smith would say.
Radio hits were peppered in amongst the deeper tracks, with the band wholly on point and taking us along for the ride of this “Cure-a-Thon” spanning almost forty years of music.
Smith hardly moved from his mic position and the right and left screens hung above, were woefully small with only one dark fixed camera angle on each, from the corners of the stage.
But it was the music that was the focus, and the back-to-back of ‘In Between Days’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’ had fans jumping in their seats. ‘Pictures of You’ was picture-perfect, ‘High’ rose fans’ collective spirits, and 1992’s ‘From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea’ took us on their journey, “miles and miles away from home again”.
Ninety minutes in, they finished their main set, appropriately with ‘End’ from 1992’s Wish, but in fact, were just getting started. The first encore started with the lone new song of the set, ‘It Can Never Be the Same’ which fits neatly amongst the others in the band’s canon.
After an anguished ‘Shake Dog Shake’ the band again retreated, but quickly returned for a stunning 2nd encore, playing ‘Charlotte Sometimes’ followed immediately by ‘A Forest’ with Gallup’s bass propelling the track while obscure visions of dark trees spread on the video backdrops.
The third encore gave us a sampling of the band’s mid-90’s output with ‘Never Enough’, ‘ Burn’ and ‘Wrong Number’ all dated from that decade.
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Setlist
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And then, the fourth and final encore pulled out all the stops, with the band blazing through a six-pack of memorable songs, re-igniting the excitement for anyone that was still in the building.
Ending with the 1980 classic ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, the band even exceeded the venue’s extended curfew by three minutes, but didn’t seem to care, and the crowd that had waited oh-so-long to see them again, could have cared less as well.
“See you again!” Smith said waving to the crowd, and here’s hoping Minneapolis/St. Paul won’t have to wait quite as long for The Cure’s next area show.
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The Cure at Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul (07 June 2016) |