REVIEW: The Cure are in good form, but they performed a tight program in Prague

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The Cure visited the Czechia this year as part of the current Lost World Tour 2022, which accompanies the new album entitled Songs Of A Lost World. However, there is a small complication associated with the album. It hasn’t worked out yet. Nevertheless, the band plays several songs from it at concerts that the audience does not know.

This is also partly the reason why the chain occasionally fell during the main part of the performance.

The new compositions are rather sound-painting walls at a slower tempo with repetitive minimalist motifs, which lack the ambition to lift anyone out of their chair, on the contrary, they encourage you to sit comfortably in it and let yourself be carried by the long-winded atmosphere.

Unfortunately, in the basis of the Prague setlist, they were not balanced by any more dynamic pieces. The faster tempo came only with the fourth track (A Night Like This), but then the band slowed down again and dragged it all the way to the depressing Cold from the Pornography album.

The bright moments in the middle part of the basic set were the song Shake Dog Shake, which returned the concert’s somewhat faded spark, or the hypnotic A Forest spinning around on four chords and ending with a staccato bass “solo”, which bassist Simon Gallup thoroughly enjoyed. Burn, Want and From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea brought the sharper guitar sounds that The Cure mainly used in the nineties.

In the first encore, in addition to one slow novelty, the audience was treated to two more songs from the album Disintegration, from which the most things were heard. The beautiful, but again slow Plainsong, which we are used to at The Cure at the beginning of concerts, and the eponymous Disintegration was played.

End full of hits. To be sure

The second encore was then a sweet reward for all those who like the faster and more cheerful part of The Cure’s work, and they lasted until this point. The final whirlwind of light hits seems to make up for the previous heavy two hours.

Spider Lullaby, 80’s The Walk, which was the first time I had the feeling that the band was doing really well, and of course the sloppy Friday I’m In Love. Close To Me, In Between Days and Just Like Heaven continued at a fast pace, and finally one of the band’s first singles, Boys Don’t Cry. The conclusion was simply pragmatically safe.

Photo: Milan Malíček, Law

The Cure played in Prague.

Even in the darkest and most gloomy moments of the performance, Smith’s absolutely precise vocals floated above the waters of suffering. Smith is not a typical trained singer, his technique is very strange and rather intuitive, very much related to the content of the lyrics and the emotions contained in them. And although he sometimes took it easy in the stanzas by singing them a fourth or fifth lower and sometimes improvised a lot, in crucial moments he was always able to vocally work like a young woman and convincingly and firmly give a statement about the miserable state of his torn soul.

The band’s second most prominent figure on stage in recent years is increasingly bassist Simon Gallup, who is the only one who enlivens the otherwise relatively static events on stage. With its damn low bass, it jumps, runs or kneels with it, but all the while it is 100% reliable and accurate.

On the other hand, the American guitar great Reeves Gabrels, who joined The Cure ten years ago after working with David Bowie, gives the impression that he doesn’t have much to play. In Prague, he came to life more significantly only during the solo in From The Edge…, but otherwise he seemed to be idling.

The charm of The Cure does not lie in virtuosity, and it is to Gabrels’s credit that (except for the completely unnecessary flaglets in Lovesong) he does not show off smugly.

Photo: Milan Malíček, Law

The Cure, the legend performed in Prague.

In addition to drummer Jason Cooper and keyboardist Roger O’Donnell, the line-up on the current tour is complemented by veteran guitarist and keyboardist Perry Bamonte, who seems to be holding back and dubbing his parts with the other band members.

The concert, the atmosphere of which was visually complemented by a tasteful, moderate and imaginative projection, did run out of breath in several moments, but never below the limit of tolerability. The Cure are such legends that they can even afford such experiments as overwhelming the listeners with an unknown and difficult to digest musical soundscape and then confidently leave the stage and look forward to applause for the encore. And their audience always cheers them on.

The article is in Czech

Tags: REVIEW Cure good form performed tight program Prague

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