Having witnessed two perfect shows in portugal and spain, i was a little apprehensive about the dresden concert. could they perform as well, would the sound be okay and would the audience enjoy it? here is my brief but sincere account of the evenings events.

the cure took the stage at 9.15 pm to an audience who were made up largely of people dressed in black with pretty pouting gothic faces, very different from last weekend, but reminding me of the cure's vast world wide audience however different they may be, sharing a common interest.

Robert and the band seemed very relaxed and warmed the crowd within seconds of beginning 'shake dog shake'. i perched myself near the back of the auditorium whilst a friend of mine finally got the chance to take some pictures for curenews in the photographers pit for the first three songs. next came 'fascination street' with robert's ending lines - "i wanna take a walk, i wanna take a walk!" smiling throughout the whole song. i had the feeling he was trying to better the last concert and without any lyrical mistakes was beginning to prove it. a wonderful 'trust','pictures of you' (longer version), 'just like heaven' ('you, you, you') and the best version of 'sinking' i have heard over the past weekends,my worries were now over and i was really enjoying the show. (oh! and few beers also helped me out!!!)

Robert although seemingly happy, had said very little to the german audience, but during 'disintegration' removed his guitar and wandered into the sand made pit in front of the stage to sing the main part of the song. everyone near the front went wild crushing and pushing forward to get closer to him as he walked carelessly near the first rows of fans. after the song, they left the stage only to return with robert trying to explain "sorry, it's disgusting that i can't speak your language, or any other language by now..., this is called 'friday,i'm in love". after this came 'a forest' (shorter edited version) but still perfect ending with simon's proper bass part for the first time in ages, the crowd shouting as he echoed the long-close of the song.

Again they left the stage, shortly to return with robert announcing - "the next two songs we don't really play that often, so they may go wrong...!" - with was followed by "if only tonight we could sleep" - with robert holding his head in both hands throughout the song, making it very intense. 'a figurehead' then jumped out of the dark and we all fell silent! allowing them to perform another faultless song. following '10:15 saturday night' and 'killing an arab' the song began to close as robert beckoned to jason to continue, whilst simon walked quickly left of the stage to join roger, allowing each other to continue and follow roberts guitar chords as he begain the very rare version of - 'forever'. the song started off slowly and built into a climatic chorus with robert repeating the words "....as the sun goes down" - a truly magnificent version, held together by everyone improvising.

I have seen many cure concerts over the years and to sum things up, this dresden concert will fire my will to travel far and wide to catch these sort of memories. however i must point out that germany needs more road signs as we got terribly lost in berlin on the way back to the airport home! (never enough!)

thank you

chris white

After an abscence of 8 years, The Cure came again to Dresden for a gig in the 'Junge Garde' stadium. Although you couldn't spot any posters in the whole city, and the tourdate was almost nowhere printed, the stadium filled with more than 5000 fans.

After a crap support of Atrocity, who were playing mostly their last album with cover versions of 80's hits in a metal style, Cure came on stage at 21.15 and starting their show as always with 'Shake dog shake'.

The crowd, as Chris already said, was very enthusiastic (mostly made up of Goths and real Cure fans) and there was lots of pushing at the front. The main set was the same as in Rothenburg, with 'Trust' and no 'Kyoto Song'. The mood of the bandmembers seemed to be excellent as well, Simon chatted a lot with Roger, Robert didn't say much as always and apoligised (see Rothenburg review) for not speaking any German but at the end of the song, he said 'Fascination Strasse'.

They returned for 2 sets of encores, with a strange version of 'A forest', Robert putting his guitar down and Simon doing the classical ending. The biggest surprises, they held for the second encore. 'If only tonight we could sleep' was excellent as was 'Figurehead'. After 'Killing...' Simon went over to Robert and told him to go on, but he showed a 'cut off' sign with his arms and the crew already prepared to clear the stage, but they really went on and did 'Forever', which I never expected, and it was a superb version as well, that rounded off an excellent appearance in Dresden.

Favourites, of course 'Figurehead' and 'Forever', Only criticism, the sound (I was standing in the first row) was way too loud, you had to close your ears sometimes, otherwise Smith would've sounded like Mickey Mouse for the whole gig... Show length was about 125 minutes btw.