April 14th, 2000 - Lodz, Poland (Sportova)
Out Of This World, Watching Me Fall, Want,
Fascination St., Open, The Loudest Sound, The Kiss, Last Day Of Summer,
Maybe Someday, Shake Dog Shake, Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Inbetween Days,
Siamese Twins,
Prayers for Rain, 100 Years, End, 39, Bloodflowers
1st Encore: There Is No If, Trust, Plainsong,
Disintegration
2nd Encore: M, Play For Today, Just Like Heaven,
A Forest, Faith.
Show was 2 hours & 50 minutes
(Thanks Darius)
Every concert experience for me starts from
waiting by the arena, so it was this time. We spent few hours by the
Sportova with another hundred of people. Even
though the concert was announced as Sold Out a long time ago, it
was still possible to buy tickets for a small
extra money. That's a very good thing in my opinion, 'cause it cut down
scalpers' profit.
For those who was interested in the music before
concert - it was some classic melody. The same was played right
after the concert was over. They started with
the same songs as everywhere else. "Out of this world" is really
good replacement for "Plainsong" as an opening
song. The band looked quite static and I would say even a bit
constrained. Even Simon was so static... You
could see wrinkles on his forehead and a bruise under his left eye.
Sometimes during the concert I got a feeling
that they were not playing as a band, just everyone was playing his
part. Well, this might be very subjective
feeling. The most unexpected song for me was "The Kiss", which was
performed very exact from musical point of
view, but not as emotional, as I expected. "Shake Dog Shake" and
especially "FTEOTDGS" was the turning point
in the concert, and the rest songs sounded much better and were
fitting more each to another. After "Inbetween
days" Robert said something like "it's enough of these ...
fucking radios" and then they started "Siamese
Twins". The ending combination of End-39-Bloodflowers is very
successful, because each of the songs extended
the previous one and sounded more and more intensive.
"Bloodflowers" was the best song from the
new album. There were two encores and again there were at least
three pairs of songs which fit together both
musically and lyrically. The band has some difficulties to start
Plainsong. Roger even walked to Robert and
they talked about something. During Faith microphone went out of
order, so some part of the song was performed
without singing. I was so happy that the crowd didn't express any
sign of dissatisfaction because of those things.
The set list couldn't be better.
The light show was just perfect. Sometimes
there was a very bright light was turned right to Robert's face. Then it
looked so white. Pictures projected on the
back of the stage were excellent. Big M before "M", flaming fire during
"39", pictures like in "Forest" video during
"Forest"...
Concert's set list was almost perfect. (Of
course, there have some other preferences, like Push, or Blood, but they
wouldn't fit so much into set list) The best
thing was this growing intensity during the concert.
Some additions about merchandise. In Lodz they
were also selling chain with the little flower. On the back side of
the flower there is a text like "The Cure.
Dream Tour 2000". There was also plastic chain with two plastic thin
plates with similar text on them. Black T-Shirts
were also available both in V-neck and round neck.
The show was great, but the sound quality could
be better. Anyway, it was really cool. The biggest surprise -
"There is no if". It was kind of unplugged
version. Jason didn't play and the rythm was programmed on Rogers
keyboard. Fantastic version. The funnies thing,
then Robert announced: "The next song is Plainsong" and Roger
refused to play. He looked lost and asked
Robert (I'm not sure about the right words,but the asked something like
that)"Should I be there?" Then Rob told him
something and Roger with the grin on his face jumped to the
keyboard and started to play.
The worst moment was during the Faith. In
the middle of the song Rob looked at the stage technicians and showed
some signs. Technicians quickly changed his
microphone. I don't know why they did that, but the new mike didn't
work!!!!! Robert sang a couple of lines but
noone heard it. It was a disaster. Then it started to work, but the whole
impression of this song was kind of ruined.
And Perry had the problems with guitars too. In the middle of one song
he went of the stage and came back with another
guitar. And before the another song (I don't remember exactly
before which one, but I think it was "Inbetween
Days") Perry accidently stepped on the effect pedal and then the
stupid sound came :))) Everything else
was just great.