•
Rating:
During the Taormina Arte '05, for the only Italian date of the summer 2005 tour, the Cure performed in one of the most beautiful places in Italy, or rather Europe, the Greco-Roman Theatre of Taormina, the pearl of the Mediterranean!
For this occasion, Rob Smith changes (yet again) the line-up of the Cure. Perry Bamonte (guitar) and Roger O'Donnell (keyboards) are "replaced" (and how!!!) by former Cure guitarist Porl Thompson, Smith's brother-in-law. A bold choice on the eve (which surprised/worried many fans) since many Cure songs unfold through atmospheres and melodies that imply the use of keyboards. At 21:27, slightly ahead of schedule, the 4 Cure members take the stage, and the filled and excited seats of the small theatre erupt in a roar of joy... it's the beginning of an unforgettable event!
Open obviously starts the concert, and when Rob intones "I really don’t know what I’m doing here" everyone inside responds "I do know though!" We're immediately gifted two gems from the Cure's repertoire, the powerful and angry Fascination Street (from Disintegration) and the melancholic A strange day (from Pornography) with Thompson's mid-song solo ripping through the cloudy (unfortunately!) Sicilian sky. We proceed with: alt. end, The Blood, and The End of the World, well played, especially the blood, then it's the turn of a long, engaging, magical version of Shake dog shake, where Jason Cooper excels in thrilling drum passages. After the mediocre Us or Them it’s time for masterpieces that marked my and many others' musical experiences… the Cure gift us one after another A Night Like This, Push, Just Like Heaven, A Letter to Elise, Lullaby. It's an incredible half-hour where the entire theatre is immersed in a surreal, cathartic atmosphere that only a Cure concert can create. Then it's the lively Never Enough that wakes us from this feeling of disorientation… only to fall back into it with the subsequent The Figurehead. It's the highest moment of the whole evening (in my opinion). The dark drums and the deep bass of a Gallup in a grace-filled evening paint a surreal, dreamlike atmosphere, and the entire theatre is submerged in this sea of sensations… Smith even changes the lyrics for the occasion singing "sicilian girls" instead of "american girls". From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Signal To Noise (one of Smith’s favorite B-Sides) and The Baby Screams lead us to the cult moment of every Cure concert… it’s time for One hundred years. Smith's voice is sad, piercing, and the distorted guitars of the 2 guitarists seem like cries of pain, suffering, resignation…
The first part of the concert closes with Shiver and Shake and End. After a few minutes, the Cure return to the stage for the first encore and gift us some gems from 17 seconds; the first is At Night, followed by M, Play For Today, and A Forest. The first two sound much better than on the record, but don't excite, whereas the classics Play for today and A forest manage, as usual, to unleash the joy, the shouts, the movement of the entire theatre… what a SHOW! For the second encore, the Cure take us back to the trilogy DVD enchanting us with If Only Tonight We Could Sleep and The Kiss. Thus begins the most pop moment of the concert; Rob and crew return for the third time and delight us with Inbetween Days, Friday I'm In Love, and Boys Don't Cry sung by everyone from the first to the last verse.
It seems over, and when Rob and crew leave, the feeling we’re still missing something is strong… in fact, shortly after the Cure return to the stage and sing Faith (beautiful and emotional), Three Imaginary Boys, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab… the theatre is in an uproar, the Cure play like gods, the atmosphere is simply… INCREDIBLE! Notably, during the chorus of Killing an Arab, Robert sings "Kissing an Arab" and "Loving an Arab" instead of "Killing an Arab"…
The concert ends after more than three hours… UNREPEATABLE!
Loading comments slowly
