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Velodrom, Berlin, Germany
16th February 2008
The Cure, 65daysofstatic

A band that doesn’t need a new album (next one scheduled for the 28th of June), a hit song (last one: 10 years ago), or advertising (in all of Berlin there were hardly any posters to promote the concert) to get a 12 thousand people venue completely sold out in no time, doesn’t need any introduction anymore. THE CURE was playing Berlin. Completely underestimated by the bookers, they were originally scheduled for the Treptow Arena, but after it had been sold out for six weeks the concert was moved to the much bigger Velodrom hardly two weeks before the concert (at that point those few promotional posters showed up in Berlin). Still, it was packed, and how.

Once the support act was over, people were wandering around everywhere to look for better places. The stairs were completely filled (so much for security precautions), and even the seats that provided a bad view on the stage from the side/back were largely taken. And more strikingly, the entrance of the Velodrom is on its roof, hosting big windows right beneath it, and the opportunity offered by that was taken happily by those who hadn’t been able to get a ticket, even though it was freezing cold outside...........


65daysofstatic
 
65DAYSOFSTATISTIC play instrumental loud ‘post-rock’ music, and were founded in 2001 in Sheffield, UK and consists of 4 band members. They have released 3 albums, of which ‘The Destruction of Small Ideas’ is the latest, and the title seems to point at an anti-postmodernist (or should I say post-postmodernist) stance. http://www.65daysofstatic.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/65propaganda

Music & Performance
A nostalgia for Big Ideas could definitely be heard in the music as soon as they started playing the by then half-filled Velodrom on the incredibly tiny space reserved for them on stage. Their rock is a pretentious, drone-like wall of sound accompanied by guitar riffs and sound effects that shape and direct the songs instead of a singer. This was great musical violence, played with great virtuosity and devotion. Even the used computer sound effects had a very ‘live’-sound to them. Unfortunately, their devotion got them carried away too much. The performance was chaotic, and actually disturbing. There was no equilibrium between the music and the performance; everything was hectic and chaotic. All band members continuously made fast movements with their heads and bodies, and the lights were annoyingly flickering most of the time, so that the visual component only added chaos to the music rather than let it speak for itself. Even though I really enjoyed the music, I was glad it was over so quickly, just because of the annoying visuals.

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 6
Sound: 7
Light: 4
Total: 6.3
 

The Cure
 
Between the support act and the start of the show, relaxing sea sounds were played, which eventually formed the introduction to ‘Plainsong’. As The Cure entered the stage (never realised before how old they actually were.....it showed), the crowd went wild and after a long intro Smith finally started to sing, accompanied by his very own light from heaven (or well, it was a spotlight of course but the effect was no less).

Music & Performance
Curiously, the spotlight might as well have been broken during the rest of the show; when Smith made a few excursions to the far sides of the stage to show himself to the side/back seated people, he was completely in the dark. Actually, bass player Simon Gallup was better lighted than Smith during most of the show. Apart from that, the light show was amazing. They were constantly bathing in a sea of light, consisting of all colours of the rainbow, more than once used simultaneously. And it looked fantastic, an accomplishment all right for an audience consisting dominantly of black-clad colour-eschewing Goths.
 
Musically, there was hardly anything wrong with it either. It keeps amazing me every time how the body can be in a state of decline while the voice remains completely untouched. Smith sounded exactly like he did 20 years ago. At times when Smith was singing his long, high, single notes it wasn’t exactly on key, but considering the loud enthusiastic responses he received I felt like I was the only one actually noticing that. THE CURE, curiously, didn’t use the keyboards; its melodies were mostly played on guitar, which sometimes worked, and sometimes was utterly ridiculous. Especially during ‘Lovecats’ the guitar/audience replacing the keyboards was not a successful experiment. But overall it sounded like a great musical live strategy rather than something missing. And it must be said: the quality of the sound in the Velodrom was absolutely excellent as well, quite an unexpected accomplishment for a venue of that size.
 
During the first part of the show (for the 3 encores can hardly be called encores anymore) the band looked quite static. There was not much happening on stage, they were ‘just’ playing. Song after song after song that is, and it sounded absolutely fantastic. Smith’s vocabulary was mostly limited to ‘thank you’ after each song, and the 2 times he actually did say more (‘I forgot Berlin was so m....’) he was hardly understandable. However, the concert did not bore for one second, even if THE CURE seemed to be on the automatic pilot. The variety of songs and the quick changes secured the audience’s attention; the speed of the concert was incredible. After a little more than two hours the band left the stage, and the crowd was cheering its lungs out for more, which, of course, happened after about 5 minutes, playing an encore of 4 songs, ending with ‘A Forest’.
 
When they came back for the second encore, it felt like the concert was never going to end. They kept pulling out songs (5!), and Smith was finally looking like he actually liked it. He began to move in his typical stiff, weird Smith ways, interacted more with the audience and even showed some facial expressions that carried over to the seated people (like yours truly) as well. Finally the band was actually having fun and really making a party. As they left the stage after the second encore, it felt too weird to be an ending. And yes, they came back once more! Smith introduced the last encore with the words ‘Just a few minutes left’. I don’t know your definition of a few minutes, but Smith was obviously going for it and stretching his minutes until it was midnight, managing to play 7 more songs, the longest ‘encore’ I’ve ever experienced in my life. Instead of shorter, each encore was longer, and Smith’s energy was increasing with each song. ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ would’ve been the perfect but clichéd climax of the show, instead they continued with ‘Jumping on Someone Else’s Train’ which perfectly represented the speed of the show, even though the ride was very, very long. But after 3 more songs, altogether 3 hours and 18 minutes of THE CURE (which equals a train ride from Berlin to Dortmund) it was finally brought to an end with ‘Killing an Arab’. I suspect Smith wanted to play more but professionally saved himself the embarrassment of being dragged off stage by security... http://www.thecure.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/thecure
 
Setlist
01. Plainsong
02. Prayers For Rain
03. alt. end.
04. Please Project
05. A Night Like This
06. The Walk
07. The End of the World
08. Lovesong
09. To Wish Impossible Things
10. Pictures of You
11. Lullaby
12. From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
13. The Drowning Man
14. Push
15. Just Like Heaven
16. Primary
17. A Boy I Never Knew
18. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep...
19. The Kiss
20. Never Enough
21. Wrong Number
22. One Hundred Years
23. Disintegration
---
24. At Night
25. M
26. Play for Today
27. A Forest
---
28. The Lovecats
29. Let's Go to Bed
30. Freak Show
31. Close to Me
32. Why Can't I Be You?
---
33. Three Imaginary Boys
34. Fire in Cairo
35. Boys Don't Cry
36. Jumping Someone Else's Train
37. Grinding Halt
38. 10:15 Saturday Night
39. Killing an Arab

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 8
Sound: 9
Light: 10
Total: 9

{jos_sb_discuss:17}

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