Another check off the bucket list: we finally saw The Cure perform this past Saturday night at the United Center in Chicago and while it’s practically criminal that it took me almost 40 years to see them since they became one of my favorite bands (first LP purchased: Head on the Door in the fall of ’85), I think it just might have been worth the wait. Getting tickets a couple of months ago was an adventure in itself: I registered on The Cure’s website as a “verified fan” and was approved (I would hope so!) in order to get a chance in the lottery *to buy tickets* (not actually get the tickets). I scored for my first choice of Chicago – though the date was not ideal as Saturday June 10th happened to land smack in the middle of my most challenging work weekend of the year (supervising final exam yoga classes almost non-stop from Friday night through Sunday evening). Tickets went on sale on a Wednesday morning so I took off of work in order to be at my computer – fortunately I know how to play Ticketmaster’s sick games so I got in the “waiting room” early – only a couple hundred folks in front of me – and was one of the first given access to tickets. WE GOT 9TH ROW! Here’s how close we were to the stage and a view that a friend of mine took from her seats for perspective:

 

 

The Cure sounded incredible – Robert Smith’s voice is still exactly the same (he claimed he was having an “off-night” vocals-wise but we certainly couldn’t tell). The set list was….outstanding. It’s too long to list here because, again, they played for 3 hours.

But my favorites and/or unexpected pleasures included: “Shake Dog Shake” (OMG one of the first Cure songs I think I ever heard, probably on the radio from an old King Biscuit Flour Hour concert recording from 1984), their 1981 single “Charlotte Sometimes,” “Push,” “A Night Like This” and “In Between Days” (from Head on the Door), the 1983 single “The Walk” plus a slew of their earliest songs including “A Forest” (from the 1980 LP Seventeen Seconds), “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Killing an Arab” (Smith sang “killing another” – for obvious reasons the original title did not age well) and, fittingly, the b-side to “Killing” which also appeared on their 1979 debut album Three Imaginary Boys: “10:15 Saturday Night.” (Note: they did not actually play it at 10:15 but rather as the second-to-last song at the end of their 2nd or 3rd encore – I lost track – which was closer to midnight). The video we shot of that song posted below!