cureconcerts.com

Here are some personal comments about the shows I saw.  At least the parts I remember.   To be honest, sometimes I just loose myself at these shows.  I think it's better that way.  So this is more of a personal journal rather than a review of shows...

1984

24 October 1984
Kabuki Nightclub, San Francisco California

Ah, my first time.  The Kabuki was a great place to see a show.  This was back in the days when a minor could buy drinks at a club.  Vodka tonics seemed to be the drink of choice that night. A weird opening act though.  The first act  I believe was a band called The Muskrats.  They sucked.  One of the guys played a washboard.  My Sin was a one man solo act that followed.  This was a lot more dark and better suited to be a Cure opening act.  But I found him to be a bit sterile, just a droning voice with a drum machine.  And then The Cure.  I really don't remember a lot of details of this show, as I wasn't at all familiar with their live shows having only heard the studio albums at this point.  My friend Caroline noticed that it wasn't Andy on the drums.  [She might be heard on some recordings yelling "Where's Andy? Where's Andy?"]   So this was the first or second show that had Boris on drums after Andy lost it in Japan.  I remember being truly amazed at two things:  Robert's guitar playing on A Forest, and the final song of the night that no one had ever heard before.  (It wasn't until a month later when I managed to acquire the import-only cassette version of Concert that I discovered the song was called Forever.)   There was a second show the following night.  But at the time the thought of seeing the same band two nights in a row just never occurred  to me.  That attitude would change in time.  [ In retrospect, it is unfortunate that I picked the Wednesday night show over the Thursday night show, since the next night's set was considerably longer.  C'est la vie. ]  

1985 The Head Tour

11 October 1985
SDSU Open-Air Theatre, San Diego California

12 November 1985
Irvine Amphitheater, Irvine California

[ticket missing]

1986 Beach Party Tour

26 July 1986
Greek Theatre, Berkeley California

We knew the band had stayed at the Miyako Hotel in the past, so we booked a room there.  But no Cure was to be found there tonight, as they went straight to the airport to catch a plane to LA.  We did see that red-headed guy from Simply Red in the lobby, and we drank a bit more and tossed paper airplanes from the balcony.  

27th July 1986
The Forum, Los Angeles California

After the then long drive down from SF to LA, we were ready for another show.  We managed to get 22nd row center without any difficulty whatsoever.  Shortly prior to the show our festivities were interrupted by a commotion about 10 rows behind us.  People were screaming and the folding chairs were getting pushed aside.  Some idiot was standing on a chair with a large knife poking his chest with it.  I never heard a word he said, but he was just pricking himself with the knife and yelling.  Security staff arrived shortly and took him away.  Later,  I had heard that he was yelling that he was going to kill himself.  So that put a strange buzz in the air prior to this show.  The other thing I remember from this show, although it could be a totally false memory, it that they ended with Lovecats.  Highly unusual.  Unfortunately there are no known recordings of this show that would corroborate my memory.  In the days that followed it was rumored that the idiot with the knife did in fact stab him seriously and died.  That was just a rumor.  He was hospitalized, but he lived.  The newspapers said he was despondent after his girlfriend broke up with him.

1987 Kiss Me Tour

This was a memorable tour for me.  No more one or two shows this time.  Have car, will travel. The Kiss Me album was my favorite since The Top and I wanted to see as many shows as I could.

12 July 1987
Oakland Arena, Oakland California

Waiting for the show to start, the lights dim, and we all know it is about to begin.  But no, a screen begins to descend from above the curtain hiding the stage.  First: a film.

[ write something about the film here]

After the film there was a slight pause, and then BAM!, the lights go dark, the curtain drops (yes, drops from the top down to the floor) and the opening chords of the The Kiss hit us right in the head.  This was an incredibly powerful opening that I feel has never been equaled.

13 July 1987
Santa Barbara County Bowl, Santa Barbara California

Unfortunately for those who only saw this show, it was still light out when the show began in this open-air amphitheatre nestled in the hills above Santa Barbara.  The film lost its vibrancy.  A memorable moment was during Hot Hot Hot when people in the front section took the cushions off their seats and started tossing them up in the air.

After the show we hung out for quite a while, making cocktails from the "bar" in the trunk of the car.  I had a very good time watching the crew disassemble everything from the stage rigging and put it in very specific containers that would later get rolled into a truck.  My traveling partners Caroline and Charlene managed to meet some of the crew as they were finishing up and we were invited into the crew bus to hear a recording of the concert.  (It was recorded for later radio broadcast.)  We met Bruno, LLarry (two Ls, like LLama he said) Tom and Mac.  Charlene traveled on the bus with them towards LA as Caroline and I followed at 80mph.  But then again, it was 3 in the morning and no one was on the road.

14 & 15 July 1987
The Forum, Los Angeles California

The crew bus led us to the parking lot of the Forum.  And there it sat.  Charlene didn't emerge.  So there we slept.  An uncomfortable night in the car.  At some point Charlene came out and there was some discussion that as a cost saving measure, the crew would not be checking into their hotel until later that afternoon once the stage had been set up.  And so we did the same.  This was the famous (infamous?) Hyatt on Sunset.  After the concert we all met in the bar and drank.  And then met in rooms and drank more.  Long Island ice teas.  One crew member, who shall remain nameless, drank a wee bit much and passed out on the floor of his bathroom.  We tried to get him to bed but failed.  We covered him with a blanket, and left a "get well" note.

For some reason (hangover?) Charlene thought she would sit this concert out.  She didn't have any more money to buy a ticket.  I thought that was crazy and I would loan her some money to buy a ticket.  As it happened, someone called me over to the gate as I was wandering around and offered me a pair of free tickets.  They had already gone inside the ticket checkpoint  and realized they had an extra pair.  I pulled Charlene out of the car and made her go see the show!

At this point I was feeling a bit "rock star".  I had the hotel key hanging from a chain around my neck.  One of those big obvious hotel keys.  One girl saw the key, pulled it away from my neck and asked, "so where are WE staying tonight?"  And in the middle of the show, the girl that was standing next to me just grabbed me and started kissing me and telling me how much she loved me.  Was it me?  Was it The Cure? I don't know, but it made me feel GOOD.

The next day I left Caroline and Charlene to fend for themselves.  They weren't going to any more of the shows, and I was going to meet up with a girl I met at college the previous semester.

17 July 1987
San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego California

Robin didn't want to go down to see the San Diego show, so I was on my own for this one.  The set lists for these shows were all basically the same, with Hey You or 1000 Hours added in occasionally, so it is difficult to comment about specific performances.

18 July 1987
Mesa Amphitheater, Mesa Arizona

Robin and I left the LA area somewhat early this morning en route to Arizona.  I had heard back in LA where the band and crew were staying, so that is where we were heading.  It seemed to take forever.  And it was hot in the desert and my car didn't have air conditioning.   We arrived at the hotel around 5pm.  We had no reservations, and no idea what it would cost.  There was indeed a room, since the summer is the "low season" and there was a special rate of only $35 per night!  I was amazed.  I then asked the receptionist if she knew how to get to the Mesa Amphitheatre.  She pointed to a set of double-doors and said "through those doors and past the tennis courts."  Incredible!  The amphitheater was nothing more than a knoll of grass and a band shell.  I was beat after the long drive and a week of traveling and late nights.  We attempted to rest before the show.  But I couldn't.  I was too amped about this show.  Once again the show began with the sun still shining, so the film was lost.  I don't know if they even showed the film this time, but they did play the soundtrack.  There was a "moat" or small pond between the stage and the audience.  During Hot Hot Hot, some people jumped in and started splashing around.  It was great.  After the show, the hotel was a mad house.  There were drunk kids running around in the halls etc.  Rumor had it that the band changed hotels.  I believe it.  I was really tired at this point, and Robin and I had a 16 hour drive the next day to go water skiing with her family up in Northern California.  I was singing If Only Tonight to myself for weeks afterwards...

more to come...

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