2007.10.06 Mountain View 'Download Festival' (USA)

[closedown]

How was the setlist boring?...... you expecting the complete Faith album in there somewhere? People at the Trilogy shows mustve been falling asleep then

I was expecting a comment along those lines, typical Cure black and white (by the way, where did I say complete Faith album, I talked about albums + if you want to know my top 5 - it is disintegration,faith,pornography,bloodflowers,17secs - all just featured with one song only or simply singles or songs you'll always hear live as stated - but as always, it is one word + if you want to hear another word - with the exception of certain encore songs (and one or the other mainsetsong like kyoto song) I think the recent set deserves 4 letters -> C-R-A-P)... I know, the set was marvellous, best gig ever and so on, of course, how could I forget. How could I dare to critizize the mighty Robert S. and the rest of the band - nahh. feel so ashamened for doing that... just ask myself why Robert ever bothered to record songs in other ways if this is so much better than what he ever did before my 0.02$ - of course it is nice to get a new song, but f***in hell, I can't jump around in enjoyment just because of that...  

[japanesebaby]

heyy let's take it easy. 
but yep mighty robert needs to be criticized sometimes, sure. he's such an old damn stubborn bugger sometimes.
and as i personally do hate every site where you can't say anything critical of him/the band, so please don't hesitate to bash him if you feel like he's earned it! so please debate but please don't let it get on your blood pressure too much - after all, it's only music.
just thinking about your health here guys. 


personally i'd say i can't say much yet since i haven't heard the show yet. i remember being pretty bored when looking at the aussie tour set lists, yes i was and i felt like really bashing them for it. but then i got to listening to the melbourne recording and i found it such a strong performance that i guess i forgave them some of my grudges and i realized i was still kind of happy that this band kept going as well as they did. anyway, that was just me and i'm not trying to say everyone should agree with me - and maybe i wouldn't even have the same experience second time around.
about the set lists alone, i do agree that they keep repeating the same dead-boring stuff just for the sake of it. and yes, even the order of the songs somehow cannot be changed - which is pretty uninteresting most times.
i really do hope they'd do one-off experiments like in paris bataclan 96 more - they'd have all the repertoire at their use there, just to be a bit more adventurous and just try it out! and everytime i see a festival set list which is once more like a repeat from the other show and people say "but this was a festival", then i can't be thinking about carhaix 2002 (like is aid earlier in this thread i think). that was a festival too but they just didn't give a damn!

so let's hope they'd dare to be a bit more adventurous once more, mayeb when they have more new songs in the set? because even if we can't ask it to be something like a complete 'faith' being played, i truly hope it's not just going to be "new songs + compulsory pop hits" parade. ecen if the new songs were great, that would be pretty nightmarish. so i hope they find some nice matches between some new songs and some old songs and could maybe even create some new "pairs" to replace these ages old "rules" like iotwcs/the kiss, 10:15/KAA etc.

anyway still i'd like to end with repeating that at least in my opinion they've been putting up pretty tight and energetic shows a few times recently. maybe not always, but still... so personally i can also join bashing them for their lousy set lists, but i'm also ok with giving them some merit for their quality of performance.
and again, i'd like to hear the gig first before i know whether there was any reason to jump around, whether in enjoyment or in something else...

[carycameron]

boring?

yup, boring! not totally - as luckily it seems (unless someone has forgotten to write it down) Deep Green Sea was NOT in the set, thumbs up for that! but the rest is always the same, it is so obvious what songs will follow for years now (play/forest, never/wrong, 1015/killing, only tonight/kiss), I don't know what is that difficult to at least mix up the order a bit... it is all so predictable now. all those songs from albums following each other - never liked the idea too much, to be honest... and as my fave albums are almost not featured at all in the set (or just with a single...), it seems boring to me, can't help it. 

I see there are several songs in the setlist that have not been played regularly in recent tours (ie. How beautiful, Maybe Someday, Kyoto Song, Fire in Cairo, Jumping, Wrong Number, Signal to Noise, Primary + new song) and a few others i've never seen live so i'd be happy if they perform these when i see them during the NA tour.
If you look at old tours (Wish, Prayer) setlists were almost identical - they mix them up a lot more now.
I think some people are spoiled because there are audios out there of most of the concerts but most people seeing them live will only see them once during a tour and its a whole difference experience than just listening on your computer or stereo. 

[strange_day]

Ok, so my reply was slightly sarcastic and trust me, im not one of these 'oh-robert-can-do-no-wrong' idiots.
But my point was - what did you expect? Lets be realistic, we all know theyre in the middle of recording so theyre hardly going to rehearse 50 different songs for those of us who mightve heard 100 Years a thousand times before.....

It is pretty boring seeing the same old stuff and yes, they should try and give a few more surpises here and there, but remember to some people its not the same old stuff, you know? when i saw them for the first time and they played 100 Years i was thrilled, i had no idea that they played it at every single show. Maybe if people are so sick of the same songs they should try listening to other bands for a while.
It works for me.  

Sure you can get fed up with songs like FTEOTDGS (which they didnt play for a change)
but whats worse is the "i want, i want" attitude thats goes with the kind of people who turn up to concerts and stand there with a look on their face, like 'impress me'.

So criticise them all you want, i dont mind, i dont have some blind ideal view of Robert Smith, i have certain things i dont like about them myself, but the point is, dont expect miracles, you might have bought the records, but you dont own their souls because of that.......... that goes for any band.

[[labyrinth]]

that was what i meant...

i can't say it's boring or not, only reading the tracklist...

we have internet, we have dimeadozen and we have bootlegs... if we wouldn't have these things, we would mind only about the show in itself...
that is why, i think..it's too "early" to say..the show was boring (...or the "setlist")

and don't forget, this is still the tour-structure of Festival 2005 !
opening is still "Open" and the end of the mainset is still "End"...they'll change very soon!

[japanesebaby]

I think some people are spoiled because there are audios out there of most of the concerts but most people seeing them live will only see them once during a tour and its a whole difference experience than just listening on your computer or stereo. 

that is true... i can think of a lot of gigs (i don't mean the cure particularly) where i had really really great time and yet when i looked at the set list later and it was nothing spectacular. but being there makes the difference...

we have internet, we have dimeadozen and we have bootlegs... if we wouldn't have these things, we would mind only about the show in itself...

i was just thinking about this, how internet has almost ruined something in all this - even though it has also brought some other kind of excitement too, fo course. or let's not say "ruined" because it's really not all negative impact, but let's say changed thoroughly.
but before internet, you had to trade for a gig first (and just imagine, snail mail trades before internet were really snail-ish.....) and then you could sit down and listen through it - and find out what songs were in there. there were no databases from where to read all this, so i can imagine that it was always an adventure, to sit down and listen through a show...
yes, sometimes i do think we've really lost something, that we're truly spoiled today somehow...

[rodney]

Yeah, we can't really forget that even though this is a similar set structure as what they've been doing for a couple of years, this is the first time this kind of set has been played on that coast of the US.  It was a fresh show to the people who were there.

[[labyrinth]]

yes, sometimes i do think we've really lost something

yes, it is!
guess how you could live the atmosphere "pre-concert" just thinking (not KNOWING) which tracks could've been in the setlists.

now, it's all different...
a part of me tells :" don't watch the setlist of the tour, don't watch it " (i made in this way with Depeche Mode,and i enjoyed very much the show)
but the other part of me can't do that..i'm too curious and too anxious to read these kind of news that sadly, i can't wait for the concert without any kind of information.

and before the internet, it was hard to discover setlists for every date!

little OT: the same is for the albums (not only by The Cure),isn't it? sometimes you download it for curiosity, and then when you buy it, the surprise is not the same as it would've been if you didn't listen to it previously(luckily, sometimes i can resist without listening to anything before i buy the album).

[sullen]

There is alot lost.

Before the Internet.
You used to have to wait til the release day to hear a record and see the artwork.
You maybe just heard a single on the radio, then going to buy the album, you got to
look at the artwork of something you never saw before, and listened to something you
never heard before was something really nice that the internet killed.

Now, release day, means just getting a lossless source to replace the mp3s you
downloaded and jpgs of the covers.
The whole thrill of buying and hearing a record is gone.

Before the internet.
You could camp out all night to buy tickets, and actually get the first rows,
and pairs, not single tickets, from ticketmaster from being a dedicated fan.

With ticketmaster.com, all this is gone. And those were good times, spending
the night lined up outside with true fans. One of the last times I was able
to do this was for the bloodflowers promo shows, was a snowstorm during the
ny onsale too, that was fun. But I got tickets for what sold out in less than
a minute. Roseland in 2007 with ticketmaster.com would not have been so easy....

Before the internet.
You really didn't know the setlists.
You went to the venue not knowing what you were going to hear.
Now, only if you have enough self control to sta away from the
message boards, you might have a chance to do this.... Not easy..

I miss all of these things........

[crowbi_wan]

Well, one of two things has got to give.  A) I stop recording openers or B) I invest in a different recording device  >  Recorded all mainstage acts w/o issue.  Cure came on, had my levels, they sounded great, checked my recording, sounded great.  However, when I went to transfer the file to my computer it can't completely read the file!  WTF!  So, I give it a listen on the recorder and sure enough, towards the end of the new song it locks up.  Now, I can fast forward past this and continue listening...only to have it lock up in a few other spots.  I'm so pissed right now.  Thank god there were other tapers at the gig last night and I hope they do as promised and up a source.  As for mine, I'm not sure what can be done.  I need to talk to some iRiver guys and see if similard problems have occured.

The new song was pretty cool.  Upbeat, simplistic lyrics.  Sounds very 1992.  No fs or fteotdgs was nice.  Baby Screams (or shits to some) was a nice one too.  I love HOTD so hearing anything from the album is cool with me.  How Beautiful You Are was equaly nice.  Not as sloppy as heard earlier in the year.  Maybe Someday was ace.  Go Porl go     

I'm tired, pissed, and have to get some work done.  As well as shop for an R-9.  If I have any luck transfering the data I'll make it known and get my recording out there.  It's just not looking good at this point.  :(

Best of luck to the tapers heading to Mexico.  I wish you better luck than I had. 

Oh, merch was lame.  same shit as we saw in Asia/AUS  :roll:

[Steve]

Thanks for the summary crowbi wan.
Hope your recorder has the goodies inside & you can unlock them.
Most important of all is that you enjoyed yourself & got home safely afterwards.

[j]

Sorry to hear that Brian.  That sucks.  Of course it doesn't happen any other time other than when you REALLY want it to work.  I assume you'll post over at TS?  I'm sure someone over there will be able to help.

[crowbi_wan]

Sorry to hear that Brian.  That sucks.  Of course it doesn't happen any other time other than when you REALLY want it to work.  I assume you'll post over at TS?  I'm sure someone over there will be able to help.

Hey, at least I pulled a nice SWR recording for ya    I'll be using iHP-120 #2 tomorrow night.  Haven't installed the latest Rockbox build yet and not sure I will since I've yet to have a problem with it. 

But yeah, I'm doing some reading up on things, getting some advice.  Let's hope for the best 

[japanesebaby]

damn sorry to hear for such bad luck. you must be pissed.  

anyway like steve said, i hope you still got to enjoy the show itself, just by being there.

[crowbi_wan]

I did enjoy the show quite a bit.  The sound was good, vibe equally good.  Robert was a bit off at the beginning, forgetting lyrics (festival = too many Coronas I think).  People can knock the song choices if they want.  We all knew it was going to be similar to the shows earlier this year.  But seeing The Cure live is something special and you just don't get it from reading the setlist or even listening to a recording.  Sure, I was hoping for a few darker songs and tracks they haven't played in ages.  The way I see it is most concertgoers don't visit Cure fansites and check setlists.  Had I not, there would've been some real surprises.  Then again, saying that makes me wonder if the people that aren't obsessed and check the setlists to previous gigs would be disappointed since stuff like Mint Car and Friday weren't played.  They can't please everyone no matter how hard they try.  All they can do is put on an entertaining show...and it was