Saturday, February 22, 2025

Alone - The Cure


 


 "Broken voiced lament to call us home

This is the end of every song we sing, alone"


Greetings and happy 2025. Been a minute since I've turned my attention to this old time machine, but it felt right to let the last post breathe. While we're still stuck in the doldrums of winter I thought what better band to help us embrace the cold, dreary but beautiful shortened day season. The picture above is from June 2023 after my first Cure concert at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia (concert halls used to have much more romantic names) My earliest memories of the band were borrowing my older brother's Standing on the Beach:The Singles tape back in the late 80's. Then through the power of the Columbia House Music subscription, Disintegration and The Head on the Door were soon turning through my walkman. The boys blasted out a 29 song set touching on all their albums while sprinkling in a few of the at the time unreleased tracks that would make up my favorite 2024 album, Songs of a Lost World. 

This album likely won't convert any new fans, but if you've been on the ride for awhile the good news is the boys didn't have any breakthroughs in therapy. The album is awash with synthesizers, heavy bass lines, cries for help, love, and the inevitability of death. You know, just what us fans want from our Cure. Hey sometimes I'm more Pink Moon and other times I need Slippery When Wet. The audience of the show was filled with goths, mothers and daughters, muscle bros hugging each other and high fiving (really) all in the same place to reflect and experience emotion and the trials and challenges of the human experiment.

Before the show we had one of those perfect vacation days. We met some friends that lived nearby that I've know since elementary school for some drinks and then headed to eat cheesesteaks at a horror themed vegan restaurant. (Monster Vegan) As you can imagine lots of Cure fans were pregaming at this spot. At one point I was eating my cheesesteak, chatting with my wife, watching horror movies on the various tv screens (the below pic is the flick in my eyesight where there was an unfortunate nuclear spill which apparently caused some bad eye bulging...I think I've seen a drug ad for that now on morning TV that would help) and Hall & Oates' Maneater on the speakers. I had to excuse myself to the bathroom and throw some water on my face to make sure I didn't pass over and I was in some version of heaven. Turns out I was still among the living so after dinner we headed over to one of our favorite beer bars (Monk's Cafe) and were sent to the back room which had one more table waiting just for us. We ordered a couple fresh Russian River Pliny The Elders and realized The Cure mix was blasting from the speakers. Awesome way to get pumped up for the show.



Oh, so the second song. While we were walking to lunch a car rode by, windows down blasting this tune. First time it's hit my ears and I was immediately intrigued. Well the car had a red light so the sound faded away as we kept going, but about a minute later the car passed us again so we got a wonderful reprise! Sounds like the perfect Skateland song to me! You're welcome. Thanks for reading. Since it's been a minute let's go with a third song, While I was going down the Nice & Wild rabbit hole I stumbled upon this gem. Also worthy of pulling out some parachute pants and cardboard while perfecting that headspin! Cheers.


The Cure - Alone (Songs of a Lost World Show)

Diamond Girl • Nice & Wild

Fantasy Girl

Alone - The Cure

   " Broken voiced lament to call us home This is the end of every song we sing, alone" Greetings and happy 2025. Been a minute si...