Playing their largest Welsh gig to 35,000 on the hottest day of the year saw THE CURE defy the conditions to emerge ever triumphant.
A penny for the thoughts of Robert Smith as he stepped out on the stage at the veritable furnace of Blackweir Fields. Black-clad, obviously, eye-liner, lipstick and trademark hair present and correct, the leader of THE CURE over the best part of five decades assesses the situation with visits to the walkways under the monster screens that flank the stage as his bandmates launch into ‘Plainsong’ before with a wry smile taking up the microphone centre stage and that distinctively ageless voice fills the Cardiff evening to the ecstasy of the thousands gathered across the broad expense next to the River Taff.
It’s apt for a Welsh gig, that proceedings get kicked off earlier by Welsh trio THE JOY FORMIDABLE. Despite stage time only 20 minutes after gates opening, they’re game to entertain the ever-growing crowd gathering in the shade of the large stage with opener ‘The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie’ showcasing their anthemic sound led by singer/guitarist Ritzy Bryan, an explosive high kicking lead flanked by a thunderous rhythm section. They have the sound for the large space and confidently dispatch a six song set with aplomb and closer ‘The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade’ comes around far too soon.
Joining them as support are Celtic cousins THE TWILIGHT SAD. Let’s cut to the chase. RESOUND are big fans, Robert Smith is a big fan, and you really should be a big fan. With one of the albums of the year under their belt, the four piece are long standing tourmates of the headliners and as such are amongst friends. Singer James Graham is a hypnotic presence in contrast to the static but noisy presence of band mate Andy MacFarlane to his right. Opening with ‘Dead Flowers’, it’s a song that shares DNA with the headliners and any newcomers to them will have been lured in. As with the openers, their time passes in the blink and their eight song set flies by with closer ‘Waiting for the Phone Call’ leaves Graham kneeling centre stage looking out into the crowd with a smile the Cheshire Cat would be proud of.
What makes a “National Treasure”? One senses it’s not a mantle the Robert Smith and his bandmates would appreciate in a hurry. But the audience filling Blackweir Fields makes a strong case that it’s one THE CURE should accept. For all the old-timer Goths who may have been with the band since the 1980s or 1990s, there are teenagers attending with parents or grandparents, and it’s clear that THE CURE are a big pull across a broad spectrum. With fourteen studio albums, over 40 singles and 30 millions records sold worldwide, maybe not a surprise, but that Robert Smith has done all this on his terms is a minor miracle.
Having such a back catalogue under in their back pockets, the band are well known for the length of their sets and taking to the stage just after 8pm indicates this won’t be an exception. Rumours of sixty songs rehearsed offer the chance to mix things up and it’s one the band seem to be relishing. For every hit single such as the eternally beautiful ‘Lovesong’, the cobwebs get blown off a lesser know cut such as ‘Treasure’ from 1996’s ‘Wild Mood Swings’, getting it’s first live outing since 2013. Whilst keeping interest for the band and the legions of hardcore fans who will follow from gig to gig, care is taken in curating the setlist to ensure something more familiar is never too far away for the more casual fan. If there is a surprise, its that most recent album, the excellent ‘Songs of a Lost World’, fails to make an appearance in its entirety. A slight shame that.
With a first act of eighteen songs drawing heavily on the ‘Disintegration’ and ‘Wish’ albums concluded, the stage is set now that darkness has fallen for Smith, flanked by long-standing lieutenant Simon Gallup on bass and Reeves Gabrels on guitars, along with Jason Cooper on drums and Roger O’Donnell on keyboards assisted by Eden Gallup taking up the place of the much missed multi-instrumentalist Perry Bamonte, to take things up a notch.
The ten song second act showcases Smith’s songwriting artistry and highlights how strong THE CURE canon is: ‘Lullaby’, an apt ‘Hot Hot Hot’, ‘The Walk’, ‘The Lovecats’, songs all that will have soundtracked the teenage years and beyond of many a young person in the 1980s and 1990s, through first loves, break-ups and the many twists and turns that life takes us on. And of course, the inevitable ‘Friday I’m in Love’ that brings out thousands of Welsh voices to carry the lyrics across the sweltering city and into the open windows of the nearby streets. And it really doesn’t ever get much better than that.
THE CURE play festival dates in the UK and Europe throughout the summer including Manchester and Edinburgh in August.
Words and pictures: Geoff Shaw https://www.instagram.com/gsmusicphotos/