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That night was perfect.. The stars were shining and there was full-moon; a lukewarm summer fragrant filled the Greek Theatre which was lighted to create a flawless framing. A special night, a special place.. For a special event, above all considering that The Cure had never played in Sicily
before! Like every really special things, it was a night for a few people: 4.500 presale tickets were sold out a lot of time before the concert's date; many unlucky ticketless people were looking in vain for a ticket .. But, actually, it seemed to me that numerous fans remained outside the theatre , crowding Taormina's streets that, in August more than ever, hosts many tourists from every part of the world, and that night were painted by dark tones of Cure fans...
The start was foreseen at 9:30 p.m. and it's punctual: almost unexpectedly for a public certainly used to wait normally half hour, here they are, from the centre of the stage. They're
four. In fact, the band's line-up has recently changed as it's been announced: the keyboarder Roger O'Donnell and the ex-guitarist Perry Bamonte have left the band and the former guitarist Porl Thompson ( who was in the original line-up) has rejoined The Cure.
Lights turn on and the show begins.
The first song is Open that immediately lights up the public, followed by the legendary
Fascination Street in whose notes all of us recover memories bounded to this crucial album: “Disintegration”.
Then comes after A strange Day in which Robert exhibits a young and unchanged voice, followed by
Alt.End which introduces in the concert their latest album “The Cure” (2004).
Then it follows The Blood , succeeded by the famous song The End of the
World danced by everybody and, obviously, also by Simon Gullap with his usual
charisma. The following song is Shake Dog Shake that really *shakes* everyone with its growing sound...
The dialogue between guitars is unceasing and very synergic, although , I must say, the audio is a bit defected so that sometimes guitars confuse each other covering some solos and arpeggios which you could distinguish only by knowing the songs!
The concert goes on with Us or Them, another song from "The
Cure" singed with the Robert's strong energy accompanied by the sharp and tumultuous sound of instrumental sessions, and
A Night Like This which I personally enjoy a lot though the absence of the sax solo. The following songs are Push and Just like Heaven, both danced by all of us under the stars.
The absence of O'Donnell's keyboard is perceptible in A Letter to
Elise, played in a noisy version which doesn't overlie the romantic and delicate song's mood, and especially in Lullaby in which the hard task to substitute it is reserved to guitars that hit the mark in a scratching and sharp way, rich of nuances that only guitar's chords can give!
Never Enough is followed by The Figurhead that offers a piece of charming past which an album like “Pornography” has been for The Cure
fans. The global sound and Robert's voice have a great impact. He sometimes try to shortly communicate with fans in
English (in fact not always well understood!) apart from some "grazie", and Porl plays from the left side of the stage without striking too
much. Robert is really flawless in From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, though also in this song guitars aren't so clear, anyway the emphasis is very high and drags everyone in the chasing humour of the song.
After Signal to Noise and The Baby Screams is time for One Hundred Years that excites with a uniform and monotonous rhythm in unison with everybody's movements that leads to the song's final emphasis in which the drum set proceeds more and more strongly and in which Robert is, maybe, just a bit tired! But nothing grave, it's fantastic!
The penultimate song is Shiver and Shake in which everything's really perfect: faultless voice's performance, great musical synergy as well; followed by
End to close the concert's first part, started with Open (they respectively are the end and the beginning of "Wish").
It's surely a meaningful setlist for The Cure in this only Italian date of
this tour, the first one in Sicily.
It's a choice that somewhat includes all the band's history passing by those fundamental stages of their more crucial works; a
setlist which satisfies all spectators but which isn't enough to make this concert so special: in fact, after a short break, they come back to amaze us with even four encores!
1st Encore
They dedicate it to a very important album to which they're fond of and that indissolubly binds The Cure to fans grown up with its songs, feeding their passion and love for the band:
"Seventeen Seconds". The first song is At Night which introduces
a dark and gloomy sound that characterizes the whole album, followed by M in a perfect performance:
it seems time never passed: Robert's voice is always the same, like the music, the gestures and the atmosphere in all these years (1980).
They go on with Play for Today and then A Forest whose emphasis leaves to us nearly the concern that the show is coming to the end with this live version that usually they perform in every concert. It's an extended version singed with a lower voice tone, almost a celebration of darkness and mood of this masterpiece of the band; Robert extends the "again and again" sequences in an exasperated and more and more visceral repetition, and the final solo is a guitars jubilation!
They leave us so satisfied and shaken; they go away giving thanks and it really seems the end.. But it isn't.
2nd Encore
They re-enter, the exultation is general, and immediately magic begins
again! It's time for If Only Tonight We Could Sleep followed by The
Kiss.
Two songs to celebrate the album "Kiss me Kiss me Kiss me". The first one gives us the charming atmosphere of vaguely arabesque guitar blended with languid Robert's voice echoing among
Greek columns and full moon; and then follows The kiss, the opening track of this album, whose firmly vigorous and synergic guitars, reveal
growing strength and gloominess. They leave the stage again, but we almost know that they will
shortly come back to share with us even more emotions...
3rd Encore
In Between Days, Friday I'm in Love and Boys don't Cry: three important songs that everyone knows from three different albums. They are songs that satisfy
the public, even those less *dark* ones among the fans. Those who were sitting in the assigned first places
approach the stage and it becomes more and more difficult to take pictures among unchained fans, the police force take action near the stage to avoid excessive messing...
4th Encore
Another mix of albums in its songs: Faith, Three Imaginary Boys,
Grinding Halt, 10.15 Saturday Night and Killing an
Arab. The gloomy sounds of Faith cradle us fulfilled by a long concert which we would like it was endless and that really has stopped the time in that theatre... The choice of these final pieces is evidently a tribute to the most remote Cure's
past: we're really happy about it!
There's the rough and punk feeling of the band's beginning, with its usual dark tonalities even if at that time they were in their infancy!
Killing an Arab closes the show: almost three hours in which The Cure retraced their history in (almost!) all its steps.
This way, they wanted to tell us their story, here in Sicily, in the only Italian date of this tour in which the striking location, the magic of their music and their magnetic and charismatic personality created.. as I said.. a special event!
Isabella Russo
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05.09.2005
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Niederrohrdorf
- Switzerland