Sept. 9th,1989-Oakland,Ca. (Coliseum Arena)

review by the Lizard King (Compuserve's Rocknet)

OAKLAND -- It's no big mystery why The Cure sold 33,000 tickets
for two nights in the Bay Area -- Robert Smith's band is one of
the most powerful and mesmerizing live groups in all of rock and
roll, and anyone who's seen The Cure once will definitely see the
band the next time through.
The Cure's lengthy and satisfying show at the Oakland Coliseum
Arena had the faithful on their feet all night long, from the
front rows to the back of the 15,000-seat hall. And as a non-Cure
fanatic, I was surprised that I too feel under the spell of the
pallid Smith and his enduring brand of gloom rock.
One reason I was expecting less is the nature of The Cure's
music. The emotional and lyrical content is limited, and deals
primarily with pain, loss and unhappiness in a fairly constricted
musical form.
But live, drummer Boris Williams, an absolute rock, and bassist
Simon Gallup, one of the very best I have seen, lay down a
fundamental, tightly focused rhythm pattern. Smith adds a few
clean and simple lead lines on guitar, which he usually repeats.
Keyboardist Roger O'Donnell, another fine player, will throw in
some melodic spice, or second guitarist Porl Thompson will
contribute a Smith-like lead.
This rhythmic stew simmers for some time at the beginning of
almost every live number, and then Smith begins his vocals. Smith
is far from an arresting singer, with limited range and not a
great deal of tone, and as the songs tend to sound very much the
same and are delivered in the same gloom-and-doom style, it would
seem easy for them to all run together in the listener's ear.
But just as Bruce Springsteen transcends his material live, so
does The Cure. Smith somehow takes these familiar, repetitive
ingredients, and turns them into the stuff of legendary rock and
roll.
Enhancing the mood is a superb state-of-the-art light show and
a brilliantly designed set. The wrapped beams and supports suggest
a ruined city, from which flashes and beams of light illuminate
the band, the audience and the set in a series of eerie, emotional
and consistently fascinating effects.
And the crowd ate it all up, as well they should have. The fans
cheered, screamed and danced in place all night long, from Smith's
first slow, opening stroll across the front of the stage to the
last lingering echo of the final encore.
The Cure, despite its limitations (which are all too clear on
its recordings), is one of the best live bands in rock and roll.
Smith is a powerful yet polite front man, introducing songs while
wrenching every ounce of emotion out of every song. He seizes his
narrow niche with a death grip of poisoned passion -- and simply
won't let go.
Before Saturday night's show, I was not looking forward to what
I imagined would be a long evening of limited songs played by a
technically limited band. I couldn't have been more wrong -- and
count me as Cure fan from this day forward.

Back