My Date With Robert Smith
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Artist:
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Album:Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
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Track:
So, over a week ago on Saturday, Oct. 6th I had a hot date with Robert Smith from The Cure. We were to meet at The Download Festival at Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View, CA according to his personal assistant who had contacted me to inform me Robert had accepted my invitation. Boy, was I ever excited!I arrived a few hours after the festival started around 5:00 p.m. I heard Black Rebel Motorcycle Club starting their set as I was walking into the theatre with "I Took Out A Loan" from their new cd "Baby 81". I was surprised that they were playing so early. I found a schedule & they WERE playing earlier than their 6:15 slot. When I got into the theater they were playing one of their earlier songs which I wasn't familiar with but was really good. Their set was pretty damn spectacular since they sounded great, recreating their songs off "Baby 81" to a tee among their earlier music. I thoroughly enjoyed their set & they proved to be excellent showmen. I found out that She Wants Revenge played right before BRMC, so I surmised that an earlier band had canceled so they moved everyone up. I was disappointed to not see SWR but really I was here to see The Cure, so it didn't matter that much. I had seen SWR on a Lollapolooza web simulcast 2 years ago so I had seen them perform before.
After BRMC I walked around the grounds since I had no interest in seeing the screaming emo schlock of AFI. I got a cool free t-shirt from Volkswagen that they silkscreened right there in the booth. I did this last year too & it was a favorite t-shirt over the previous year. FREE is a very good price!So once I got my free T I wandered over & caught the last few songs of Metric, who I must say made me regret I missed the rest of their set. They were that good & rocked hard. Emily Haines was a pillar of rock goodness, jumping frenetically around the stage singing in her skimpy miniskirt. They rocked hard!Once Metric stopped playing Gooferman started up on a stage right next to them. I've got to say they were entertaining to watch since there were tons of costumed performers on stage in klown makeup & performers on stilts walking through the crowd but I wasn't impressed with them musically. Very repetitive & not too interesting to listen to imho. Kings Of Leon were up next and they put on an amazing set. They sounded fabulous & rocked hard but since I had only heard one of their songs previously I found I wasn't too enthused about their music. Which was really unfortunate since they put on a great show. Just not my style I guess. 
So finally I was to meet Mr. Smith. I couldn't believe it. I'd been a fan since 1985 with 'The Head On The Door' album and hadn't seen them live in person before. Oh, yea, I have several concert dvds of them in my collection but still not seen them in person.When they finally arrived onstage Robert waved to me, and I of course waved back to him. This was our date, Robert's private performance just for me!(Oh never mind the 1000s of others there to see them, they didn't matter since Robert & I had a date).And seriously they did not disappoint! They played for 2 hours & 40 mins. including the encore. I was in disbelief as they worked their way through their set thinking, my goddess, this has to be the last song & they just kept playing. It was certainly a mind blowing set with 33 songs in all. F'n amazing!Robert & crew started out with the first song off "Wild Mood Swings" called "Want". One of my favs off that cd(and a very underrated album I might add). Porl Thompson on guitar, Simon Gallup on bass, and Jason Cooper on drums proved to be a formidable force and recreated their sound quite well. After the first few songs I was trying to figure out who was playing keyboards and came to the conclusion they were playing the keyboard parts on the guitar, which really surprised me. They did a great job & had me fooled for awhile, looking to find the nonexistant keyboard player, lol!I was also amazed at how many songs they played off my favorite Cure album "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me". They didn't play the usual hits off it either but rather some more of the lesser known songs. The song I loaded up "Shiver and Shake" above is one they played and a fav. I know Robert was playing these just FOR ME to commemorate this special day of our officially meeting. He knows what I like, heh.Here's a clip from the fest of the song "Wrong Number" off of "Galore"(not much on the visual but the sound is fairly decent): They also played a couple of new songs off their upcoming double cd. "Please Project" was a really great song and rather upbeat. Youtube had a vid of it but the sound was just so crappy I didn't want to post it but you can hear it "*here*":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCveIQjPuvw.And the encore was completely a flashback to old school Cure via 9 songs off of their first three albums. So Curably delicious! The set list will be in the comments.
After BRMC I walked around the grounds since I had no interest in seeing the screaming emo schlock of AFI. I got a cool free t-shirt from Volkswagen that they silkscreened right there in the booth. I did this last year too & it was a favorite t-shirt over the previous year. FREE is a very good price!So once I got my free T I wandered over & caught the last few songs of Metric, who I must say made me regret I missed the rest of their set. They were that good & rocked hard. Emily Haines was a pillar of rock goodness, jumping frenetically around the stage singing in her skimpy miniskirt. They rocked hard!Once Metric stopped playing Gooferman started up on a stage right next to them. I've got to say they were entertaining to watch since there were tons of costumed performers on stage in klown makeup & performers on stilts walking through the crowd but I wasn't impressed with them musically. Very repetitive & not too interesting to listen to imho. Kings Of Leon were up next and they put on an amazing set. They sounded fabulous & rocked hard but since I had only heard one of their songs previously I found I wasn't too enthused about their music. Which was really unfortunate since they put on a great show. Just not my style I guess. So finally I was to meet Mr. Smith. I couldn't believe it. I'd been a fan since 1985 with 'The Head On The Door' album and hadn't seen them live in person before. Oh, yea, I have several concert dvds of them in my collection but still not seen them in person.When they finally arrived onstage Robert waved to me, and I of course waved back to him. This was our date, Robert's private performance just for me!(Oh never mind the 1000s of others there to see them, they didn't matter since Robert & I had a date).And seriously they did not disappoint! They played for 2 hours & 40 mins. including the encore. I was in disbelief as they worked their way through their set thinking, my goddess, this has to be the last song & they just kept playing. It was certainly a mind blowing set with 33 songs in all. F'n amazing!Robert & crew started out with the first song off "Wild Mood Swings" called "Want". One of my favs off that cd(and a very underrated album I might add). Porl Thompson on guitar, Simon Gallup on bass, and Jason Cooper on drums proved to be a formidable force and recreated their sound quite well. After the first few songs I was trying to figure out who was playing keyboards and came to the conclusion they were playing the keyboard parts on the guitar, which really surprised me. They did a great job & had me fooled for awhile, looking to find the nonexistant keyboard player, lol!I was also amazed at how many songs they played off my favorite Cure album "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me". They didn't play the usual hits off it either but rather some more of the lesser known songs. The song I loaded up "Shiver and Shake" above is one they played and a fav. I know Robert was playing these just FOR ME to commemorate this special day of our officially meeting. He knows what I like, heh.Here's a clip from the fest of the song "Wrong Number" off of "Galore"(not much on the visual but the sound is fairly decent): They also played a couple of new songs off their upcoming double cd. "Please Project" was a really great song and rather upbeat. Youtube had a vid of it but the sound was just so crappy I didn't want to post it but you can hear it "*here*":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCveIQjPuvw.And the encore was completely a flashback to old school Cure via 9 songs off of their first three albums. So Curably delicious! The set list will be in the comments.
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