The undisputed leaders of gothic rock, the Cure has inspired
legions of young people to wear black lipstick and heavy kohl eyeliner
in an attempt to imitate singer and lyricist Robert Smith.
	The band's angst-ridden lyrics and Mr. Smith's mournful, ethereal
voice, made for instant cult status in the early 80's.
	There is no doubt it is Mr. Smith's show.  The band is remarkable
for its lack of interaction in concert.
	This did not interefere with the quality of the music, though. 
Mr. Smith's voice retained its strength and range throughout the show. 
He sounds as good live as he does on CD.
	With most of the audience at Riverfront Coliseum Sunday night
looking more like they belong in a sports utility vehicle than the
Batmobile, the Cure is moving along with the times.
	Their music still focuses on pain, devotion, obsession and love,
but now there are songs like "Gone." (Refrain: "You have to get up, get
out and get gone. Yeah, get up, get out and have some fun.")  Even the
kings of goth rock must have their up days.
	The three-hour show, in support of the band's latest CD Wild Mood
Swings, emphasized new material, with a handful of classics and obscure
pieces.
	Mr. Smith stood center stage, which was decorated to look like a
deserted Midway, delivering his songs in a deadpan manner.
	The high point was the end of the first encore.  While performing
the cult classic "Why Can't I Be You?" Mr. Smith roamed the stage
flirting with the crowd.  In midsong, he broke into snatches of Sinatra
staples "Witchcraft" and "Young at Heart."  The audience went wild.
	The Cure did come through with several well-known pieces. 
"Pictures of You,"  "Let's Go to Bed" and "Just Like Heaven" were
high-energy crowd favorites.  The band also did a beautiful rendition of
"Jupiter Smash" from Wild Mood Swings.
But the concert should have been 30 minutes shorter.  During the second
hour, the band played a string of obscure, dirge-like songs that sucked
all the energy out of the room.  The encores -10 songs- also went on too
long.  The last song has a long, instrumental ending that left the crowd
on a low note.  This is the Cure, so maybe that was the intention.
Attendance figures were unavailable, but the venue appeared to be half
full.

If i had to sum up the concert in one word it would have to
be....MAGICAL!!! The whole concert just blew me away!!
the concert didn't start till about 8:15pm and when the lights went
out...my heart started racing and i thought i was going to pass out! But
then they arrived....the moment i've been waiting for a loooong time
now...Robert, Roger, Simon, Jason and Perry began to play Want, i just
about died!! it seemed so unreal!! When they played Pictures of You, i
almost went into cardiac arrest!! I was hopeing praying that they would
play that song tonite!! and they did!! Oh and when they played Close to
Me, the background was sooooooooooooo adorable!! It was an underwater
scene with fishes, octopuses, sea horses were swimming by! I loved that!
Robert said a few things and i didn't quite understand him...but i did
catch him say this is just like Vegas(when people gave Robert stuff out
of the audience). During Why Can't I Be You, Robert walked to one side
of the stage were Roger was and then he walked over to the other side of
the stage where Perry was. And Robert started dancing in some parts!!
Well the concert lasted 2 hours and 35min. Pretty spiffy! Oh! RObert was
wearing a Cincinnati Cyclones jersey!!! for those who don't know that's
our hockey team(there not exactly perfessional, their in a lower
division or something).
I'm sure there's more stuff that happened but i can't seem to remember
them! Can't wait to see them again in Columbus!!