Part of me wants to bomb her too but then part of me is saying that is what she wants. Because a hack, which is what she is, isn't looking for praise and admiration of her well written article *cough* she is looking for sensationalism. And she got it. I mean was she even at the show? She clearly doesn't know anything about The Cure. 90 minutes my azz.
Sounds like the reviewers were there just to hear "The Friday Song" and nothing else, people need to realise that that song is not a typical Cure song, agreed, every album has a catchy "pop" song or two but, they are the rarities, not the norm'
Perhaps having to review a 45 song concert meant them missing their 11pm table. reservations in some plush Knightsbridge restaurant. They should ask the Teenage Cancer Trust what they think of The Cure, what is the sense in castigating a band that has just played an extended set to it's own fans to raise money for charity, again ...... and again and again and again and again and again.
If The Cure wore high price suits, matched with Vidal Sassoon haircuts they'd be lauded, instead the reviewer chooses to poke fun at Robert Smith's appearance, is that just for the sake of saying something?? Do The Cure really have to adopt the U2 propoganda and proclaim to the world every time they raise money for charity?? I hope not, I much prefer the way they do it, no media blitz, just a glorious 45 song concert ... .. .
Is anyone else wired up after that Robert post besides me? haha
I was wired up all yesterday reading those godawful reviews. I may have left one or two comments here and there! They were the most lazy, pretentious, bitter pieces of 'journalism' I'd read in a long time. I think they were just 'hacked off' (see what I did there??) because it was a no-press event, and they had to pay for their tickets. Poor loves.
A little story for you - I'm 99 % sure I was stood next to one of them on the saturday (the guy from the Torygraph) - listened to him ramble on about 'post-modern, punk-tinged gothic rock' for an hour before deciding to jump around like a lunatic til he disappeared. The final straw was hearing him tell his mate that he saw them in 1981, when they still showed a lot of promise (ha!) and that he wasn't sure who this new bassist was, because he'd never heard of him, but the original one had the same haircut as RS. Felt like knocking him out!!
Why the Cure's marathon gigs might not be the best way to play
The Cure have announced their unhappiness at our reviewer saying they played too long at the Royal Albert Hall this weekend. But, she says, brevity is a virtue
Robert Smith … 'Was it 45 songs or 46? I've lost count …'
In the run-up to the annual Teenage Cancer Trust gig series at the Royal Albert Hall last week, the charity’s website noted that the Friday and Saturday headliners, The Cure, would be playing three-hour sets, with no support act. In the event, they were onstage for around three-and-a-half hours, slotting in 45 songs each night. That’s pretty remarkable (though their 50-song, four-hour show in Mexico City last year is the one to beat), bespeaking a fan/band relationship where the passion has only increased over the years. Going by reaction on Twitter, many people considered it one of the best shows they’d ever seen, and reacted angrily to reviews in the Guardian and elsewhere that suggested there could be too much of a good thing.
The Cure themselves also responded to the reviews. Well, to my review in the Guardian, specifically. “THE REVIEW WAS – TO PUT IT POLITELY - LAZY NONSENSE,” they said on Facebook. “ … swampy… numbing… yet to work out how to build up a show… GULP!!! BUT WE NOW KNOW WHERE WE HAVE BEEN GOING WRONG ALL THIS TIME: Condensed into 90 minutes, this would have been one of the gigs of the year. WE PLAY TOO MANY SONGS! DOH! BUT… IS IT NOT VERY OBVIOUS THAT WE PLAY OUR OWN SHOWS (AS OPPOSED TO FESTIVAL HEADLINES) FOR FANS OF THE BAND?”
You take their point: what band doesn’t want to spend as much time as possible doing something they love? Conversely, though, imagine the intensity if the show’s dark, dreamlike energy had been condensed into a couple of hours. The impact would have been far greater, freed of the mid-show sluggishness that afflicts the vast majority of long-form shows. The sheer slog of being onstage for more than three hours means that artistry is ill-served by marathon shows: most bands don’t even try, with the exception of Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead, whose six-hour mind-bogglers were designed as trippy sensory experiences.
The idea of giving fans their money’s worth must also be there in the Cure’s thinking – but can we consider that, sometimes, the most perfect gigs are those where the artist says what they need to in a shorter time? The build-up, the teasers, the communal release – all this can be played out, to greater effect, over a shorter timespan. A very long gig, on the other hand, has a kind of “let’s see how committed you are” aggression. It demands a long attention span – something rapidly becoming extinct in our 140-character culture; and it presumes that public transport runs all night and nobody has to get up early the next day.
“WHEN WE GO TO SEE AN ARTIST WE ARE FANS OF, WE DON’T WANT THE PERFORMANCE TO END … THAT’S WHAT BEING A FAN MEANS … ISN’T IT?” they ask. But is that what it means? There is such a thing as being sated, even by an artist you love; it can be much more satisfying to leave a gig feeling tantalised by all the songs the artist didn’t play, with the prospect of hearing them next time.
“THAT IS WHY WE PLAY A MIX OF SONGS, AND WHY WE PLAY FOR AS LONG AS WE DO …” they assert. And that’s fair enough, because Cure fans want to hear them. Yet, in a broader sense, it doesn’t obtain that the best gig experience is the longest. Compared to the inventiveness of artists who chop and change, playing full-band shows one tour, then acoustic story-telling gigs the next, it’s hard to feel excited by the all-you-can-eat ethos. The Cure’s stature in British rock has never been in doubt, so surely now is the time for them to cut loose and experiment with a different approach to gigging. They’ve already staged themed tours with their Trilogy concerts, playing three complete albums at each gig. Another Trilogy series has been announce d for the end of this year. But what about something outside the usual parameters?
“WHEN WE GO TO SEE AN ARTIST WE ARE FANS OF, WE DON’T WANT THE PERFORMANCE TO END … THAT’S WHAT BEING A FAN MEANS … ISN’T IT?” they ask. But is that what it means?
That's the bit that annoys me the most, she is questioning us, the fans, asking if we really did want a "marathon" concert? Yes, we did!!