Q101's annual Christmas festival has become a convenient way to look back on the year that was in so-called "new music." So what were Brit-rock old-timers the Cure and Duran Duran doing alongside five relatively new acts at the Twisted 4 concert Thursday at the United Center?

When they emerged out of England in the late '70s, the Cure hardly seemed the band most likely to be headlining a big music festival for a mostly teenaged audience 20 years later. Nor were the odds particularly strong that Duran Duran would survive once their 15 minutes of MTV fame were up in the mid-'80s.

Somehow both bands have endured, though they've gone about it in decidedly different ways. Duran Duran is but a shadow of its former self--the hired guns outnumbered the original band members 3 to 2 at the United Center. With synthesizers dripping frosting over busy guitar lines, the mini-parade of guilty pleasures--from "Hungry Like the Wolf" to "Ordinary World"--was made laughable by the sight of singer Simon Le Bon wiggling like Austin Powers.

The sense of deja vu was further heightened by the sight of His Frumpiness, the Cure's Robert Smith, taking the stage in trademark black, his raccoon eyes and pasty skin partially obscured by the spider mop resting on his head. Smith's music is an equally curious and endlessly fascinating concoction--a mix of upbeat singles, droning ballads and furious guitar opuses.

Capping the night with a generous 90-minute set, Smith and his band sounded out of sync on '80s hits "Fascination Street" and "Just Like Heaven," but found their footing in the intoxicating swirl of longer pieces such as "Cut." Shrouded as always by dry-ice fog and lurking in the shadows like Edward Scissorhands, Smith built a cathedral of guitar feedback to his obsessions. "You don't feel anymore, you don't care anymore, it's all gone," he cried, choking his ax until it screamed.

The Cure's melodrama was matched by the ripping political theatrics of Chumbawamba. The co-ed eight-piece band blended soccer-stadium chants by the lads with sweet vocals by the gals, and gave it all a sarcastic topicality punched up by dance beats and trumpet solos. The veteran British band got invited to this party because of the ubiquitous single "Tubthumping," but the depth of their material suggests they're more than a one-hit wonder.

Filling out the bill were the frivolous but energetic Sugar Ray, power-popsters Everclear and Sarah McLachlan, who has turned into an angel-voiced rock star by injecting her pleasant but innocuous songs with hip-hop rhythms and edgier guitar riffs. 311, a Los Angeles-by-way-of-Nebraska quintet, combined laughably inept rap vocals with reggae rhythms, funk riffs and metal chords--a train wreck that somehow produced a handful of relatively coherent songs. It's doubtful this band will mean much in a decade, but then the same could have been said of the Cure and Duran Duran 10 years ago.

CHICAGO -- I was ready to pan this show before I got there. Understand, it's hard to work around your pre-conceptions about holiday rock.

But I have to admit it, six hours into the show and I was impressed. Then the Cure played.

Radio station holiday concerts look great on paper, but are rarely presented in situations that are conducive to good rock shows. Q101's "Twisted 4" on Dec. 12 in Chicago appeared to be no different. It sported the requisite eclectic array of bands. Some, such as openers Sugar Ray, seem on a rocket path to one-hitdom. Others, such as the Cure and Duran Duran, who have been around the bend more than their share of times, were there to anchor the show.

After Sugar Ray's 20-minute set, Everclear took the stage. Frontman Art Alexakis joked about the capacity crowd at the United Center, which is home to both basketball's Bulls and hockey's Blackhawks. "Chicago? This isn't Chicago," he said, "Chicago is the Double Door, the Elbo Room, The Metro." Everclear is no stranger to the Metro, and their most recent show there last month was a full-out rock assault that had the moshers going up top as soon as the first chords seared the crowd.

With only 30 minutes allotted for this show, they ran through radio songs old and new with "Santa Monica," "Heroin Girl" (RealAudio excerpt), "Everything to Everyone" and their forthcoming single, "I Will Buy You a New Life." Everclear's energy was largely lost in the muddy acoustics that plagued this show, and the crowd was uninspired.

The first pleasant surprise of the eight-hour gig was pop-punk anarchists Chumbawamba, who filled in for Icelandic enigma Bjork, who'd canceled all her holiday appearances citing an illness. The group ran through their set, which sounded like a good jungle mix of Duran Duran and Abba with controlled energy. Almost every member of the band took their turn at vocals, giving the group the flexibility to do some rather potent political numbers a cappella, drawing the power of their lyrics right to the front.

They drew the crowd to their feet for the first time, closing the show with their long-awaited, breakthrough hit, "Tubthumping" (RealAudio excerpt).

Duran Duran followed. Although only two original members remain and singer Simon LeBon has become somewhat of a caricature of his earlier sex-symbol status, those in the crowd couldn't help but crack nostalgic smiles as they worked through classic new-wave hits such as "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "View to a Kill." Those smiles turned to dropped jaws for many as they closed the set with "Rio." The huge drum set and guitar pedal arrays seemed as much a throw-back to the excess of the '80s, in which Duran Duran thrived Stateside, as the songs they played. Also on the docket was "Ordinary World," which LeBon dedicated to late INXS singer, Michael Hutchence, who was recently found hanging from his belt in a Sydney, Australia, hotel room.

Next, Lilith Fair founder, Sarah McLachlan, arguably one of the more talented songwriters around, played a set that, while solid, couldn't find a foothold in this lineup. The audience collectively dozed through her 45-minute set and looked toward 311 to bring them back to life long enough to stay awake for the Cure.

Luckily, 311 rose to the occasion. Their energetic mix of rap, hip-hop, horns and dance brought the people back to their feet and gave the Windy City crowd its second wind. Everyone was now looking forward to a great closer from Robert Smith and the Cure.

Shrouded by an intense cloud of smoke, Smith, looking somewhat frumpy in all his genius, floated up to the mic, said "hello" and disappeared into the background as the rest of the group started into "Plainsong."

Cure fans were very easy to spot in their black capes and spider-web eye makeup. But at a radio show where the six bands before you have played mostly hit-laden sets, the Cure and their followers were out of place. They openly declared that they were going to play mostly songs that they rarely play live. So, rather than play the myriad familiar Cure tunes, they sprinkled the mega-hit "Just Like Heaven" into a 15-song first set that featured such unmemorable Cure cuts as "Same Deep Water As You."

The Cure could have turned things around. Had they given up the hits, the show might have gone down on the year's Chicago highlight reel, somewhere below the Rolling Stones' surprise gig and above Creed's quasi-homecoming at the House of Blues.

But they didn't. Granted, they led of their encore with "Untitled" from Disintegration before almost grudgingly playing "10:15 Saturday Night" and "Killing and Arab," but it wasn't enough.

In so doing, they helped Q101, a normally finely focused pop/alt-rock station's concert-goers -- such as yours truly -- to walk away bleary-eyed.

( Just a quick comment from me, that has to be one of the most asinine reviews I have ever read! I would like to nominate Matt Carmichael for residency in The Cure Dungeon )

ok, real quickly i have to mention that duran duran was great. better than great. incredible. the audio was terrible for their entire set, but they managed to overcome it and make it a pleasing 45 minutes. they were a great opening act to the cure, too bad 311 had to be thrown in between.

our 5 imaginary boys took the stage at 11 almost on the dot, chicago time. the aforementioned audio problems were obviously taking their toll on the set early on, as they had to restart plainsong twice before recieving an opening they liked. the boys seemed very low-key for the first half of the set, simon was noticably lacking his normal pogo-stick antics. roger seemed to be frustrated with his equipment early on as well, as he stepped away from the keys in disgust on more than one occasion. perry didn't seem to move much either.

once they began Shake Dog Shake the audio took a downward plunge. robert and jason were nearly all you could hear, as some fool had turned everything's volume up 3 notches above max and the amps overloaded badly in reaction. the only way i could recognize the song was from the drum lead. i was disappointed, since i had heard such good things about the versions they had performed earlier in the mini-tour.

once robert announced "This is one from The Head on the Door... it's called Push." something seemed to click and the audio problems were solved for the remainder of the show. in reaction, the boys started to have some fun on stage.

once they began Just Like Heaven the crowd erupted for about the only long ovation of the evening. i couldn't tell if perry was playing or not, his guitar was turned down so low. 100 Years was a particularly good rendition, in my opinion, and i was in awe of Same Deep Water as You and FTEOTDGS. the latter especially, for more personal reasons.

Unfortunately, Reeves wasn't able to make the show, and the end of the set showed his absense. Never Enough and Wrong Number just weren't the same without that extra guitar, though perry did attempt to hit some of those wailing notes near the end of W#. robert's vocals were generally correct, with the exception of Pictures of You (seeming to become a habit this tour). Disintegration completely blew me away. Perry's guitarwork continues to boggle the mind, as his solo was exceptional. he seemed to be showing some influence from reeves, reaching to hit those screaming highs.

The encores were somewhat below par. Untitled was just missing something, but 10.15 saturday night made up for it. and of course they finished with the 'blow the roof off the place' killing an arab. overall, a very fullfilling show and worth the 4 1/2 hour drive.

well, what can I say, IT SUCKED!!! I wanted to go down and shoot the sound people in the face about fifty times!! Well, I guess that's overreacting, they did open with Plainsong, even though they had to start the song three times because the sound guys screwed up (Boy did Robert look pissed!) And then throughout the concert Perry's guitar cut in and out, imagine Fascination Street without a lead guitar, well there you go. The set list was about the same as everyone else's, plus plainsong. Wrong Number was pretty cool, and Same deep Water as You was awesome, but I was just pissed off. I suppose 311 probably broke most of the equipment... As for the rest of the show, Sarah McLachlan was incredible, but the surprising two to me were that Duran Duran was cool, playing all old stuff, and Chumbawamba was hilarious, a woman came out in a red nun's habit and guzzled Jack Daniels while singing and spilling it all over the place. Their single is by far their worst song. The funniest thing however, was the fact that the Sugar Ray singer had broken his foot!! He was hobbling around the stage trying to keep from falling, it was like watching stand up comedy with a shitty soundtrack.

I left Bloomington IL about 11:30 a.m. After lunch and the usual navigational incompetence, I made the United Center parking lot about 4:45 p.m. Too late to attend the Babble meeting...

The seating was the worst I'd ever had, in the middle of the highest balcony and about one section behind stage left. But, thru binoculars, I got good looks at people as they wandered around the stage.

I had an aisle seat, and I had to let the folks to my left out about every five minutes to buy some of the 5000 beers they had over the evening. We also had a little action during the last break before the Cure's set, when a fight almost broke out. A couple of minutes later, they were all hugging each other for a picture. Ah well.

The overall sound ranged from poor to awful. I use ear plugs at concerts, and I actually had to take them out to hear some songs. Not that my seating would have optimal sound, but still...

Sugar Ray: Not bad, a fun group. I missed the first couple of songs. So did a lot of other folks, the arena was almost empty. I liked their easy chair, the only stage prop of the evening. One recognized song, the "I just want to fly" song.

Everclear: Too much guitar noise for me. Push the earplugs all the way in and take a nap. No recognized songs.

Overheard while the stage was prepared for the next set: "Yay, the first keyboard of the evening, woo hoo!" I like the way that man thinks.

Chumbawamba: Eh. They did have the only horn of the night (a trumpet), and they did at least try to have some fun. One recognized song (take a wild guess).

When the woman had the bottle on stage, my first thought was, keep it away from Smith and Gallup, they'll inhale it and go looking for the case...

Duran Duran: The arena finally filled for these guys, and of course, the girls were all screaming and jumping around, blocking our whole section's view. I'm not a big fan, but it was fun to hear some songs I recognized from my high school days.

The floor completely emptied after this set, but most of them came back for the next set...

Sarah McLachlan: Now we're getting to the good stuff. She played the four singles that I knew. I was hoping for her version of XTC's "Dear God", or maybe even a Bjork song in tribute, but, wishful thinking. Was that a pedal steel the guy on the right was playing? Maybe it just looked strange from my angle of view. They win the 'best dressed' award.

311: Eek. Time to duck out for pizza and a soda, and to do some people watching. No recognized songs...

And finally, the guys I came to see and hear. The Cure didn't come on stage until about 11 p.m. But, they played the longest, and they were the only band that were allowed an encore.

This was only the second time I'd seen them, but it didn't seem like an "on" night to me. They also had technical problems and some horrible sound. But, the songs were the same "nostalgia" set they've been playing recently, and I'd have sat through anything to hear those older songs.

Between sets, they played some live backstage interviews on the replay monitors, and they had Smith on before the Cure played. I couldn't make out most of what was said, but what I heard were the same old questions.

"Plainsong": Two false starts, due to technical problems. A little flat, poor sound and maybe the guys needed to warm up.

While waiting for the vocals to start, Smith wandered all around the stage, and got wild cheers for just looking at the audience. I don't always realize that Smith is such a big guy, he could be his own bodyguard...

"Shake Dog Shake": Sound quality is worse, I can barely make out chord changes or Smith's singing. What I could hear was good. Strange to hear it as the second song instead of the opening song.

It looked like the keyboards went completely out during this song. O'Donnell just stood there for awhile shaking his head, then walked back and had a few words...

"Torture": Aaagh!! Can't hear anything but drums and feedback. I'd read that they had been playing this slowly, but it seemed to be at about studio tempo tonight.

"Fascination Street": Sound is somewhat better, but not much. I read later that Bamonte's guitar went out; I honestly couldn't tell.

"Push": Great fun to hear this one live. Finally, passable sound quality.

"Just Like Heaven": Most audience interest and best singalong of the night (of course). Smith sung the infamous new "You You You" chorus. It makes a change, but I like the older version better myself. They started to lose the audience after this one.

"Holy Hour": Wow! Just to hear this one at all. I was hoping that the keyboards would go out again. Instead of playing the held chords, O'Donnell was playing notes along with Gallup's bass. Too busy.

"100 Years": Wow!! Still not really an "on" performance, but still my favorite of the evening. The drum machine part was incredible.

"Same Deep Water As You": Nice, but I'd rather have heard "Last Dance" or "Prayers For Rain". Cooper's drumming was prominent, sounded OK to me.

"Pictures Of You" (short version): I kind of like the short studio version, but the short live version didn't work for me, it was too rushed.

"Inbetween Days": Can't remember anything unusual.

"Deep Green Sea": I've heard it so many times, but again, I didn't have a clue what was going on until the full band came in. They'd lost a big part of the audience by now, but lots of people still "put their hands in the sky".

"Never Enough"/"Wrong Number"/"Cut": Sorry to skip over these, but my attention wandered. NE and Cut are nice for the guitar players, but they don't do much for me. And I still think the music of WN is mediocre at best.

"Disintegration": Best stage comedy of the night. Smith got the microphone cord tangled up in the stand. He couldn't reach the tangle with his guitar in front of him. He drug the stand around for a minute, then he just quit singing and a roadie had to come out and untangle it. He reminded me of a puppy wrapping its leash around a tree.

He missed about a third of a verse, and that bugged me a little bit, he could have held the mike up and kept singing. But, maybe he was just fed up...

That was the end of the regular set. I noticed that the whole arena is almost empty again. The guys came back for one encore.

"Untitled": Another one that was wonderful to hear live. Was the drum part OK? It sounded off, but I couldn't figure exactly what was wrong.

"10:15 Saturday Night"/"Killing An Arab": For the gazillionth time. Come on guys, it's time to retire these songs. But the audience that was left still loved it. Gallup was as active as usual, and both he and Bamonte were really jumping at the end.

Cure song list: [A] Performance: [A-] Sound quality: [D+] to [F]

And that was it. I scared myself by leaving the United Center on the opposite side from where I came in, even though I kept reminding myself that if they stole my truck, they also stole the church across the street that I saw on the way in.

An uneventful drive home. I didn't get tired until about 3:15 a.m., but I was almost home by then. I had taken today off and had planned to sleep til noon, but I got a phone call at 10 a.m. from some $#!% selling MCI phone service.

Before "The Same Deep Water as You" Robert said "Here's another song we don't play very often - the idea being that we're playing songs that we don't play very often." An idea he seemed to stress almost every time he spoke.

The band had trouble starting "Plainsong" - they started it three different times. I couldn't really tell from where I was sitting, but it looked like there was a problem with Jason's drum set, as a roadie rushed out and adjusted a few things. I knew it was going to be a good show as soon as I heard the bells, though. And I heard "The Holy Hour," so my prayers were answered (got some strange looks when I cheered when the bass line started up - those same people then asked me the name of "100 Years" - at least they were asking because they enjoyed it).

"Disintegration" was disappointing - no intensity. "Wrong Number," on the other hand, was surprisingly one of the strongest songs of the set.

All in all, a damn fine show.

I missed Sugar Ray, Everclear and Chumbawumba (although I'm not complaining). Duran Duran wasn't bad - at least it looked like they still enjoyed playing those songs unlike some of the 80s bands currently touring. Sarah McLachlan also put on a decent show (although she was better when I saw her w/The Chieftains a few years back). I hated 311, but you have to admit, it's hard to not move to the music when they're on stage. Unfortunately, I had to pay attention to them since that's who gave me the tix...

The friend I took with me was blown away by The Cure - similar to when I saw them the first time.

A few quips about the show... Sorry if my sentence structure is poor - I'm not in a thinking mood...

Chumbawumba sucks - but they did have a woman dressed in a red nun's habit smoking a ciggy and drinking a bottle of Jack Daniel's...

Cure-wise: no Strange Day, no Piggy, no Reeves Gabriel Reeves on guitar. Each group was alotted a 30 min set, but The Cure were on from 11 to 12:45! It took the guys three times to get Plainsong to start right. By the encore, half the stadium was empty. :( Merchandise was cheaper than at the other shows: white tee $20, black tee $20, black long-sleeve tee $25, grey v-neck $35. They were also selling Swing Tour programs for $10...!

Did anyone else see Jason's stuffed clown by the drums? No, it's not the clown on the WMS cover, but a _stuffed_ thingamabob... The missus and I were rolling in our seats when they showed it on the jumbotron.

Sad to say, but some big ogre of a guy sitting in front of us got piss drunk and started beating the tar out of his girlfriend during 311 - punching in the face and stuff. Everyone that the two were with got kicked out, so when the Cure came on, we had plenty of room to move closer to the stage :)

The worst part of the show: Some flashy guy sat just a few feet away from us just as the Cure came on stage. We thought nothing of it; he looked like he was having a merry time, and people were coming and going the entire evening. So just before FTEOTDGS starts, a security guard walks up to this bloke and the two walk out together, brushing up against my girlfriend. A light from the stage shines over him, and it's none other than Simon LeBon who has been sitting near us for a good 45 minutes... <sigh> Who'd have guessed?

Hello! I'm sorry this took so long to write, but I just wanted to thank everyone who I met in Chicago. I really appreciate everyone who came to the restaurant or found me wandering around bored during the sucky bands and the Twisted 4! (Shake Dog Shake, Lovecat Girl, Frostbite, Treasure, Ruba, Lana, THEZZPIAN, Keiko, Erin, Alyson, Laurel, Mountainman_99, Zerostar,Wendytime & Christine) Lauch and Karen- you were great company! I unfortunately came with someone who didn't even like the Cure (he slept through it!), so if anyone actually waited around after the show and got to meet them, you'll have to tell me all about it! I was waiting to write this so I could scan and send copies of the pictures I took of everyone at the restaurant. Unfortunately, I just got my pictures back and, well, there were no pictures. The negatives were blank! That's the last time I buy one of those cheap disposable cameras. I bet the film never even advanced. It's a shame too because I used about 20 pictures on the Cure during the show and now I don't have any (and I actually got up really close after all the 311 fans left!) I know you've heard it 100 times, but I thought the show was great! I think I even started to cry when I heard The Holy Hour start. I never thought I'd hear any of the Faith album songs live in my lifetime (well, except for Primary, but The Holy Hour is way better). I think I freaked out everyone around me when they started playing it because I just went nuts. It was kind of convenient though, the entire row of frat boys in front of me left after Shake Dog Shake and I jumped over the seats and had the whole row to myself to dance! Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone who I met know that they really made the concert that much better and it really meant a lot to me!