I was at the Festival Gig yesterday and I must say it was a very strange kind of experience for me.

From the begining there were a lot of problems, Robert's guitar doesn't sound right at even any song, i think. But the Setlist was still amazing.

It starts up with shake dog shake, very powerful and a good start. But then everything went wrong.

At the begining of Fascination Street, Robert's guitar didn't work for the first time, but then, as the song goes on everything sounded O.K.. (by the way it was the Single Version with the Bass Intro)

And then, for me, a dream comes true. 100years . Still amazing to hear my favorite song live. It sounded great and was "the Drum Machine + Jason" Version.

After that Simon said something to Robert. Then Robert goes to the mic. "We haven´t played this song for about 10 years" But nothing happened, no crowd yeah!!!

Robert:" Oh, i thougt i´m in the wrong country for this. This is called the Kyoto Song."

At that moment i thougt that something happened on stage, Robert looks a little bit angry. However, Kyoto was still great, and the only song with the "walk into the crowd" thing.

Pictures of you - the long version, still pretty.

Just like heaven - really cool version with new vocals (Youhuhu soft and only, Youhuhu ...)

and then came sinking- i was really surprised by that. Good guitar work by Robert at the end, but not so good like the Orange Version or some older versions they did.

Robert: I hope you will shout out for this.

Wrong Number came up and sounded so great live, very cool lime green lights. But then something went really wrong at the end of the song. Robert smashed his guitar to the floor and... walked away from the stage. But then you see his shadow dancing in the back of the stage.

He looks angry

Inbetween Days - was a little boring for me, because i heard this so many times.

From the Edge... still great, with a wonderful lightshow

Prayers for Rain - Ufff, what is happening with Robert these days, his voice sounded so great, but his guitar work sounds a little bit lazy to me. The long vocal chord at the middle was still amazing . prayers for raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain !!! yeah, better then the Entreat version.

Never Enough, Roberts guitar didn't work, and he looked very angry

Cut - Roberts Guitar, yeah, you know it, didn´t work and he went very very angry at this moment, run to his amp and turn the volume to max., i think he also smashed his guitar a little bit.

Disintegration- still amazing, i like this song very very much, it was the guitar version without the 6 String Bass, at the end of the song, Robert didn´t stop singing "how the end always is", he sung it about 20 times or more i think, great.

Untitled - Yeah!!! unbelievable to hear that. Everything went so dark. Perry left the stage befor the song is over, but robert's 6 String bass solo never stopped.

And they went away.

1st Encore: Trust - i´m a little suprised to heard that. Robert's guitar work at the beginning of the song was hmm, ... should i say, not so correct. And the beginning of the drums are also, not correct. For me, this one was the worst song of the concert, haven´t they not practiced this song, or what is happening. Everyone on stage looks a little bit angry.

During the concert, Roger left the stage a few times, and he didn´t look very happy.

A Forest - Roger left the stage before they started, it sets off without the keyboard intro and was short but very good and angry version of this all time classic. I don´t know what was happening on stage, or if they play A Forest now always without the intro, but something is going on up there.

Everyone left the stage. Robert: I´m sooo sorry, and i thank you!! he said it with this angry voice, you know what i mean.

But then: 2nd Encore : Friday i´m in Love Robert: now comes my sunday evening, i still love this sound Friday sets up, the crowd went crazy, and the Band - happy

Boys dont cry- still good

10:15 also very good

Killing an Arab - this was the best song of the concert, i never heard it so powerfull before, everyone on stage went crazy i think, and all their bad things are smashed away.

Robert: Thank you very much and see you next year!!

All in all a amazing concert, with a lot of technical (?) problems and by far the darkest Cure Concert i´ve ever seen, I mean not the songs at all, I mean the event itself , Is Pornography crawling up again??

i've just came back from austria - 1100 km away from my home in poland

i saw only 1 day of the fest, nothing interesting from me (6 bands) apart from the cure and maybe pulp, but they occured to be much much less convincing than the main star of the evening, just another class of the band

just about 15 minutes before concert i started to realize that its gonna be THE CURE concert - my 3rd time im gonna see them (after glasto 95 and katowice 96), and another the most important gig. i had wondered what it was gonna look like, would it be more "disco" or "gitarous", what would be the first song etc. etc.

the gig was to begin at 22.30 - earlier bands were quite punctual so it should begin before 22.45

22.20 - first nerves, i have to get up from the ground, i cant sit just like hundreds people around me, i was lucky to fool the guards and carried in my walkman with a mic, unfortunately i had to sacrifice my camera which i used as a decoy, but that was completed by my friend who got in after me, so we were ready...

... so i get up and attach the mic to the kerchief on my head, im standing about 20 m away from the stage on a piece of high ground - perfect view on the whole stage, great sound, there is no crowd here (i hate no-Robert singing to my ears), in general there is not much people at the concert (to be honest im mad at the Austrians about it), besides we got binoculars...

... im checking the tape in my walkman for the 10th time plus the second one in my pocket, for the 20th time the mic, for the 30th time the batteries

... roadies on the stage...

22.30 - still roadies on the stage

22.40 - still roadies on the stage

22.50 - still roadies on the stage, some problems with Rob's mic oh, in the meantime they carried the guitars - the red atkins, black acoustic, black electric, simon's bass, 2 perry's guitars

22.57 - there is no roadies on the stage, lots of smoke and darkness everywhere, i feel hot...

...they all coming up, Rob in black with hair as usual, simon cut very short in the lower half of head, the upper hair tied in the back, roger with short hair, perry disheveled, jason a bit longer too, almost to the neck what are they gonna start with?

"hello...", oh God, 100% of consciousness where i am maximal noise of guitars - SHAKE DOG SHAKE !!! oh, shit, what a beginning. they are playing great, perry is much more dynamic than ever. technical problems with roger's speaker, he looks very angry, kicks the speaker a couple of times - it is changed during the song

FASCINATION STREET - strong beginning, again technical problems - badly tuned Robert's guitar, he tries to play on it but we can hear only wrong tunes, eventually he changes it to the red atkins, its better now, simon's bass sounds great

ONE HUNDRED YEARS !!! o man! - i hadn't dare to dream of it, this time without problems robert is playing perfectly, so is perry

KYOTO SONG - before that Roberts tries to say "the next one is called..." in german but it ends up not exactly german, so robert ads with laugh - "probably im in the wrong country..."

later - pictures of you (great as always), just like heaven (so perfect and you you you version), sinking (o man! again), wrong number, inbetween days, from the edge of the deep green sea, prayers for rain, never enough, cut, disintegration (with changed lyrics in the end), untitled (o man! again), first encore - trust, forest (during my 2 gigs they didint play that, at last, though rather short version), second encore full of good humor of Robert - friday im in love, boys dont cry, 10.15, killing an arab

interesting - not a one song from WMS ! - to be honest it didnt worry me at all, even more it didn't worry me that they didn't played the walk and lgtb

there were some more technical problems - during CUT robert couldnt play his guitar at all, during NEVER ENOUGH just from the middle of the song, i was afraid he was gonna be pissed off and finish the gig or something, but no. i think probably Robert is very hungry of playing gigs - u can see a lot of enthusiasm and guitar dynamism in him plus much better perry's playing

for the end Robert said "see u next year" - sounds good, doesn't it?

as usual a lot of good lights, a bit of Rob's "dancing", Simon's jumps

what else - there are 2 official T-shirts, i liked them very much - the first one is made just like a football T-shirt - whole white with black inscriptions - in the front in quite small fonts EURO, below a sign and below it also with a small font THE CURE, in the back big number 98 and above it the word SUMMER

the second T-shirt is black with an inscription only in the front - big red C, in the middle of it more or less SUMMER 98, THE CURE or something like that

audience - not many people, about 1,5 thousand, a couple of nice T-shirts in the crowd plus some hairdos

in general an incredible concert for me, i cant wait to see dresden and brno

Well, yes, it happened yesterday ! The Cure at Forestglade '98 . At 10:30 I got in the car with 4 others. Drove to Wiesen, the place in Austria, where the festival would take place. We got there at 12:30. It was bloody hot, kinda C.34! The place is marvellous, it's in the middle of a forest (erm..yeah...). There was a huge tent covering the stage and part of the audience. Some 5.000 would fit under the tent and the rest outside.

Okay, my idea with putting the camera into my shoe didn't work, thus they took it away (which surprisingly enough I got back after the concert).

The atmosphere was perfect, one could see people with shirts of the different bands playing there.

13:00 - Garish Very nice, alternative - grunge. They are a young Austrian band and they can achieve something, believe me... They were just fine for the opening.

14:00 - The Bates German punk band, the "masters of covers", playing old rock & roll covers, Michael J.'s Billy Jean, etc.... It was a good laugh, not more.

15:30 - Heinz aus Wien Austrian punk - grunge band with brilliant lyrics (though all of them in German) and a very-very funny singer. Yes, I like them a lot.

17:00 - Such A Surge German cross-over band. Actually I hate their music, something between hip-hop, metal and Rage against The Machine. Nevertheless, they are very popular here, and I guess they did a pretty good job on stage while I was drinking and eating with my mates.

18:45 - Tito & Tarantula Oh, they were great. The crowd went wild, stage-diving all the time. They were absolutely funny, they invited some girls to dance on stage (which they did) and were really gorgeous! Do you know them? Wow, man, the bassist woman did a fucking great job on stage! Brilliant! They were joking around about, erm...you know, being a vampire... Just as cool, as they're expected to be!

20:45 - Pulp Very-very-very-very good! I love them anyways, but they performed really well. Jarvis was doing his usual hand moves, dancing and climbing everywhere he could find something to hold on to! Songs from their new album were dominating of course, but the older ones (First Time, Common People, etc.) were present as well. By that, the audience has grown to a crowd of about 20.000 already. It doesn't sound much, but believe me, considering the fact that here in Austria this music is absolutely unpopular, it's a good result. They were as Pulp, as they could have been!

23:00 - erm..yes, well..The Cure The started very bombastic with Shake Dog Shake. Technics were absolutely shit! Just after thy began, Roger would put his foot towards his speaker, indicating that it didn't work. Okay, they had to change it. Then, the mic didn't work well, it made all the time this resonance sound (fuck, I don't know how you call it in English). Anyway, it wasn't enough, cuz' after the beginning of Never Enough everybody noticed that Rob's red Ovation guitar didn't work. Man, he was pissed off! Nevertheless, Perry played the solo, and Rob danced as an excuse (very - very funny). After the song he even shouted at the soundcheck engineers yelling "what the fuck is this?!?" He did it on stage, not into the mic, but I was like the third person in the front, so we all heard it.

Jason fucked up at Trust, starting too late with the drums, you know at the point where Roger starts the piano. Roger looked quite surprised at that, but than it worked! Simon played his Thunderbird ( green, and not the red one!!!). I didn't see anything of Jason, since I was standing between Roger and Rob! Rob was gorgeous, he talked a lot ("Mmmmm...yeah, I love that one - this is called Friday I'm in Loooaaaaave!"). He made some joke with Perry as well, but I didn't understand him, cuz' everybody was screaming, and well, you know the way Rob talks, it's hard for us native speakers anyway!

Perry was as a star as always, almost arrogant the way he played the guitar, not even taking notice of us. I don't like him, Anyway

They played the shortest live-version of Forest of all times. They did the Staring at The Beach version, you know, without the keyboard intro - line, and would start directly with the guitar / bass riffs! Surprisingly enough they played exactly for two hours, wich is a really good show for a festival!

Yes, well that was the concert. Prayer For rain: yes, he did sing that long key as known from Entreat! Killing an Arab was longer than usual, because of an extra guitar solo by Rob. Kyoto Song was just beautiful, and >From The Edge...and Cut rocked. They were selling new Cure T-shirts (bought one). Last time I went to a Cure show was during their WMS tour and I didn't have a good place at the concert. Now, I was really in front and man, Robert is REALLY fat!!!

We had fun seeing the band at the stage exit, got our stuff signed by Robert and Roger, and were talking to Perry near the hotel :)

It's just a pity the sound was so bad...even Perry said it was bad for them...and they had so many technical problems...it would be a great show besides this...well, no cure show can be bad of course, but there are better and worse...but at least the set list was great...