My first Cure gig this year took place in the beautiful valley Taubertal, near Rothenburg in Germany. Crap supportbands, arrogant security, but then it was 11.10 and with a delay of more than an hour, The Cure entered the stage with a rocking 'Shake dog shake', and the audience (about 8000 then) were into it from the beginning.

The set was similar to the other festival gigs before. Unfortunately no 'Kyoto Song' this time (was looking forward to it...), but 'Trust' appeared in the main set with all its glory (perhaps the roadcrew was sick about checking Teddy's keyboard all the time, even when it was not used...).

Highlights included the Pornography double as always, and a lovely long version of 'Pictures of you'. 'Sinking' was a favourite with me as well, nice to see it back in the set.

And The Cure were really into the set, too. Simon was jumping around as always, Robert even apologising for not speaking too much, because he doesn't speak German (as always over here). Roger kept smiling all the time, even smiled into the tv-cameras (Taubertal was recorded by Bayern 3) and answered by 'Roger' yell (when it came to the tambourine in 'Boys don't cry') with a smile and an alright. He tried to act clever during that song, but failed unfortunately, cause he ended the tune to soon, and had to play on...

During 'Boys...' all stagelights went out, so, they only used a torch. Unfortunately, they couldn't continue after the classic 1st encore ('Friday' to 'Killing'), this was a bit of a let down, cause the fans screamed for more, and even when it was announced, that the gig was over, due to time restrictions, we all went wild for some more minutes.

Great audience, okay setlist (I know, I will always complain...) and a fantastic playing mood, reminding you of the gigs in London at the end of 1997! I can't await the following gigs!

This weekend the old bavarian city Rothenburg was the location of the first german cure festival this summer. Normally the city is full of (mainly japanese) tourists, but at the "Taubertal Festival" there was a small invasion of goth fans, as "Sisters of Mercy" and "The Cure" were headlining this event. The festival was small, but sold out - about 10.000 people...

Although the setlist of the cure was not as extraordinary as in Lyon, I really enjoyed the festival. The group before playing the cure were "Guano Apes"... a very famous independent band from northern Germany. Their performance was very aggressive due to the powerful frontwoman. It´s been a long time, when I saw a german audience so enthusiastic like this....perfect circumstances for a nice cure gig.

The cure entered the stage with one hour delay at 23.00, starting with a nice sounding "Shake Dog Shake" and "Fascination Street". The sound and performance were very good this evening, as there were (nearly) no mistakes.

After the dynamic beginning it was time for Pornography songs "A Strange Day" and "100 Years". I enjoyed this order, as they perfectly combined a slow with an agressive song.

During the beginning of "Trust" Robert said "Sorry for not talking so much". I suppose, that after 4 festivals spread over Europe on one weekend, they really need to retire. Nevertheless the performance of the following songs was very nice as well ("Pictures of You", " Just Like Heaven", "Sinking", "Lullaby", "Wrong Number", "Never Enough", "Inbetween Days", "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea", "Cut", "Disintegration"). For me and the crowd it was nice to have back a pop song like "lullaby" on the list. The audience was in a very good mood...and after a while Robert started to thank in german and talking more...

My favourite song this evening definetly was "Disintegration" -the best version, I ever saw: Robert did not play guitars, but walked around the stage, dedicating to the crowd. Strange moments, when Robert behaves like a popstar during an emotional song like this...but the crowd (and me) loved it.

The first and only encore was great as well: During "Friday I´m in love", there was sound only on the stage but not towards the audience...the crowd helped by singing along this song. The atmosphere went to a maximum, as then "Boys don´t cry" was played...without any light on stage for the first minute...Robert didn´t care and sang a nice different beginning of the song.

Finally "10:15" and "Killing an Arab" made a perfect end of the show.

It was a pitty that the gig was that short. But the band had to stop, as the promoter wants to make a festival next year as well....and the band was 1 hour out of time .... Despite this, this trip to bavarian was worth the stress....so, enough to hope the best for the next 3 german festivals....