Info:
A Forest

Line up:
Robert Smith- guitar, vocals
Simon Gallup- bass
Perry Bamonte- guitar
Jason Cooper- drums
Roger O'Donnell- keyboards

Reviews:

• POSTED TO DESCENT:
  My husband and I just arrived home in Boston after a tumultuous journey to NYC to see the Cure.

  After a near 5-hour journey plagued with car troubles, my husband and I arrived safely at our hotel. We checked in, showered, and headed to the Roseland Ballroom. We arrived a little before 6 p.m. only to find that the line for the venue extended a block and a half. We got in line and waited patiently for show time. While in line, scalpers ran up and down the line asking to buy extra tickets “2 for $120” only to sell them later for $200 each. Another man chanted a Jesus mantra. Fellow Cure fans snuggled together and drank coffee trying to fend off the extremely harsh wind. My husband and I were fortunate to meet some nice people in line who made the time pass more quickly. Two girls in front of us had won tickets to see the Cure through a radio promotion. The couple behind us were “good sports” as they were both fighting off the flu. At one point, a security guard asked the crowd to move back 50 feet so that we would not be blocking the entrance to Miss Saigon. You can imagine how excited everyone was to comply with his wishes. We all wanted to move closer to doors of the venue, not further away. Needless to say, we adhered to his directions.

  Around 7:15 p.m., we were allowed to move up. We were stopped at different segments by security guards. It was like a game. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. The closer we got to the venue, the more we were teased. “Stop here, please.” Finally, my husband and I made it inside and out of the cold around 7:45 p.m.

  My husband and I got a place in front of the stage halfway between Robert and Roger. We were approximately 4 “rows” back. (You can never accurately count rows in a general admission concert.) There was a very nice man, though extremely tall, in front of us. He was the tallest man at the concert, easily 7 feet tall. I was able to see around him well enough. He let a few girls go in front of him, even. During Out of this World, one girl in back of him jumped on his back. When she finally let go, she sobbed uncontrollably and complained embarrassingly about not being able to see. The man politely explained that he, too, had waited in line for several hours to get tickets and that he was justified to have his spot. I whole-heartedly agreed. Another couple who came in late, a tall waif blonde and a dorky man with dark-rimmed glasses, ran and pushed bodies aside to get a place in front of Robert. I was bothered by their obvious plan. They did achieve their objective, though. A few songs later, it was oddly comforting to see that the dark-rimmed dorkman received a taste of his own medicine when a drunk frat boy thrusted his way forward yelling “Robert, Robert, Robert.” A fight eventually broke out between the two of them. I grabbed my head as not to get hit by the flying fists. They both calmed down and achieved some kind of peace and co-existence. The dorkman was later seen throwing a CD on stage. Not the brightest move, by any means. The CD hit Simon’s bass and laid on the floor for the remainder of the concert.

  With all the commotion, I think I was distracted for a total of five songs. I had a hard time even getting the lyrics straight. Maybe Someday was one of the highlights of the evening. I was looking forward to the playful intonation Robert had in London…”Maybe Some Daaay,” but no luck. The favorite of the night for me was 39. He used such force in his voice when singing; “I used to feed the fire…” it was admittedly sexy. Robert, Roger, and Simon were all perfectly aligned for A Forest. It was probably the most precise performance of A Forest that I had ever seen. We all thought they were going to go into Forever as it looked like Perry was going to change guitars. That would have been amazing! Figurehead was remarkable. The drums were potent with the additional drum machine underneath.

  Overall, it was gratifying evening, though I think we are going to skip on Jones Beach concert this summer and travel to more tranquil venues in Boston and Toronto.

  In closing, I would like to say thank you to the kind, tall man. Through all the trouble he was given, he remained calm and reasonable. Through the nasty fight that ensued next to me, he was protective of all of us. He reaffirmed that there is hope for humanity.

• POSTED TO DESCENT:

  Re: Conan. Many of know that this is the second time they have appeared on Conan, having appeared in 96 when WMS came out. I remember the first time it was much like it was last night. Everytime Conan would say their name the cure fans in the audience went nuts last time. Well, Conan obviously remembered that. Last night when introducing who was gonna be on the show, he said, after introducing the girl from Sabrina and his guest from SNL, he said, and "I hope this gets some kind of response, The Cure." Of course the crowd went bonkers as Conan knew it would. Then later when talking about something else he again mentioned their name and it happened again and he cracked some joke about him having to stop saying their name, instead saying these people who produce sounds pleasing to the ear or something like that. It's basically become a running joke on his show (but I recall similar wild responses from the crowd during their Leno, Letterman, and SNL appearances in 96). His is the only show they have now been on twice though, as far as i know. Conan is the best when it comes to the big night shows. He seems to have more rapport with rock groups at least.

  In any event, the first guest is the girl who plays Sabrina on that vampire killer show, sorry forgot her name. So she comes out and apologizes to Conan, saying that she is really here to see The Cure not him, saying that she has been hearing "their new song" on the radio and found out they were gonna be on, and called the show to get audience tix, instead they asked her if she wanted to be a guest on the show.

  Re: the actual performance. I much preferred the light shows and the way they were filmed on Hard Rock Live and even Mad TV. However, Robert looked better in his bright red "dress" shirt, well it had buttons, looked like fake silk material or something out of his video for The 13th. Generally the band seemed tired probably from the Roseland show the night before. Someone else commented and I noticedt too that Bob doesn't move around on stage much anymore, don't know about a real concert, but having put on a few pounds he just doesn't strike me as motivated to bop around the stage much anymore. I would love to be proven wrong on that. I remember him climbing on top of the huge speakers in Cleveland in 96. (Maybe I'll have to wait till Mansfield, MA - he always goes crazy when he plays there.) The performance of Maybe Someday was slowed down it seemed to me. I much preferred the more electrified performance on Mad TV Saturday night.

  I believe most musical guests on Conan usually only do one song. Goes to show you how much Conan knows that his audience was there to see The Cure that at the end of the show he said "here's The Cure to play us out." With almost up to seven minutes left in the show! Now time on these shows is closely monitored so I was in total shock to see them be allowed to play "A Forest!!!! Total shock, pleasant though. I have never ever seen them play this song in such a forum, only live ad libbed versions in concert. So this was a rare treat. And it sounded good too.

  Robert sang all 21 Again's, and they almost were able to finish the song but not quite before the show ended. All in all, we all owe Conan a debt of thanks for allowing this. In fact i am gonna drop the show a thank you note via email. he could easily have not allowed them to do a second song at all.

  He's been becoming my favorite late night host as it was, this kind of thing just goes to reinforce that he's a good guy.

  Of course after this i couldn't sleep so i was watching the show that comes on after, I don't even know what it's called but the guest was the seemingly interesting English singer/songwriter Dido (anybody know if she is more than a Sineed O'Connor / Enya / McLachlin hybrid?) Anyway, as this show was going to commercial an instrumental portion of the album version of Maybe Someday was played.

  Finally, someone was asking about other tv appearances. As far as I know that was it for the US. They may have even gone back to England. If anybody knows differently I am sure they will let us know.

• POSTED TO DESCENT:
  Caught the show Tuesday night. Brilliant, as ALWAYS! I've still to this day not seen The Cure's '96 appearance on Conan O'Brien. I like to watch the WHOLE show just in case there's even just a blurb about The Cure, and of course there was. Mind you, it's not always easy to watch the whole thing seeing as the program can get quite stupid and boring. I'm speaking primarily of 'The Tonight Show' (Recall when The Cure were on in '98 and Leno commented that they looked "wasted", and Robert so modestly disregarded the remark). Fortunately, It wasn't difficult at all, this time round since they were on Conan (Thank Goodness! I thought) I used to watch Conan "religiously" every weeknight, but stopped for a while when I actually got more of a life (it's on TOO late, and alas... to miss such precious hours of sleep). Was a bit surprised to hear Melissa Joan Hart -Sabrina, The Teenage Witch (Really I don't watch that crap, I just happen to be good with names, and by chance if any of you do watch it, I'm sorry for the 'crap' remark); Anyhow, when she said that she was there for The Cure I immediately got a strange vibe, like "ah, yes, she may a fan". I sometimes get an eerie feeling about certain people I'm around, I can almost sense that they are into The Cure. I'm NOT talking like Telepathy or anything, just an intuition, if you will. Does anyone know what I mean? Well, moving right along, I loved Robert's attire and my mouth actually dropped to see him wearing a suit! Ah! just like the old days. I like to see him a suit every once in a while. And had anyone else noticed that he looked a bit taller? Not sure, may be it was his shoes. Anyone catch Robert fussing around a bit with the equipment? I thought that was interesting. I was, as well, astounded to hear them 'playing out the show' and the song actually being... what? not "Inbetween Days" but "A Forest"! I was very pleased. It was all amazing.

  No negative comments here! I am very kind to The Cure. I feel like they know what they are doing, who am I to judge? I'm not Brilliant like they are.