| san diego prayer 12/09/1989 |
| plainsong pictures of you closedown piggy in the mirror a night like this just like heaven last dance fascination street lovesong charlotte sometimes sound change the walk a forest inbetween days the same deep water as you prayers for rain disintegration lullaby close to me let's go to bed why can't i be you? medley homesick flaw/see review (!) untitled a strange day hot hot hot!!! three imaginary boys boys don't cry some sound changes 10.15 saturday night killing an arab |
| the cure plays san diego during the prayer tour... this is a good recording--nothing spectacular, but very listenable--which is the most important thing really...it's not a radio broadcast/soundboard quality recording, but the mix of instruments/vocals is good. everything is pretty clean, and even though the sound lacks some punch and depth...this is still very good. and the show begins w/"plainsong," "pictures of you" and "closedown." all are good, "plainsong" is fine..."pictures of you" is really good, robert puts a few lines from one verse into another, but recovers nicely...and "closedown" sets a good mood very nicely. "piggy in the mirror" follows the "disintegration" based opening, it's pretty sharp tonight...crisp and sharp. "a night like this" comes next--and then the first real single of the night, "just like heaven." both are well-received, and you can really hear the crowd during the instrumental parts of "just like heaven," very cool. robert is pretty talkative, for most songs giving the name of each song before they play it, and what album it's on...the next three are "disintegration" songs, starting w/"last dance" which always leads into "fascination street." "last dance" is very good, and "fascination street" is always good--no exceptions here. a mid-set performance of "lovesong" comes next...pretty gentle and quiet for a larger venue...nice... the sound quality changes just a bit before "charlotte sometimes," losing some of the higher end kinda...not a real recording killer, but noticeable...the sound doesn't go back and forth, but stays good and listenable. |
| "charlotte sometimes" and "the walk" are both very good performances..."the walk" seems especially kicky and full of energy, very clean pop performance! the cure then goes (excellent song to song movement) into "a forest." while it's not the most amazing or special (or even fucked up!) performance, it's strong and has some nice guitar work in it..."a forest" is like "fascination street" in that almost every performance is a keeper. a good "inbetween days" follows... the show grows darker from there, w/"the same deep water as you," prayers for rain" and "disintegration" ending the set w/a storm..."the same deep water as you" is kinda sleepy, but ok...much more striking is the pounding version of "prayers for rain" w/hard drums. "disintegration" starts w/robert making noisy guitar stuff, and then boris drumming but no bass part for a phrase or so...then simon jumps into the mix and things get going. despite some strange little miscues (besides robert's lyrics, roger misses a line or two...) the momentum of the driving drums/bass plus robert's excellent vocal towards the end makes this quite good. the first encore, "lullaby," starts things off the same way that they ended...w/funny little miscues! i'm pretty sure simon doesn't come right in at the start like normal...and robert kinda messes around w/the six-string bass lines as well! still good though..."close to me" and "let's go to bed" are fun singles, but things really go pop w/"why can't i be you?" lyrics from "witchcraft," "young at heart," "everybody wants to be a cat" and then eventually "the lovecats" as well...all very good, a good performance. performances of "homesick" and "untitled" follow, making for a complete performance of the "disintegration" album...the long instrumental intro of "homesick" is interrupted by a girl asking "are you bobby's friend?" very loudly...she had to have been asking the person taping the show cause it sounds like she's talking into the mike!! strange...the band is good, robert especially w/strong vocals. "untitled" is a highlight, w/good work from everyone and excellent (excellent!!) six-string bass work during the long extended ending...robert plays some wonderful melodic lines. another encore brings "a strange day" (sounds fresh, really good) and "hot hot hot!!!" (good fun single w/a good performance) before a very cure ending of "three imaginary boys," "boys don't cry," "10.15 saturday night" and "killing an arab." "boys don't cry" has some sound change back and forth--not awful, but very noticeable--it sounds like a tape switch, with some adjustments perhaps. it gets settled for the rest of the encore...and both "10.15 saturday night" and "killing an arab" are strong--even though robert totally plays the intro guitars on "killing an arab" all wrong!! it sounds like he started playing it (don't think it was intentionally done) on the wrong frets and then totally lost it, probably smiling and laughing at himself the whole time...totally warped... all in all, another excellent prayer tour performance!! and captured pretty nicely here, not perfect but a great addition to any collection--a recommended recording, especially for prayer tour fans--good stuff. |