| ann arbor 10/11/1984 |
| shake dog shake m secrets the wailing wall primary cold the hanging garden charlotte sometimes the walk one hundred years play for today let's go to bed give me it a forest happy the man the caterpillar three imaginary boys boys don't cry 10.15 saturday night killing an arab forever lines later used in "screw" |
| the cure plays ann arbor michigan during the 1984 tour supporting "the top." and this is a good recording of the show =) not soundboard perfect, but a good audience...w/a noticeable amount of tape noise/static white noise, but still pretty good. very listenable and enjoyable--it's a bit like listening to a tape of a tape, still well worth having and picking up. the boys kick things off w/"shake dog shake," w/boris having just joined the tour only recently (this is actually his third real show w/the cure after minneapolis and chicago 07/11 and 09/11 respectively)...it sounds good and pounding. it seems like he immediately added some weight and depth to the band, even on the earliest shows. "m" and "secrets" are both good as well. "the wailing wall" comes next, this one swims w/interesting sounds during live shows...excellent stuff. then comes "primary," a driving--hard performance--thanks no doubt to the power of boris' drumming! it's starting to feel like 1985 and 1986 already... two "pornography" songs follow, first "cold," and then "the hanging garden." "cold" is slower than normal, and the keyboards aren't quite right when they come in--wrong volume or wrong sound setting...but they eventually fix things up. |
| "the hanging garden" fares much better, and boris makes this one really go--excellent drums!! even w/out the help of the "ten imaginary years" book for dates/information, you can tell it's boris behind the drums on this version of "the hanging garden," nonstop and powerful. "charlotte sometimes" next...good and well-played. then comes "the walk," with more excellent drums--good fun single/good fun performance too. "one hundred years" is great here, it sounds a bit thin at the start but grows--soon it feels just like "in orange," with good solid drums and robert's skittering guitar lines--even the ending stuff is starting to take shape in ways that would later appear in 1985 and 1986 performances. good one. "play for today" is ok, nothing special to make notes about...then "let's go to bed" comes around, it's ok too--but doesn't quite feel just right yet...not bad though. a noisy performance of "give me it" is good--squealing sax parts and all--cool, leading directly into "a forest," with a nice transition from a kind of manic sound to the subdued moods of "a forest." the really good versions of "a forest" start w/1984 early performances w/boris, continuing on thru 1985/86/87 shows and into prayer tour shows of 1989. excellent stuff--untouchable performances on some nights!! this one is good, some familiar parts are in the mix/good long ending...but really just a hint of where the cure would be going, and what they would become over the next five years... encores start w/"happy the man," the b-side from "the caterpillar" single that popped up in a number of 1984 shows--cool--then they play the a-side, "the caterpillar," complete w/robert's squeaky violin...good fun from start to finish. "three imaginary boys" and "boys don't cry" follow, w/the first being more grey and moody, the last being a perfect pop single...good performances. "10.15 saturday night" and "killing an arab" are next, sounding very much like the cure of 1985/1986--complete w/a great mix of instruments and robert growing more confident w/his vocals...all more stable and powerful, thanks in large part to boris! after "killing an arab" ends and the chords still resonate, they start playing "forever." some of the lyrics (just a few of the first lines) are very similar to ideas that pop up on "the head on the door," in the song "screw." "the film on my eyes, oh i'll screw up my face, anything ways just to the taste of the taste in your mouth...the film on your eyes, and everything you make...she comes for fun..." the band starts slowly and then the steady drums come in, w/porl squealing on sax throughout...robert goes back and forth w/improvised lyrics all over the place, and boris continues to feel his way around and pound his way into the group =) as things get more and more noisy and manic, eventually crashing to an excellent end. this is a great pick up--great 1984 performance, good/listenable recording--from the cure. given that there are a few other must have recordings from the 1984 tour ("the cure live in japan" and "cold") this one doesn't quite match up...not an essential recording, but well worth having--a good enjoyable show. |