| stockholm 03/10/1980 |
| the holy hour different lyrics recording flaw play for today three imaginary boys fire in cairo in your house 10.15 saturday night m slight recording flaw another day accuracy at night jumping someone else's train skip/flaw another journey by train skip/flaw a forest "we want abba" seventeen seconds different lyrics/extras primary "cold colours" working version killing an arab forever boys don't cry i'm cold grinding halt |
| the cure plays in stockholm in 1980... this is a kinda transitional time for the band, matthieu had just left and this show was before real sessions for the "faith" album to come in 1981. this recording is pretty good, not bad at all...some taping noise, but not overwhelming--good mix of instruments, even if robert's vocals start very low on the first song... and this is a cool one, the very first song is something not many had heard at the time...a working version of "the holy hour," w/totally different lyrics. not sure the lyric/phrase "the holy hour" even pops up, but the song structure is there and it's quite good. a slight gap/flaw of silence is in this song, but it's not too bad. pretty cool that they chose to open a show w/it. more familiar songs follow, a strong "play for today" (very sharp!) and "three imaginary boys." both are nicely done..."fire in cairo" goes over really well, the crowd sings the chorus parts w/robert and it sounds pretty good. then it's right into "in your house," which makes a good transition...and the mood/performance is cool. |
| "in your house" feels pretty good, a different sound than "fire in cairo." not quite so much pop, and not so forced...it feels like it's always been there. the next song is "10.15 saturday night," which gives the crowd (and the performance really) some energy...a really good version of "m" comes next--even though it's got a few little blips of silence, some slight flaws--it holds together well. good performance...then next is probably one of the last (if not the very last) live performances of "another day." it popped up often enough in early shows for the first two album/tours for "three imaginary boys" and "seventeen seconds," but not since...it's pretty solid--even if the crowd is a bit loud in parts. "accuracy" and "at night" are both good, but the next two are better..."jumping someone else's train" and "another journey by train." they give the show some real momentum, even w/a skip in both--they're kinda slight skips--but one skip in each one. they lead directly into a strong performance of "a forest," and the crowd is obviously getting rowdy...singing some extra stuff w/the song (!!) which sounds interesting. the band plays well, and the guitar work at the end always wins an audience over--it's good here, really strong. then something really strange happens when the song is over--the audience, at least a small handful of people--starts shouting "we want abba!! we want abba!!" for some reason...either to make robert/simon/laurence laugh, or to be extremely harsh--very strange and funny!! "seventeen seconds" ends the set, w/some different lyrics popping up in and around some familiar lines...this one actually turns out really well, a good performance of a great song--the feel/mood is grey... the cure returns to encore, starting w/a working version of "primary" (robert says "this is dedicated to everybody who's dead" for some reason) that sounds much more like the demo that's known as "cold colours" than the single/"faith" track "primary" that curefans know and love. it's pretty slow w/a groove instead of the driving beat of "primary." the lyrics aren't that close to either "primary" or "cold colours," the only recognizable lines are the middle ones...."oh, remember....oh please don't change." interesting but not spectacular....the boys leave again w/"killing an arab," an aggressive little blast to end this encore... after hearing the crowd chanting "'boys don't cry!!' 'boys don't cry!!'" the band comes out and plays...an interesting version of "forever." it's not overpowering or important, but an interesting listen--robert actually plays the little melodic guitar line from "boys don't cry" over the chords of "forever," and then a full performance of "boys don't cry" takes off. and as a little extra, the boys go right from that into a quick and sharp version of the early b-side, "i'm cold." excellent--then robert says "this is the final song, it's about england.....and everywhere else," as an introduction to "grinding halt." an interesting little recording...not spectacular sounds/not even a drop-dead good performance, but with early/working versions of "the holy hour" and "primary," this is probably a must have for many. a great little show to pick up thru trading, an excellent snapshot of a band in transition!! |