| montreal 13/11/1984 |
| intro shake dog shake m secrets the wailing wall primary cold the hanging garden charlotte sometimes play for today the walk let's go to bed one hundred years cut end a forest (missing) happy the man cut first half the caterpillar three imaginary boys boys don't cry 10.15 saturday night killing an arab |
| the cure plays in montreal late in 1984... and this is a pretty good little recording! like it a lot...a good mix of instruments, just a bit distorted volume but that's matched by a good punch to the sound...some recordings sound really clean but lack a punch, this one is good with some weight. and the band is playing well, boris is only a handful of shows into the mix--but he adds so much. the opening "shake dog shake" has a weight and some real pounding drums that andy never added in live shows... "m" is good and solid, clean performance--but "secrets" is even better seeing that it's not often found...and the piano (or actually synths/keyboards) sounds nice, very cool sounds mixed into the overall picture..."the wailing wall" is more atmospheric and colourful, and pretty nice. "primary" drives pretty hard and tight w/boris giving it a lot of forward momentum...and the whole band plays along w/added tight parts working together in time, the only flaw is that boris forgets the end and plays right thru it...kinda funny, but covered well. |
| the next song is "cold," played at a slower tempo than normal--but that doesn't hurt the performance. it's quite solid and feels heavy, but not plodding. the drums feel good and then feel even better w/"the hanging garden" that comes next--it's not the best version, but any recording w/boris is excellent and this is just as solid as they come--very good. "charlotte sometimes" is the first real single of the night, and it's well done..."play for today" comes next and is pretty good as well, but things get more exciting w/the more recent (then-recent) singles "the walk" and "let's go to bed." the band plays them both well, and the crowd is super responsive--good all round. the mood changes quickly w/a really strong "one hundred years," powered along by strong drums. the sounds all work together (live drums/bass/guitars) and make a good noisy racket...it's too bad that the recording suffers the only real flaw here...towards the end of "one hundred years," it gets cut off and most likely this is due to a tape change. i'm about 99% sure that "a forest" closed the first real set (it's in almost every show, especially the earlier/middle era shows), and that too was lost because the recording doesn't catch up until about half-way thru an encore performance of "happy the man." "the caterpillar" is complete, and it's a good one--robert says a quick goodnight, but then the cure comes back out for "three imaginary boys" (very grey and cool sounds) and then "boys don't cry" (well done and a crowd favorite)...after another quick break, the cure ends the night w/powerful versions of "10.15 saturday night" and "killing an arab," both are powerful--and "killing an arab" is jumping with aggressive energy, really thumping drums and strong vocals from robert--good ending. this is a strong recording, unfortunately incomplete w/a few cut off parts...but a good pick-up just the same. the 1984 tour supporting "the top" has been documented better w/must have shows like "the cure in tokyo" and "cold," so this one doesn't quite reach that level--but this is good and worthwhile. |