There's always been speculation about The Cure's use of a click-track, especially during Jason's tenure as drummer, but I'm not bringing this up so I can comment on that.  I did get a very interesting recording of the show in Hollywood on 02-19-2000 and it claims to be the 'monitor mix'.  It's an absolutely perfect clean-and-clear recording from the soundboard and before each song starts you can hear the tempo counted-in with artificial percussive sounds generated from somewhere, not sure where.  I've never heard these sounds on any live recording from any source, radio, video, soundboard or audience recording; they're obviously generated on-stage through the monitors for the benefit of the band only.  If anyone is interested in hearing this or has any insight into the band's use of and need for the live click-track, let me know.

I'm not sure why there is "speculation" about that by some people, or why some people erroneously cite the use of click tracks as "evidence" against people's musicianship - even classical musicians use metronomes (and conductors).

My husband Brett would like to point out that Pink Floyd used click tracks for their The Wall concerts in the 1980s (released as Is There Anybody Out There? which happens to be one of his favourite live albums of all time) - and these people are musical legends whose musicianship is not generally questioned by their fans, although sadly, by contrast, some Cure "fans" just keep on gnawing away on this topic.

This was recently discussed through our account on Twitter:


Nothing against Jason - and the first time ever I saw The Cure (2002) was also the last time I heard "Push" without sequencers/click-tracks and I think they sounded great, so I suppose it has to do also with the fact they are using more visuals now?:

Musically speaking I will always like "A Night Like This" live as it was in 1986


The 2022 version is good but will never top 1986:


Or Push in 1996 (Jason was there already):


of course, the definitive version is still in 1986:


And now in 2022:



I also read Pink Floyd uses click-track and while I love The Cure, I think they are the world's best band and I think their concerts are the best one can see, certain songs could avoid the use of click-track to bring back their full magic.

Quote from: dsanchez on November 05, 2022, 14:09:40...certain songs could avoid the use of click-track to bring back their full magic.

And what will happen then? Some people will put a click-track next to their screen and watch the Cure live videos and tell us "this drummer is out of time with the click-track I just used"...