04051981

the cure take the picture tour to london...

this is a good recording--not bad at all, pretty good stuff. the mix of instruments is good and solid, you can hear everything well most of the time (sometimes the bass is just a touch low)...the overall mix is a little low (so turn it up!) which adds just a touch of source noise, but not much. for 1981, this is still really good sound!

and the band is quite good, the more shows from 1981 i hear, the more i like what the picture tour must have been--good stuff. the overall feel seems to be really good most nights, and this one is no exception...the opening songs ("the holy hour" and "in your house") set the mood well, and are good.

"other voices" sounds good, robert makes all sorts of wonderfully strange sounds during the intro on guitar for this song each night...scratches and odd notes/sounds. "10.15 saturday night" follows and gets a good response from the crowd w/the intro chords...the following song "accuracy" gets a good reaction as well.

"the funeral party" is quite nice, as are most of these songs..."all cats are grey" seems to hang onto a very cool and misty greyish sound, it must have been very cool to see/hear live. the crowd shouts for "a forest" much too early on, but the band gives them another single instead, "primary." and a good propulsive performance too--it's strong and lean. "at night" is really strong too.

"play for today" is really hard, aggressive--no signature keyboard line due to the line-up of the band at the time (it's only simon, robert and laurence)...but it's quite hard and driven, and a blast thru "grinding halt" keeps things going, right into the introduction of "a forest." and it's a really good one too...no special additions, it's just really full of energy and real driving power...super!!

"faith"brings things back down and closes the set nicely...and they come back out to play "jumping someone else's train" backed righ away w/"another journey by train" all as one song. and then the night ends w/"killing an arab." the energy is great, just a blast...

this set is really good, i don't think it's a must-have, so close--but it's a really strong/highly recommended two-disc set. the performances are really super--if the sound were just a touch better, it would be more of a must-have, but even so, you would not be disappointed in this one--it's very good =)