Greetings from Mexico City, where the concert tickets are too expensive, the shirts and merchandise are overabundant and comically cheap, and the audience is completely fucking brilliant. Seriously, for those of you who complained about lame U.S. audiences and short setlists, this was the place to be.
Decided to come down on Friday, found a cheap flight out of Atlanta (which meant driving five hours to get to the airport), did not have tickets since Ticketmaster Mexico will only allow purchases with Mexican credit cards or Amex, which I don't have. Got through customs around 3, headed straight to the venue because I knew that tickets would be getting released at some point, and after checking a couple of times at the ticket office (which was hysterical since the cashiers spoke no English and I speak no Spanish) I got a fifth row ticket in the middle (even without service charges it was 1200 pesos, or about $110). Up to that point I had been questioning myself about the wisdom of journeying to a foreign country where I don't speak the language, but after getting a seat in a prime location I was giddily bouncy and properly able to appreciate all the wonderful madness around me.
The whole area around the venue, which by the way is shaped on the outside like some mutant studded ladybug, had a carnival/market type atmosphere. Vendors in little tents were selling every possible type of Cure merchandise, literally several dozen T-shirt designs featuring every album cover, band photo, or Cure logo that you've ever seen (they even had Cult Hero shirts at some of the kiosks). There were flasks, lighters, clocks, shot glasses, pens, DVDs/CDs/mp3s, etc.- all at painfully cheap prices. Now one must wonder if the band gets any cut at all of this "officially authorized" but still clearly bootleg merchandise (I saw one shirt where the band logo was from Wish, band picture from Kiss Me, and album art from the new album). But regardless, I made a mental note to pick up a few things later.
And then there was the show itself. The hype about Mexican audiences is entirely justifed. Easily the best audience I've experienced the Cure with, and that includes shows on the Prayer Tour. The only concert that compares for the noise level would be back when I saw Duran Duran WAY back in 1984. Just this incredible roar. But not at all poorly behaved, at least in the area where I was. Just a whole lot of people really into the show.
The band seemed to feed on it and put on a loud, aggressive show. Even Jupiter Crash felt a little amped up. Simon's bass was mixed in that higher-sounding, slightly clipped way that I usually don't like, but it worked for this way. All the guitar was louder and more aggressive than what I saw on Curiosa. Almost like a little bit of The Promise was leaking into all the other songs.
What a great fucking night!
So after a spectacular, audience-pleasing first night, I knew that the second show would be darker and feature fewer songs off the new album. I hung around their hotel most of the day, though I didn´t see them coming out. Finally gave up when it was time to go to the venue. Apparently they did get there late, as they were still doing soundcheck when gates opened. Again my last-minute ticket-buying strategy worked, as I was fourth row and again very close to the center. When they let us in, Jason and Perry were still on stage making adjustments. I said hi and they were friendly as always but they were also very focused on working so I just watched for a few minutes. Then they left and there was the long 90-minute wait until the lights came down and it happens all over again.
I think they decided to give the band a chance to hear the cheers during the opening of Plainsong, as Robert did not come out right away as he has at all the other shows. So the audience cheered wildly, anyway, as Jason and Roger played and Simon and Perry just looked out into the crowd taking it all in. Finally Robert appeared (right when Simon and Perry started playing) and made a brief trip to stage left before it was time to do the vocals.
You've all seen the setlists, so I won't recount everything here. The band were brilliant as they always are. Maybe not quite as loud and all over the place with the guitar as they were the first night but technically very much "on" and Robert really getting into the vocals. Some excellent drums especially the fierceness on songs like "Figurehead"- Jason is underappreciated. Simon has the funny hat back on, whirl of strutting and bouncing and bass slung low, still the scowl but more than a few smiles breaking through. Perry was highly focused and technically near perfect but still bouncy with his body very fluid with the music and then letting it all out at the end with those violent slashes along the strings and almost popgo-ing like the audience. He was a little low in the mix for a couple of songs but still a great performance. And Roger still doesn´t have enough to do but he effortlessly played all of his parts and was bouncing along like the rest of them on intense moments like "One Hundred Years." And he made two perfect paper airplane set lists that sailed all the way to the fourth row where they were snagged by fans just a couple seats down from me(I should have been paying more attention to him when I heard the first note of Boys Don't Cry).
Ok, just a few words about the second encore. Drowning Man-Charlotte Sometimes-PRIMARY!!!-Faith. Fucking beautiful. And the audience during Faith. About midway through the song I noticed that there was some new lighting effect, someone had rigged up lights all around the arena to sync with the drumbeat. Literally over a thousand tiny lights like they use for Plainsong, perfectly in time with the beat. And then I realized that it was lighters, the audience creating an effect that under other circumstances I would have thought cheesy but it was so well done. Then toward the end as the instruments start dropping out the audience started clapping the beat and there were just so many that it just echoed all around you and created this full, deep sound. The most chilling and awesome moment I´ve ever had at a Cure show.
When they came back out Robert made a short speech about being indecisive about what to do next. Then with an exultant "YES!!!" they go into The Walk and the audience erupts into a massive venue-wide pogo-ing fit. For the third encore Robert really played to the audience, going all the way to the edges on the sides (no curtains or barricades as I´m sure the promoter wanted to sell every possible ticket) and even singing to the people with the cheap seats off to the side and slightly behind the stage.
Fire in Cairo, played the first night, is done with just the three-piece, as they also do Grinding Halt. Would have loved to have heard it again, but at that point I would have been happy with a fourth encore consisting of Wendy Time and Dredd Song. The first night Grinding Halt was done in away pretty similar to the way it is on the album (with the music amped up considerably, of course), but on the second night Robert was singing very fast and cramming lots of extra lyrics in (deliberately, the complete opposite of when he stretches words and mumbles when he doesn´t know the words). Then for Boys Don't Cry the audience completely lost it. So much energy. As much as I would have preferred a Going Nowhere ending, the two pop encores after Faith played extremely well with the audience, after so many tense emotional songs both the band and the fans seemed to welcome the chance to pogo and shimmy and throw hands in the air and do a big giant sing-along.
One amusing thing at the end, as Robert smiles and looks longingly as he always does as he exits the stage, but on both nights here in addition to "goodnight" and variations of "it's been fucking excellent" he also very firmly says "that's it" which is utterly lost on the crowd as there's so much energy at that point, so much will for them to keep playing, I honestly think the Mexican audience would keep screaming and stomping for more after ten encores.
Night Three and the end of the tour. I thought this was the weakest of the three shows here, the band played with passion and energy most of the time but I think the novelty of such ferociously enthusiastic fans may have slightly worn off. This is not to say that it wasn't amazing or that there was anywhere else in the world I would have rather been. It just wasn't quite AS insane. Or maybe I'm just grumpy because I had sixth row off to the side and did not get the brilliant unobstructed view of Robert that I have come to see as my divine right. Or that the subway stopped running very soon after the show and I was forced to improvise to get back to the hostel (taxis were asking for the equivalent of $180 to drive maybe 6 miles, welcome to Mexico City after hours).
Enough blathering about my misadventures, about the show. As expected, they played just about everything that they had played on Curiosa but had not yet played in Mexico City. A couple of those songs sounded a tad under-rehearsed, in particular Never was nowhere near as potent as it was at the shows toward the beginning of Curiosa. Taking Off came off very well as part of a pop encore, though I don't know how that would have played with an audience of less rabid supporters. Still, I think I may have dismissed that one a little too casually. (IDKWG)On also played well as part of the pop section in the main setlist. Going Nowhere, of course, was elegant and ethereal and absolutely the only way to end the show.
The beat-keeping lighter-blinking made two encore appearances, though in neither case did it produce quite as potent an effect as it generated during Faith the night before. First, Lullaby, which worked well as it has a nice steady beat. Afterward Robert commented that it was the best audience effect he'd ever seen and that it was fucking brilliant. Later it made a return during Forever, which got really interesting as the tempo increased and, since most people were clearly not familiar with the song, there was some confusion and visual dissonance.
Still, Forever was the highlight for me (anybody have the lyrics to the current version?), even though Simon seemed a little miffed at having his epic ending of A Forest cut off. One other odd Simon moment came at the end of The Promise, where right after he finished his final part he dropped/threw his bass on the stage and walked off with bass feedback in the background as Robert finished off the song.
Otherwise it seemed like a damn good typical Cure show, albeit with better fans (all hands put in the sky, keyboard line in Play for Today sung loudly and clearly (with some fans even taking it up in the wait between encores), full throated rhythm vocal for Lovecats (all the Japanese Whispers singles were played together, that was odd). Great show, great audience, I guess I was just a tad disappointed that there weren't any mores surprises like Fire in Cairo or Primary.
Sorry if this is rambling, I'm very tired and I have to try to get on a flight out of here in a couple of hours. Hoping against hope to run into the band at the international concourse on the way out.
And should this be read by any of the hardcore fans from Mexico among the many who made the effort to communicate with this obsessed and bedraggled and hopelessly ignorant gringo, I offer heartfelt thanks and the deepest respect. This is a land where they truly know how to honor the Cure.
- Aaron Perry
