European Summer Festival Tour 2005


August 13th, 2005 - St. Malo, France (La Route du Rock)

Plainsong, Open, Fascination Street, alt.end, The Blood, Shake Dog Shake, A Night Like This, The End of the World, Push, Just Like Heaven, A
Letter to Elise, Lullaby, Never Enough, Us or Them, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Signal to Noise, The Baby Screams, One Hundred
Years, End, Disintegration

1st encore: At Night, M, Play for Today, A Forest
2nd encore: Primary, Boys Don't Cry, 10:15 Saturday Night

Show was 2 hours and 19 minutes.

Soundcheck: At Night, Out of This World, The Figurehead

Video from the ARTE broadcast has been posted.

(Thanks to Olivier, Dennis and Bruno for the setlist and to Washaki @ A Pink Dream for the soundcheck info)

Photos

COF - Volubilis - Patrice



(Thanks Olivier)

Reviews


I was looking very forward to the St Malo show for several reasons.  Firstly, having been to St Malo with our good friend Bruno several years ago I vividly remembered how breathtakingly beautiful the area was how even years before the coast was just dripping with that Cure essence.  I really couldn’t imagine a more perfect place to see The Cure play.  Secondly, even though I’ve been a fan years and seen them play in many places and countries I had never seen them in France and I was curios if all rumors about them loving the French fans and playing more/better/whatever were true.  Then of course there’s the return of Porl…something that induced t-shirt making from my Leo.
 
I guess we were lucky that we traveled to the festival by car and had no problems with the festival organization.  We drove in, parked, walked a short distance to the stage and there we were.  I was really very impressed with the venue (nice old walls and features) and how relatively small it all was, nothing like Roskilde, Werchter, even Zillo was larger.  We knew though that with the smaller size of the festival and how much closer the front row was to the stage than at any others that there were going to be some problems…and there were.  The crowd was rough but in general friendly about it.  I had to get a bit rude with one person who decided I should be their personal chair and pushing point, and I do have to say that about ¼ of the way into the show Leo and I deiced to back away from the front area and stand more off the side because of the rough crowd.  But actually once we did I realized that outside of the center of the “pit” the entire crowd was singing along, and loudly to all the songs….and it was really amazing.
 
As for the show itself I really enjoyed it but I must say I’m still torn and confused.  It was the Cure who played but often it didn’t sound like them and I don’t know if that was a good thing or not.  It’s really apparent that without a keyboardist nor the regular use of backing tapes some songs just don’t work.  Robert did an outstanding job of covering some of the keyboard parts on guitar but it did take away his ability to play any acoustic guitar though out the show….something I’ve never seen and I’m not sure if the trade off was worth it.  Also some songs just seemed to fall apart or just sound off, this is where I’m really torn.  I still can’t quite decide if the different or “off” sound of some of the songs worked or not or was even intentional.  Is it possible that after all these years of giving beautiful performances we’re seeing The Cure digress or deteriorate?  Or are they progressing into something new?  I can’t tell.  Many people seem to want to blame Porl for the things that didn’t sound quite the way we’re used to hearing them and I disagree with this completely.  In the past I too have not been a fan of Porl’s distortions and “noise” (much to Leo’s dismay) but at this show at least you could tell that he was not as loud as he used to be and in fact at times too much of his sound was taken away.
 
Anyway overall, for me, the show was really amazing.  Different lyrics in Letter the Elise, new version of Us or Them, Porl is back (!) ….which at the very least makes Leo happy so it’s well worth it to me too, even if I really liked Perry, and an enthusiastic crowd…what more could a Cure fan wish for?  That’s rhetorical of course….
 
As for the question about the French performances of the Cure that’s still up in the air for me.  It could be that because of the “problems” Robert was keeping quite and concentrating on trying to correct things…but really I couldn’t see any difference in the quality they gave in France in comparison to any other country I’ve seen them in, at least this time…..
 
- Lisa aka pequegnat of Lisa & Leo


This is in response to the message posted by Joel Fiévet who seemed just a little faster in judging people who rightly complained. First of all I have
been attending festival all over Europe and overseas for over 20 years and I have never experienced this level of chaos before = and some festivals were pretty bad! My friends and I did not trust the organisers and did our homework, we got the ferry and drove to St Malo. However we decided to use the shuttle buses service so that everyone could enjoy a drink whilst at the festival, also on the ecological note we thought it would be kinder to the environment. Your comments are nearly as rude as the site's stewards - many people were nearly crushed trying to get on buses after the show and you have the nerve to say "so next time you wish to complain try to use your brains before you start to do your trip" - if you had been there you would not be talking such rubbish. Also, the show sucked. Use your brain before you speak next time. Thank you.

- Lila & friends from Southampton


I didn’t see Simon at the entrance of the festival like many other fans because I chose to spend the afternoon at the festival’s official beach instead.
Hearing good piano versions of Radiohead by Christopher O’Reilly was very relaxing, and so was to swim in the sea. Perfect before coming back to the craziness of the main venue.

The Raveonettes’ singer tell us to “enjoy The Cure!!” before she leaves. From that moment the crowd starts moving, I’ve never seen people that packed at this festival since Placebo 1997, crazy.

The cold theme from “Mulholland Drive” chill the spirits a moment, but I can feel the tension growing.

I was in the first rows when The Cure came onstage, beside the HUGE moshpit. The audience was incredibly cheerful between the songs. The enormous “Ooo-o-oo” during Play for today snatched Simon a smile. There was a true forest of hands claping at the end of A Forest. Robert seemed touched at the end and spent a long time walking on stage with a big smile on his face and his hand on the heart.

Too bad the mix was poor, I could hardly hear Porl’s guitar and Robert’s voice was too low in my opinion.

I’ll remind this show for the fantastic audience (except a few nuts crowdsurfers) and for “At night”.

Sorry for the people who endured the “shuttle” problem, not everybody camp onsite, they really should fix that, I’ll write them a word too.

- Armelito


Regarding the bad reviews on show in ST Malo, i just want to say this: How many times did you attend to a festival ? Why do you trust organizers when you prepare your trip to a foreign country. A quick look at a road map will show that it was a bit far away from main cities, threfore and altough its against ecological reasons , always prefer a car to a promised bus.
We drove one way from Brussels, parked the car just on the road to the festival, walked 10mins and we were in. After the show was finished it was exactly the same.
Now reagrding the festival, it was absolutely not the worst I have ever seen at all, i kind of enjoy it ! Nice area, and a great and powerfull show. So next time you wish to complain try to use your brains before you start to do your trip.

- Joel Fiévet (Brussels-Belgium)


Some comments on Saint Malo. A fair show, lovely part of the world, but spoilt by being so badly organised it was dangerous.

I totally agree with Federica's comments - La Route Du Rock is the worst festival I've ever been to. As we were staying in St Malo town centre
(as recommended by the festival organisers so you could "enjoy" the other events they had on), we endured the crush for the bus on the way in, then had to wait until 4.30am for a bus back to the town (which we guessed was the last one, going by the "timetable"). One bus an hour - that's one 53-seater bus for around 300 to 400 people. Were they mad? There was panic and pandemonium and I saw a six foot tall man climb over my 5ft 2 girlfriend to get on the bus, which we thought would be our last chance to see civilisation for 12 hours. The Fort was in a particularly obscure place, a long way away from St Malo - you couldn't walk back and from what I heard, the nearest village was Chateauneuf, which was tiny. Glad to hear Federica got a "navette", but I wonder about the other poor sods that may still be there waiting by the cornfield of doom (I fear for our friends who are still on site as I type this, Monday morning)...

The organisers must have severely underestimated the public demand for this night, but why? The Cure headlined France's Live 8 show for God's
sake, they must have known it would be a popular day. It was a pathetic festival in an uninspiring venue and I wish that The Cure would vet the shows they play a bit more carefully, as they must know that people are prepared to travel - we spoke to fans from England, Ireland, USA, Italy, other parts of France, all of whom had made the effort, only to be treated with extreme indifference by the frankly useless security. I'm sending a "strongly worded" email to La Route Du Rock, I can tell you!

Still, Saint Malo was a gorgeous town and The Cure's set was...interesting. Was it just us, or was Robert a bit preoccupied this night? Perhaps he was worried about getting a bus home. He sang The End Of The World in the wrong key (wrong tune?), forgot when to come in on Just Like Heaven and seemed to give up playing a riff on End with a shake of his head. Disintegration could have been awesome, but he didn't seem to put any effort in at all. On the plus side, it was great to have Porl back on tracks like Open and the big surprises were The Blood and The Baby Screams, all rather excellent. At Night was majestic and (almost) worth the subsequent pain and trauma. Here's looking forward to Berlin, in a city that knows the value of a decent night bus service. God, I sound like my dad...

-Martin

I have just come back from one of the most surreal trips in my life.  I left London on Friday afternoon by train to catch a boat over to France.  Just
after boarding the boat, I joked with my girlfriend that there was a guy who looked a bit like Sting, but it turned out not to be him.  Anyway, a few
minutes later, I saw someone who looked very much like Simon.  The only difference this time is that it was really him.  To be honest, I didn't
really believe it was possible until I spotted Robert.

I thought this would be my one and only chance to meet them but I didn't want to bother them as they were with a relatively large group of people.  I
understand that the gig the next day was going to take place on Robert's wedding anniversary and that he was travelling with his wife and other
family members.

However, I seized my chance when Simon went to get some fresh air at the back of the boat.  I went over to introduce myself, uttered a few words and
asked for an autograph.  Unfortunately for me, I was a bit star struck and I didn't manage to say very much, but Simon was extremely nice.  It was all
over in a flash.  A little bit later, Robert came over to speak to some people at the bar in the section I was sitting in.  Once again, I seized my chance and went to ask for an autograph.  Absolutely brilliant.

After leaving the boat I saw Porl but I didn't manage to see Jason (maybe he travelled to Saint-Malo separately).  Anyway, the next day, after a bit of
sightseeing, it was time for the gig, and apart from being completely squashed for most of the time, I found it very interesting.  Firstly, I thought the mix of songs was just right for this type of audience.  Secondly, the lack of keyboards meant that many of the songs were re-arranged and therefore sounded very different to their original version - most of the time Porl filled in the gaps (quite effectively) with various guitar sounds.

My favourite songs of the night were The Blood (beautiful blood-stained guitar), Shake Dog Shake, A Night Like This, Push, Never Enough and Play for Today, but I enjoyed all the others too.  I think Robert missed the start or forgot some of the words on Just Like Heaven.  That was a pity because it is probably one of The Cure's most famous songs in France, having been used for a rock show back in the 80's.  There was also a strange moment at the beginning of A Forest when Porl and Robert didn't seem to be exactly on the same wavelength, but they both found it quite amusing.  Anyway, Robert was in good voice throughout the gig and seemed to be enjoying it.

On the way back on Sunday, The Cure (minus Jason, possibly) were once again on the same boat as me (or I was on the same boat as them), but this time they all seemed to stick to their area so there was no real opportunity to interact.  In any event, I am not sure I would have bothered them, but it
was still good to see them there.  If I had spoken to them, I would have just said "thanks for a great gig".

- Fab G




I made a T-shirt because I am so happy to see porl again.(the rain and water got to it) But to talk about the show i could easly say i am torn. For the first time in 15 years no accoustic guitar but all electric, my Wife said she thought it was because rob needs to fill in on some keyboard parts and thats hard to do with an accoustic, wich I think was smart to notice.(dont know if i miss Mr roger)
 
I would like t try and explain the part where I'm torn,. I think the cure have split up and so is their quality of music, we got letter to elise, just like heaven and plainsong the really weren't at all what there supposed to sound like, not even thinking of signal to noise and end of the world. But o my did those other songs ROCK, (wich is a word i'd rather not use.)
 
The cure have porl back and I am happy (so is porl i think) for me the split in the cure makes me both sad and very happy, sad to think rob keeps on going and doent know when to stop, sad to see some wonderfull songs messed up but insainly happy to hear Porl again and see the cure have the most energetic songs played live in a long long time. Simon was at it and the quality of porl's guitar-playing (its more like an art) was supperb.
 
I have never seen a show with such an amount of songs sounding bad and this good. Its a whole new experiance.It was amazing, want to drive to
berlin in two weeks now.
 
I think the energy that this band can create on stage is one we havent seen in a long time, it's always been in controll sort of but now it is one of the best shows i've seen in a long long time.
 
I can only hope for the noisiest cure album ever to be recorded soon.
 
- Leo
 

Let me start by saying that although St. Malo might have been my worst experience so far at a Cureshow, it was still amazing because of the simple fact it was a Cureshow.

After some difficulties finding (and waiting eons for) the shuttlebus to the venue, I was able to listen to the Cure's soundcheck! They were playing Out of This World when I got there, and then they went on to At Night and about a minute of The Figurehead (with no vocals). I managed to start recording from the middle of At Night, but my iPod has terrible sound quality. I also met some fans from Italy who were really nice, and told me of their Cure-adventures. I was ecstatic at this point despite having not slept at all the night before--I had already gotten to see the band, and my day hadn't even started!

While we were waiting for entry to the venue, none other than Simon Gallup himself was walking around. Of course, he got swarmed by dozens of fans. I was too shy, and didn't want to bother him. Perhaps another time!

The first opening band (sadly I don't know the name) was actually quite good, to my surprise. I couldn't say the same for the second band... they used a lot of feedback, but not in a creative sort-of-Mogwai way... it just really hurt everyone's ears near the stage. One very nice gentleman was handing out bunches of earplugs he must have strategically brought with him. The Raveonettes were pretty good, but I couldn't enjoy them because I was squashed to the point where I was unable to move. People were pushing back and forth, and near the end people started crowd-surfing. Thank you for kicking a lot of us in the head... but if that's how you have your fun...?

I was actually really surprised to see them open with Plainsong! I thought it sounded really nice. It was strange, though, to hear Robert repeat the last verse. He did this a lot during the night, and seemed to have more trouble remembering lyrics than usual. I really didn't expect him to get Primary wrong! Nevertheless, I thought his voice sounded rather good. A Letter to Elise was beautiful, although I was doing a worse job of keeping my lyrics straight than Robert! I'm always surprised he doesn't mix more of the MTV Unplugged lyrics in every once in a while.

After he finished playing either Play for Today or M (I forget), he made the offhand comment into the mic: "Haven't been this happy in a while" or something like that... it makes me wonder... he appeared to be having a good time throughout the night, and enjoyed teasing the crowd with "That's it, we're finished. Everyone go home." He was smiling when he said it, though. (We knew better.)

The problem was mainly with the incredibly rowdy crowd... I expected some pushing to go on, since it was a festival (although my only prior festival gig was at Move), but I was unprepared for this. People were dropping left and right, it seemed! They passed out bottles of water to the audience, which was very nice, but by the time the Cure had come on they were just being shot up into the air to function as a rain substitute. It did sprinkle for a bit, which was quite a refresher. Many thanks to the guy who helped me get a drink when the bottle kept on being pulled away from me--you may have saved me!

It was fun to see them end the main set with something other than 'End', and Disintegration is always nice. Was it just me, or did it seem like Porl's guitar was really quiet near the end? I couldn't really hear him during 'A Forest', and that's his time to shine! Boys Don't Cry and 10.15 left us on a happy note, even though we wished for more! I was also wishing there was more merchandise, but it was a wish too late...

All in all, it was a great time; I just think festivals can tend to get out of hand, marring one's ability to enjoy the band... I liked the way Curiosa was set up (although I may be the only one!).

- David Schmidt (from Wisconsin, USA)


you may put the following in the review section of the St Malo show although I wasn't at there but saw it on french-german tv channel ARTE; they broadcasted a brief itw of robert - nothing new, as well as plainsong, open, fascination st, the blood, shake dog saheke, a night like this, and
the end of the world;
If I can leave here my personnal point of view, Robert seemed to enjoy himself very much, Simon was jumping around and focus on his powerful play
as usual, Jason did a good job overall (i don't like the drum machine on shake dog), but I don't really understand what's the point of having Porl
back if it's just to make distortion, useless noises and experimentation (will he soon begin to play with his teeth like Hendrix?). It just seemed to
work on fascination st and sometimes on open, but just because it's already like that on the records and that these songs sound great that way
originally.  The blood should have sounded brillant with the two accoustic guitars doubling the sound, but Porl kept on playing some solo stuff...
Plainsong was a massacre!
They would have sounded better as a trio!  They really have to rework the new arrangements for a four members' band.  I will go to Avenches
because it's still an event, but that was the worst performance of the Cure I've seen.

- Fabien G


just to let you guys know the organization at the Route du Rock was the worst ever. It ruined the night for a lot of us. Apart from the cold and wet weather, the rude stewards (which were also completely clueless on anything), the fact that there was no other way of getting to St malo (no taxi, no train) apart from the 'navette' bus which was every hour and there was one bus at a time for around 300 people waiting, well it was hell. We managed to get on the 3.30am, but I almost feared a stampede. Never before I felt a human crush like last night. Not nice believe me. It really ruined the event for me, as the enjoyment of the concert and the cure was totally obliterated by the rest of the night.

- Federica


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