THE CURE @ WEMBLEY ARENA 20/03/08

THE CURE

If I had to make a list of favourite bands The Cure would be amongst it. If I had to make a list of potential songs that I'd like to cover if I were in a band my hardest decision would be which Cure song to cover or whether to even attempt one in the first place. They are, in my eyes, one of the most important bands to have ever existed and, despite their many changes in line-up, are still one of the only bands I'd have been unhappy to die without seeing. There are amost no reasons at all for me to be willing to part with around £45 to spend the night in Wembley Arena, but The Cure are reason enough to do so. But it was a little more than even I expected and not entirely in a positive way.

I was hoping for a long set, maybe twenty or twenty-five songs; enough to play the majority of the hits to please the likes of me, maybe a couple of album tracks to please the completists and then a few new ones to please the band. But with the band taking to the stage at eight o'clock, I figured that we were either set for an early curfew or an epic set. Seeing that the band ended up playing three encores, forty-one songs and played for at least forty minutes over the curfew, I'd say that it could only be described as epic. For me though, a dedicated and yet casual fan who has never had the time to listen to all of their many albums but has played no album more than their Greatest Hits, it felt a little more like an endurance test by the end. At 11:20 and after thirty-seven songs I did something that I never thought possible at a Cure gig and something I haven't done in years now, I left early with bruised feet and aching calves.

It was impossible for this to be a bad show for me though. If I had written this directly after the gig then I might not have ended this review now and not added this slightly positive ending but retrospect is a wonderful thing. Lacking a brass section and with Wembley working it's cavernous, echo-heavy magic, they sometimes sounded a little empty and lacking, but when they played the songs that I knew, I was so happy I could scream (to quote the band). The backdrop was suitably sparse and the lighting managed to be subtly perfect, and at times this felt like ones of those gigs littered with inspiring, life affirming moments. But then at close to four hours long, I guess they owe you some.