| edinburgh pictures 16/05/1981 |
| the holy hour in your house other voices 10.15 saturday night accuracy the funeral party m the drowning man all cats are grey three imaginary boys primary cut--starts w/second verse at night fire in cairo play for today grinding halt a forest great momentum/energy faith jumping someone else's train another journey by train boys don't cry i'm cold |
| the cure takes the picture tour to edinburgh... and a good recording w/this one. not brilliant soundboard, but good and solid...no recurring problems, with a nice mix of instruments and vocals--really good audience recording from 1981... the cure play well, opening w/"the holy hour" and "in your house." certainly not the pop "boys don't cry" version of the cure anymore, but a more somber and atmospheric group...and the mood is set from here on out. "other voices" continues to impress w/each different live version i find and review...each one has a good feel to it, and robert's guitars always sound interesting. "10.15 saturday night" is next, it gets everyone up (good version) and "accuracy" keeps them up. "the funeral party" comes next, w/sweeping synths and excellent overall feel--it's really cool to hear how the band worked w/only three members and still were brave enough to create such different sounds in a live setting..."m" comes after "the funeral party," and has some extra length towards the end...the outro lets robert do some good guitar stuff and play around a bit more...cool!! |
| the next song," the drowning man," is a lot like "the funeral party" in that they're both very "not pop" songs, and yet they still work in live performances..and actually work really well. the same holds true for a very very good "all cats are grey," which comes next--really good. "three imaginary boys" is good, and "primary" sounds great, but is unfortunately cut-off and starts inbetween the first and second verse--too bad, it's pretty driving and powerful. from there, the energy slowly gets ratcheted up w/each song, first "at night," then a power-pop blast of "fire in cairo" (cool!) and then a tight "play for today." all very energetic, all excellent--can't really describe how clean and right they all are--but it's good...then leading into another one, "grinding halt." from that momentum, the band goes into "a forest," which starts quietly enough w/the simple keyboard/synth notes...but also turns out to be very energetic and full of momentum, really excellent stuff...the cure at their early best, some nice performances!! the set proper ends w/"faith," and like the other songs before it, this turns out to be a good one--one of the better performances from the early-period cure, even w/out much extra stuff...no extra lyrics, no extra guitars...it's still solid. the cure comes back for slightly more upbeat encores...starting w/"jumping someone else's train" and immediately into "another journey by train." it's always cool, and this nite is no exception...it works beautifully. guitars seem to jump across from side to side in the mix, and robert is working hard =) they then play their most perfect early pop gem, "for jackie and christina" says robert, "boys don't cry." well done, and then followed by the early b-side, "i'm cold." although i wasn't that impressed at first listen, when i took the time to listen to this complete show/recording, i was really drawn in--it's very good w/atmosphere and the pacing of the show is great, the songs play off of other songs well and the band is in great form. the sounds isn't soundboard perfect, but it's a steady and true audience-sourced recording that really captures this night well...highly recommended listening from the picture tour, a great pick-up and very nearly a must have!! |