Podcast: The Cure live at the Troubador (12.13.2008)

Photo credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images for MySpace (Troubadour, 2008)

Music nerd that I am, I can’t help but obsess over and be excited by the Coachella 2009 lineup, relying as it does on so many luminaries, legends and heavyweights of rock’s history. As such, I’ve been delving backwards into my music collection, pulling out not just the classic records by this year’s headliners, but some of their more intriguing live bootlegs as well (like this Leonard Cohen boot from 1972; for other Coachella ’09 performers, check out these live shows by My Bloody Valentine, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Airborne Toxic Event to get a sense of what you’ll be in for this April). One such boot, new to my collection, is this herculean three-hour performance by The Cure at the Troubadour last December.

The band turns in a surprisingly loud, energetic and diamond-hard performance for a group over thirty years old—while the set begins on the quieter, more elegiac side, it grows increasingly noisy and powerful as the evening goes on, eventually turning in 31 songs and two encores in three hours to a fervent and hyperactive crowd. As stated by Randall Roberts in the L.A. Weekly:

“Smith was in a great mood, drinking Budweiser all night long (he rivals only Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices in brewski consumption), chatting with the crowd, doing little dances–and rocking the fuck out. Louder and harder than on record, the band brought their stadium show to a little club (Jason Cooper’s drums took up half the stage, Thompson and Smith’s effects pedals a big chunk of the rest, and bassist Simon Gallup bent and stomped at stage left), turned ballads into denials. The band transformed a renowned folk club into a sweaty punk bar.”

It’s a vital, dynamic performance by a legendary band, one that dips as easily into a collection of hits as it does a vast catalog of influential and obscure deep album tracks, and it’s a performance no Cure fan should miss. See you (and them) at Coachella. The mammoth set list is after the jump.

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The Cure live @ the Troubadour (12.13.08)

Underneath the Stars
Pictures of You Lullaby
The Perfect Boy
The Reasons Why
The Walk
The End of the World
Lovesong
Real Snow White
Hungry Ghost
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
The Only One
Wrong Number
Sleep When I’m Dead
Push
Friday I’m In Love
Inbetween Days
Just Like Heaven
Primary
The Scream
One Hundred Years
It’s Over

1st encore:
Freakshow
Let’s Go To Bed
Close To Me
Why Can’t I Be You?

2nd encore:
A Forest
Boys Don’t Cry
Jumping Someone Else’s Train
Grinding Halt
10:15 Saturday Night
Killing An Arab

February 27, 2009 | Filed Under Featured Media, Podcasts 

Comments

One Response to “Podcast: The Cure live at the Troubador (12.13.2008)”

  1. thevandalstookmyhandle on March 1st, 2009 9:12 am

    A great Post! Thank you! I have been a life long Cure fan. I have fond memories of digging thru the import singles in 1978 and 79 searching for the hard to find Cure singles. They went on to be a great band and really important to me and our generation. It identified you if you were a Cure fan in the late 70’s and 80’s.(90’s) I kinda lost my taste over the last couple records. Was I hoping to always have them be who they were way back when? Probably. But listening to this concert post shows how vital a live band they still are. A great set list spanning their entire career. I loved hearing the really early stuff done with such great importance! And the crowd singing along really adds to the excitement that night. The Cure, and Robert Smith played and still play an important role in music today! LOVE EM!!
    P.S. – You posted this on my birthday……so….THANKS!!




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