Vancouver, On very rare occasions I step out of my house to brave swarms of coffee drinking yuppies and smelly hippies in order to attend events here in Vancouver. This past weekends Red Bull Soap Box race was an event I’ve been looking forward to attending for a little while now, not so much to take in the festival-like atmosphere, more so to see some bad ass crashes.
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Vancouver, A warm spring night, not ideal conditions for Goth’s children to creep out of the shadows in order to attend the return of The Cure after a 10 year, 7 month delay. This was my first time seeing The Cure and not being an uber fan I had mixed feelings as to how it would be. Based what what I read and was told, The Cure performs epic set in excess of 3 hours with multiple encores, but people I know who have seem them live would always say the show was ‘Amazing’. I pressed on though, The Cure is just one of those bands I had to see, more so because they’ve been such a huge influence on many of my favorite bands.
We arrived at GM place early to pick up my tickets at the will call window. Staying true to my lazy nature, I waited until the last minute to pick up the tickets even though I purchased them 1 year ago. We decided to skip the opening band 65 days of static as they seem a bit too industrial for our taste. Arrived back at GM place at 8:30 only having to wait 10 minutes for the lads to make their appearance - quite surprising seeing as I’m usually terrible predicting the start times of bands. After a rousing reception from the crowd as if they were collectively thinking ‘Took you long enough!’ personifying it in the form of applause. They kicked of the set with a 5 song intro with - Falling Down, Fascination Street, The Walk, Love Song, and Sleep When I’m Dead. They sounded good, but personally I felt the show kicked off as soon we heard the haunting thump and twinkle of “Picture of You”. This made more than half the crowd to jump to their feet, couple that with swaying and clapping, it made the atmosphere absolutely eclectic. The set continued on with a mix of some new tracks and a few old. I didn’t recognize most of them (but you might, here’s the setlist). I was just enjoying the great atmosphere and it seemed like Smith and Co. were as well:
Simon Gallop on bass keeled over this guitar in the classic shoegaze pose (my cohort Ryan mentioned he looked exactly like the bass player in Guitar Hero). Porl Thomson on lead guitar was dressed up in what looked like a vinyl jumpsuit with glittery red platform boots. Jason Cooper was pounding perfect beats that many in the crowd were air drumming along to. Robert sounded fantastic, seemingly enjoying himself by hopping, shimmying and swaying around the entire stage.
The set hit it’s climax three quarters of the way through when Smith and crew pulled out - Friday I’m In Love, Inbetween Days, and Just Like Heaven with no breaks in between, needless to say we ate it up, licked our lips and rubbed our tummies. They capped off their first set at around 10:30 after playing at least 20 songs. Staying true to form they came back on stage after very little coaxing from the crowd. I unfortunately only stayed for the first encore which included - Love Cats, Let’s Go To Bed and Close To Me. After a little research I found out the last 2 encores included - Boys Don’t Cry, Jumping Someone Else’s Train, 10:15 Saturday Night and Killing An Arab.
To sum the entire Cure experience, it only takes one word: ‘Amazing’.
5/5
Thanks John
Clip of ‘Pictures Of You” taken at the ACC in Toronto
Vancouver, March 5th…I was counting down to this day ever since I heard ‘Do You Like Rock Music’. Loyal readers of this blog will know The Panic Manual loves us some BSP, so get ready for some hero worship.
The evening started out with some pre-drinks at my new favorite downtown hang-out - The Calling. Great food, cheap beers and if you’re there on the right night, you’ll hear some good indie music. The only downside - it’s a hell of a walk to all the concert venues.
This was my first time at the Plaza, which doubles as a nightclub on weekend. I hated the layout. There’s a huge oval bar right in the middle which makes it an annoying obstruction if you can’t fit on the small, crowded dancefloor. Luckily the show wasn’t too packed (around 200 people), so we managed to find a nice cozy spot in the middle of the floor around 8 feet from the stage.
We got to the Plaza at around 10:00 expecting to catch the end of what we thought was the only opening set. It was actually the first of two bands on support - a local band called ‘Elizabeth‘. We arrived with enough time to catch the last 2 songs which were too punky and loud for my taste. The next band, ‘colourmusic‘ took almost an hour to get started due to sound problems. They had me intrigued as soon they started setting up their equipment because they were all dressed the matching white tracksuits. I expected them to be German…they’re actually from Oklahoma. After the long wait the set started off with a grade-six-biology-video-esque voice over introducing the band, which I thought was a unique touch. It continued to come on randomly throughout the entire set telling us little known facts about the band and describing a bass riff that was inspired by Lord of the Rings. The only way I can describe this colourmusic is a hardcore version of Apples In Stereo. Geeky but rockin’. One of those bands that you’re pleasantly surprised with after their set.
11:30 rolls around and British Sea Power finally hit the stage, not that I didn’t enjoy the lead up to their set, but I was there because I indeed Love Rock Music. The lads (and very cute lass on violin) sure didn’t disappoint. Immediately kicking things off with “Lights Out For Darker Skies” they didn’t quit until they left the stage after the encore. The set spanned their entire collection, of course focusing on DYLRM. Although thoroughly enjoying the show I would have to say my highlight was the poor bastard who has mistakenly took the indie fans dancing to the right of us for grunge rockers. Halfway through ‘Atom’ he jumped on stage goat horns extended, yelling at the front row to gather around. They instead spread out and 5 seconds later all I could hear was a loud ‘SMACK!’. The crowd continued swaying around what I would have expected to be a corpse after hearing that rough landing. It took a minute or so when we finally hear an ‘OWWWW!’ (as in Spring Break 2008!! Ow!) and see the stage jumper pop with only enough time to try and high five someone before he was chased, caught and dragged out by the bouncers. Classic.
I would have given this show a 4.5/5 but the doomed stage diver bumped it up to a 5/5. I took a pic of the setlist on my phone because I can never remember all the songs played during a gig. I still missed a couple of them below as BSP’s roadie’s handwriting is as bad as my memory:
Lights Out For Darker Skies
Atom
Childhood Memories
The Spirit of St. Louis
A Trip Out
Down On The Ground
Blackout
Waving Flags
The Great Skua
Remember Me
Favours in the Beetroot Fields
Canvey Island
No Lucifer
Encore:
True Adventures
Carrion
