For more than 20 years the heroes in the saddest hours and the forefathers of the Gothic scene are back. It took more than 40 years until the first Cure concert in Basel and the wait was worth it. "The Cure" live is not just a concert, "The Cure" live is an event and the Brits around singer Robert Smith spoiled the audience with 27 songs from dark wave to indie rock to pop. The sound of "The Cure" was and is a definition for itself and the band really gave their all at their concert in Basel's St. Jakobshalle, the musicians stood on stage for almost three hours to let the fans return home completely happy . So beautiful can be sad!
Admission to the St. Jakobshalle in Basel was at 19 p.m. and my enthusiasm for this location is always very restrained because the sound has never really been worth mentioning and I generally don’t really like large arenas. I just prefer it a little more intimate and, above all, the sound experience is very important to me. So it became clear to tens of thousands of music fans on Friday evening that the St. Jakobshalle was being renovated when they had to take a detour for the Cure concert, past barriers and wooden sheds. Inside, new toilet facilities await you, but the hall itself is still strongly reminiscent of the decade in which most people first came into contact with «The Cure». Anyway, at 19.30 p.m. the opening act "The Twilight Sad" was on stage and the first notes sounded.
The opening act went well with "The Cure", the singer of "The Twilight Sad" from Glasgow not only looked like Ian Curtis from Joy Division, he also moved like one. A likeable band that was happy, as they said themselves, that so many people were there so early. They gave a very soulful concert that spread a bit of melancholy in the hall. Nevertheless, some concertgoers didn't seem quite as enthusiastic, many were still far away from the stage and the audience was generally still very quiet. Musically, tonally and vocally, «The Twilight Sad» are great. The first song "Reflection Of The Television" is fantastic live. I had never heard of the four Glaswegians before, although they have already released four albums and six EP's since 2006. I really like this Scottish dialect anyway and the guys played a total of seven songs and were able to convince musically with soulful music and a good, dark sound.
«The Twilight Sad» set list:
- Reflection of the Television
- LastJanuary
- I Could Give You All That You Don't Want
- Seven Years of Letters
- It never was the same
- There's a girl in the corner
- And She Would Darken the Memory
At 20:15 p.m. the time had finally come. The five musicians from "The Cure" entered the stage, Robert Smith seemed a bit shy, as expected, and just started without looking at his fans in the sold-out hall. The lines from the first song of the evening, "Open", could easily be signed if you only concentrated on the acoustics. Unfortunately, the louder, but unfortunately also more modest sound is immediately noticeable. Luckily, you could clearly hear the individual instruments, but the sound sounds saturated, a phenomenon that I experience again and again. At the expense of the purity of the sound, the volume was turned up massively, because I liked the Scots better in advance. It's hard to say why it's booming: acoustics? Technology? mixed person? A pity. The euphoria at this first Swiss indoor concert by "The Cure" since 2008 is only dampened for reasons of sound quality. But what the quintet played on stage was stunning and after just a few minutes it led to the first highlights. Who would have thought that the band would present us "The Walk", "In Between Days" or "Boys Don't Cry" so early? Robert Smith, who we may have seen in the past as a difficult hit refuser, soon played his way through the first great classics with his four companions and spread a really good mood.
Everything played very nicely and Robert's voice still sounds great. The 57-year-old is vocal in impressive form, varies cool in the pitches and sometimes deviates from the original lines. His significant voice actually lasted for two and a half hours without compromise. The fact that the British brought such well-known numbers so early also shows what a rich fund they can draw from. She is characterized by her desire for variety on this tour. The quintet shakes up the tour set list evening after evening to surprise themselves and the audience. Bassist Simon Gallup, 56, wears an oversized Elvis Tolle and Iron Maiden T-shirt this year and preferred to play on the monitor speakers. Gallup is the only one to sound out the width of the stage, sprint to speed, as a contrast to the stoic keyboardist. The rest of the band is wearing plain black and their age is good. So did the Cure fans from the 80s and 90s, but there were also surprisingly many very young people there, mostly dressed in black. To celebrate the day, an abundance of middle-aged men had borrowed kohl and red lipstick from their daughters and set their hair up with hairspray and blow dryers. The audience is very enthusiastic. In contrast to previous concerts, you can only see a few Robert Smith lookalikes. We're all getting older and not necessarily hairier.
Since "The Cure" isn't promoting a current record, their gigs may lack the narrative framework that once characterized their concert tours. The mood of each work once carried over into the setlists, which featured the majority of songs winged or writhing in fear of age. The light show is a feast for the eyes, lush and perfectly timed to the music, and the LED panels behind the band featured occasional live camera overlays with an infinity effect. After 15 songs and a running time of almost 90 minutes, the regular set was over for the first time - and yet they were only halfway through, as three massive blocks of encores were to follow. The first block in particular was convincing with the great "Burn" from the "The Crow" soundtrack and "A Forest", which again caused a lot of enthusiasm. In any case, the band presented a successful cross-section of their work. Robert Smith's melodies are rich in variety, only "Charlotte Sometimes" and "Disintegration" were missing. The third block of encores turns into a party! On «Friday I'm in Love», «Hot Hot Hot!!!» and "Close To Me" was followed by the bouncing uptempo howler "Why Can't I Be You" and formed the closing point of this evening.
«The Cure» live is not just a concert, «The Cure» live is an event! And it was indeed a grandiose event of a famous band, which is able to completely convince in 2016 as well. The only shame was the opener, a good song for sure, only the acoustics, which unfortunately were terrible. Despite the somewhat sluggish start, "The Cure" was able to inspire most of its fans, even if not all of them made it through the full three hours and for many there was another hour in the cloakroom line. There is nothing to regret - or perhaps at most the fact that "The Cure" even added five songs to their concerts in Italy and played for three hours. And yet there were all the hits, but it was still not a coaxing Greatest Hits evening. "The Cure" delighted the fans in the sold-out St. Jakobshalle in Basel. A stunning band, rousing songs and two and a half hours of exuberant melancholy, happily celebrated by an excellently humored Robert Smith and colleagues in top form. A successful concert evening that started with great feelings and also ended with goosebumps. could not have been better.
Setlist The Cure:
- Open
- A Night Like This
- The Walk
- Push
- In Between Days
- Boys Don't Cry
- pictures of you
- High
- Lovesong
- Just Like Heaven
- Trust
- From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
- old.end
- One Hundred Years
- End
- Want
- Burn Energy Drink
- A Forest
- Shake Dog Shake
- Fascination Street
- Never enough
- Wrong Number
- Lullaby
- Friday I'm in Love
- Hot Hot Hot !!!
- Close to me
- Why Can't I Be You?
Again:
Encore 2:
Encore 3:
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