2/3/2000 Dotmusic.com (2-3-00 Brussells, Belgium Show Review)
The Cure - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
There's so much anticipation tonight as the Cure return to Brussells that you can almost touch it. The 'Bloodflowers' album launch, mini tour,'secret' tour, whichever you prefer, hits Brussels's Ancienne Belgique, and hits it hard.
Red lights ablaze - as red as bloodflowers you see, in the very first seconds of the concert, the mood is set for the night. The Ancienne Belgique is full to bursting and if some sections of the crowd are worried that this show is just going to be a simple showcase for eight or nine brand new songs - hey, it's happened before - it soon becomes apparent that it's not the case tonight.
Even fears among die-hard Cure fans that an onslaught of new material might tax our concentration, prove unfounded as the accessibility of new openers 'Out Of This World' and even the mammoth 'Watching Me Fall' are greeted with roars of approval.
The intimacy of the gig and its place on this tour allows the more human side of the band to put in a rare appearance. Robert starts singing too early at least once and the lights are blindingly too bright on occasion.
Actually, tonight feels more like a bit of a reunion, like a friendly get-together. No stress, no fuss, just a band delivering what they'd promised for a long time. Everything's well planned: those who wouldn't know the old songs from the new are given some clue by the colour of the spotlights: red for 'Bloodflowers', mostly blue and purple for the rest.
Robert Smith has already dubbed this Cure album; "the most perfect ever", and on this showing we should probably believe him. Tonight it certainly works in this environment and the crowd loves it. After all, hasn't 'Bloodflowers' been announced as part three of the trilogy that began with 'Pornography' and went on with 'Disintegration'?
Part three it is then. Tonight's set list certainly seems constructed to make it look that way. Following the more recent 'Want', 'Fascination Street' takes us back to 'Disintegration', before two more 'Bloodflowers' songs 'The Last Day of Summer' and 'Maybe Someday' reinforcing the point.
'From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea' and 'If Only Tonight We Could Sleep', going back to The Cure's basics, slowly but surely. '39', again from the 'Bloodflowers' set, 'One Hundred Years' and 'Prayers for Rain' - before 'Bloodflowers' the song this time, bathed in those red spotlights, closes the set.
Tonight the Cure mix the new and the old, the known and the unknown, but Robert and the band chose not to play the hits. No 'Boys don't Cry', 'Lullaby' or 'It's Friday I'm in Love'. Tonight none of those great songs would have made sense. Because 'Bloodflowers' is different, because it's 'pure Cure', purer than the band have been for maybe a decade.
But they're not finished yet. 'A Strange Day', a triumphant 'A Forest', then 'The Figurehead' and 'Disintegration'. Old songs brought back into the spotlight (mostly red tonight), to reach out towards The Cure's future. Continuity at its best. So the new wave is not dead. It was just resting a bit, taking a breather. It's back. The Cure are back. Get ready.
The Brussels Set List:
Out of This World
Watching Me Fall
Want
Fascination St.
The Last Day of Summer
Maybe Someday
Edge of the Deep Green Sea
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
39
Prayers For Rain
100 Years
Bloodflowers
1st Encore:
A Strange Day
A Forest
2nd Encore:
Figurehead
Disintegration
- Christine C. Scholtes
