Customer Reviews

Concert: Cure Live

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After recording 'The Top' The Cure went touring and as a result you can listen to this album. It does not have as many songs as 'Show' or 'Paris', but this album really shows what The Cure can be like when they play live, even better so than the other live albums. The sound is fresh, almost untouched and the poor editing between songs is so cute you can't help but smile every now and then. As far as the tracks go, I don't think there is a better version of 'Charlotte Sometimes' available on record. The other songs span their career at that time and gives a good impression of their skills. From pop till doom, it is there... And, without any pretence!

For years this CD was near-impossible to find (I listened to my old vinyl version way longer than I should have). BUt now that it is available, get it! The thing that blows me away about this album is how, despite the fact that the Cure had already started down the long, dull road of studio overproduction, synthesizers, horns, mood music, and all of the strange sounds that to me make their 1990s material so flat and dull and whiny, even as late as 1984 on stage they were able to transform the songs into brilliant stripped-down performances with just guitar, bass, drums, and maybe an occasional synthesizer on stage. "The Top" was not exactly one of Cure's better albums, and yet even the tracks from that album are transformed on stage.

The Cure started off as a British late 1970s rock band and as late as 1984 on stage at least they still preserved that sound. My personal favorite is "The Forest." the studio version of that track will forever strike you as flat, shallow, and uninspiring once you here the incredible 7 minute performance Smith et. al. give here. This is one of the greatest Cure records of all. Anyone who likes the early Cure should buy this before buying any other Cure records. This is the one.

The Cure puts just as much effort into their live performances, as they do studio albums. The version of 'A Forest' far surpasses the studio version, and 'Killing An Arab' has more grit and raw energy put into it than the original. Not a clunker on here, as every song is great. The editing is poor in between tracks, but that doesn't affect the quality of the album. It is a great buy, and I suggest buying it online because it is much cheaper on here than a record store, where I bought it at :(

For those of us who never got to see the Cure in the early years (in fandom, pre-'86), this is a pretty decent consolation prize. The songs chosen for this live compilation are wonderful, and the performance is incredible. This album is a true, and often-forgotten, Cure classic. In fact, it's a must-own for any fan of early Cure.

These songs taken from 4 different shows in May of '84 show off the Cure with a terrific line-up that wasn't around for too long (even by Cure standards). M.V.P. Robert Smith is in fine form and his guitar is often massive, sometimes employing an effect that makes it sound like a jet taking off. Drummer Andy Anderson favors heavy-hitting beats and keeps everything very uptempo. Founding member Lol Tolhurst's role on keyboards, questionable as always, seems to be largely relegated to elongated notes, although they are often useful and effective. Multi-instrumentalist Porl Thompson rejoins the fold here, a super-talented guy who would go on to spend many years with the Cure. Abandoning his previous role as a control room wizard, Phil Thornally capably rounds out the quintet on bass.

The breakdown:

"Shake Dog Shake" - Taken from an Oxford, England show. This version substitutes the churning swirl of the dense album cut for a more tightly wound kind of menace. A sick song, but the definitive take remains on THE TOP. Of course, Smith can't duplicate all his trippy vocal overdubs in concert (which, by the way, are brilliantly applied all over THE TOP - see my review, if you so choose). Instead, he stutters and spits them out which compliments the song's deranged air. ****1/2

"Primary" - A lesser Cure song in my view, because it sounds almost like an ordinary pop song and the Cure are capable of much more than that. Still, this is a fun version with "jet-taking-off" guitar flying all over the place. ***1/2

"Charlotte Sometimes" - good version dominated by keyboards and a great bass line. ****

"The Hanging Garden" - killer version - intense beat from Andy gives it a more dangerous edge. Notes are frantically scattered to keep up the pace and a heady climax is reached "as the animals die," then Smith's Japanese guitar weaves back and forth across the auditorium. *****

"Give Me It" - Talk about frantic - this one is off the hook. I might prefer this version to the one on THE TOP. Porl lays down the definitive sax part for the song on this take. *****

"The Walk" - Brilliant live translation of this synth-manufactured oddity, thanks in large measure to Thornalley's skillful interpretation on bass. Longstanding member Simon Gallup would soon refill the bass shoes, though. ****1/2

"One Hundred Years" - a great live song, this is a classic slab of doom n' gloom grilled to perfection with Smith's hovering, harrowing guitar - "thrashing in the water, thrashing in the water . . ." *****

A larger London crowd greets the opening chords of "A Forest" (complete with its lovely intro) with a rabid roar. This is the Cure's signature song. A testament to the power of minimalist rock, it solidly rocks here. While this is a very good version, I saw them on the KISS ME tour and they hit a truly heart-stopping climax (right when Smith got to that last "again!"). *****

"10:15 Saturday Night" - This is a totally wired version, a different beast from the original studio recording and altogether heavier. It rocks hard and fluidly even during the hushed ("drip drip drip") moments. The band sounds like they've blasted through this song hundreds of times, yet it still sounds fresh. *****

"Killing an Arab" - Great version of this cool Japanese/Middle Eastern flavored tune. Not actually racist, it's a tongue in cheek nod to The Stranger, a short novel by Albert Camus. The song is a riot. For the finale, Smith warps his guitar into the fourth demension, pulls everything through a wormhole, and the CD abruptly ends. *****

All kinds of people would dig this, but it's an absolute must for Cure fans!

I ignore to what degree "Concert" is really a live recording or a mixing deck product but it certainly sets the kind of dark, echoed atmosphere that plenty of bands have looked for and never quite achieved from Bauhaus to Nine Inch Nails. As one of the above reviewers mentioned not only "A Forest" but all of the songs here reach depths that could not be reached in their original albums. If you are curious enough to find this record I am sure that you have heard all the songs already. My personal favorites are the opener "Shake dog shake" because it gets you immediately in the mood. "The Hanging garden" and "100 years" achieve the impossible by sounding even darker than the Pornography originals. "The walk" is a less poppy stronger rendition and of course "A Forest" and "10:15" are given a new flesh and both sound fantastic in this more robust version. In a perverse way the Cure were a great live band. One could stare for hours at those pale figures making all those beautiful noises. Then they became stars and things changed a lot for them but Concert captured them at their darkest most beautiful moment of their careers.

For those that associate Cure live shows with limp, if faithful, reads of their later synth-heavy stuff, this disc should open your eyes. They play the hell out of these songs; and, this album really shows that underneath all the production on their studio stuff is a band made of rock-n-roll fans. This album is also great because it makes a compelling case for the quality of the album THE TOP (which is the tour from which this disc comes). They totally sell that material on this, and show why stuff like Give Me It and Shake Dog Shake are A-list early Cure material.

THIS IS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN FOR ME, AT 16 IN 1984, WHEN THIS WAS RELEASED. I WAS SEARCHING FOR NEW MUSIC, STUMBLED UPON THE CASSETTE VERSION ( MORE ABOUT THAT LATER ) OF "CONCERT" AND PLAYED IT TIL THE TAPE LITERALLY HISSED. COMPARING THE VERSIONS OF THE SONGS ON THIS CD TO THE STUDIO VERSIONS IS OFTEN LIKE NIGHT AND DAY. WHAT IS OFTEN MECHANICAL AND HEAVY SOUNDING ON RECORD, IS HERE ROLLICKING, AND YES, GROOVY, AT TIMES. TAKE FOR INSTANCE "CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES". THE ORIGINAL VERSION WAS SLOWER, PLODDING, FULL OF ANGST AND JUST A LITTLE TOO SERIOUS. THE LIVE VERSION HERE MAKES THE SONG AN ALMOST JOYOUS POP OCCASION. AND NO, THAT ISN'T AN ENTIRELY BAD THING. THE BAND HERE IS TOP NOTCH, AND STRIP THE SONGS DOWN TO THEIR BASICS. THE CURE HAD FINALLY GOTTEN A COMPETANT DRUMMER (POOR LOL JUST DIDN'T HAVE ONSTAGE "CHOPS" ) IN ANDY AnDERSON, AND HE IS LIKE THUNDER BEHIND THE KIT. ALL THE SONGS ( ESPECIALLY THE ONES THAT HAD USED WHAT SOUNDS LIKE A DRUM MACHINE ON RECORDS ) BENIFIT GREATLY FROM HIS SKILLS. MY ONE AND ONLY COMPLAINT ABOUT THIS CD IS THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE MADE IT LONGER, BY THE INCLUSION OF THE ORIGINAL CASSETTE B-SDE CALLED "CURIOUSITY". FOR THE UNINITIATED, IT IS A COLLECTION OF THE CURE'S VERY EARLY, SOMETIMES MORE ESOTERIC MATERIAL, ALL OF IT LIVE, TAKEN FROM ROBERT SMITH'S PERSONAL TAPE COLLECTION. OVER THE YEARS, I HAVE BEEN FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO FIND MOST OF IT ON THE INTERNET. BUT AN OFFICIAL RELEASE ON CD WOULD MAKE THIS "CONCERT" WHOLE, AT LEAST FOR ME.

I was reading the reviews on this & I think that the reviewers are listening to a different album.

This lp was made to look & sound like a bootleg & althought the track listing is mouth-watering, the actual recording is dull as ditch-water.

I have heard amateur bootleg recordings that blow this LP away completely.

The Cure are one of my favourite bands & will do almost anything to get to see them live, as I think this is when they are at their best, but this LP is a huge letdown & not a good advert for the Cure in concert.

Sorry folks, but there it is :o(