The Cure for the wintertime blues.

My beloved friend J. and I headed off to warmer climes for a few days. Neither of us is particularly fond of anything South of where we live, but there was this one thing in Florida that could have easily driven us there, regardless of the sweltering springtime heat. And that would be Robert Smith.

The Cure, in an odd turn of events, played the Ultra Music Festival. Which is a sort-of-smallish 2-day concert event associated with a electronic music conference in Miami.

How smallish? I took this video, about four or five people away from the edge of the stage. The stage where Robert Smith was standing. No huge ampitheater, no grassy knoll. Just a small concert stage in a big flat field. We stood a matter of feet from the blessed man himself.


About 30 seconds of a jazzed-up Let’s go to bed. See Robert shaking it!

Needless to say, electronic music is not generally my thing. However, I will brave just about anything for a chance to see my very favorite band of all time.

Though, to be perfectly fair, the acts surrounding the Cure’s performance were quite good–more darkwave than poppy, and the adorably-named Shiny Toy Guns were quite delicious and playing real guitars. It is likely I’ll look for this band’s music, like with Interpol after Curiousia. They’re good stuff, and it’s only helped by the keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist who bears a passing resemblance to A.F.I.’s Davey Havok.

But, aye, the man we came to town for was Robert. It had been some time since I’d laid eyes on him (4 years ago now, give or take, when we saw Curiousa in Maryland), and he’s looking hale and healthy–on the skinny side of his usual up-and-down condition. Not that it matters the slightest. He’ll always be the fabulous fat-bob, best musician in the entire world.

The show was unreal, in part because we were so incredibly close–5 or 6 rows back at the worst of times, and only about 3-4 rows back during the best. There were no seats; it was a small field that ran right up to the edge of the security fencing, which was just off the stage itself. The stage had a little extension, a tiny bridge out to the edge of the crowd. And Robert ventured out during the final encore, to sing Close to Me and Let’s go to bed and Why can’t I be you. He was really only a few feet from where we stood, and that’s where the brief video that I couldn’t resist sneaking came in.

The show was about 2 hours long, contained a fair number of the hits, but also some fun and unexpected tunes–26 in all–and more than a couple that I’d always hoped to see live. A pair of encores. So far, I can remember (and am recording for posterity):

  • alt.end
  • From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
  • Fascination Street
  • Play for Today - This is C.’s song, and a favorite of mine as well.
  • The Walk
  • Big Hand - it’s funny to see the crowd go silent when the odd B-side is played. It’s the second time I’ve seen them pull this one out. I think the Cure fan standing next to me was checking out everyone around us to see who meant serious business. Phew, we passed!
  • Pictures of You - The HP commercial come to life. (Not really.)
  • Want - I was dying to see this song live. It’s got one of my favorite lines /ever/ in it. Probably the one I think I’d like to get etched. “I want the sky to fall in I want lightening and thunder I want blood instead of rain I want the world to make me wonder want to walk on water take a trip to the moon ohhh give me all this and give me it soon…”
  • Just Like Heaven
  • Friday I’m in Love - It was a Friday. I’ve never been to a Friday show where they haven’t played this.
  • Hot Hot Hot - very enthusiastic version of this song. Whee!
  • End of the World
  • A Forest - I think they’ve played this at every show I’ve been to. I think I can now call this one before the first note, due to spot arrangement. Green. Very very lush green. Love it. Love. It.
  • Wrong number - I called this one on the plane out to Miami. I always thought of it as a very raver-y song.
  • Inbetween Days - Same goes for this one. That little strummy guitar part was too dancy to resist.
  • 100 Years
  • Why Can’t I be You?
  • Lovesong
  • Boys Don’t Cry
  • Let’s Go to Bed - I /love/ this song, and was pleased to see it in rotation.

Photos to follow. I may post a few to flickr in a bit, since all my custom templates and shit were destroyed in the recent hard drive “incident,” and it’ll take me a while to process this batch correctly.

And I keep thinking they played ‘Lovecats’ but maybe they didn’t, since noone else seems to remember it. Oh well.

And, because I saw so many cameras, I knew there’d be more on YouTube:

  • Lovesong
  • Play for Today, or at least :30 of the weird intro wailing that’s the background music for the menu of the Festival 2005 DVD. Funny to hear the crowd singing along with it; I wonder how many of them have left it sitting in their DVD player 5 minutes too long and hear that sound burrowing through their head like a drill? A /cool/ drill.
  • Lullaby. And, yes, the bass was turned /way/ up (but it wasn’t nearly this fuzzy).
  • Just like heaven in purple lights.

Also, this helpful review page with a bunch of stuff on it. Including a complete set list (The two I left out (but upon thought, remember hearing) were Out of this World and M, but otherwise they seem to match up.)


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