The Cure - 4Tour Europe 2008

FEBRUARY

09th
Stockholm, Hovet
First night in Europe and pretty good show. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep and The Kiss were part of the main set. 10:15 Saturday Night line was "updated" to "Midnight, Saturday Night" which corresponded to the time on this moment.

11th
Oslo, Spektrum
A strange buzzing sound going through the PA (after Fascination Street) made Robert to react ("That's coming from somewhere and it's not any of us."). Quite a good night with A Letter To Elise including a few improvised lines. Last words of Robert Smith were : "see you in another 16 years" (the band not playing there since the Wish Tour).

13th
København, Forum
To Wish Impossible Things was dedicated to the opening band (65 Days Of Static). Porl and Simon actually watched their set quite often on the tour. Robert Smith also declared Us Or Them to be a "cartoon kind of song", when Killing Another was "for Denmark !". Hating any kind of bigotry.

15th
Hamburg, Color Line Arena
Apparently Robert felt a bit down (or sick ?) that night ("...how bad I feel, I need some love from you"). Also declaring that if it was his choice, the second encore would be "doom and gloom" (songs). Plainsong was a bit different because of some little mistake on guitar. Worth mentioning was the short version of Girl From Ipanema on guitar and drums ("maybe we'll play that") before Boys Don't Cry. Robert also changed "Fascination Street" to "Fascination Strasse".

16th
Berlin, Velodrom
The Drowning Man was an exclusive to this show. Robert Smith confessed he didn't realise it was Saturday night and so that conforted the choice of songs for the pop encore. Tonight's singing on these songs was much more convincing than the day before. Longest concert of the beginning of the tour (195 minutes).

18th
Warszawa, Torwar
For some reason, four songs from the Pornography album were played that night. Maybe they fitted with the mood or that was to see how The Figurehead or The Hanging Garden sounded like live in 2008. That last song wouldn't be played anywhere else in Europe.

19th
Katowice, Spodek

21st
Praha, T-Mobile Arena
Robert Smith asked the audience : "How many of you have been to a Cure show this year ? Pourcentage wise..." Before declaring : "Anyway, I'm just unsatisfying myself about something. As fucking ever...". The Kiss Me encore rarely played so far sounded great when the end of Play For Today had completely different (and wrong) guitar chords to the amusement of Robert screwing them up! Maybe Someday was played for the first time on the tour.

23rd
Wien, Gasometer
There were no background projections at this show, probably a matter of venue size. Robert went a little disturbed during Lullaby and complained about something sounding like the "subway". All instruments except drums and the voice microphone were shut down in the middle of the song to locate the problem ! So tonight's version sounded a bit like a remix. The beginning of Just Like Heaven was a bit weird as well with Porl playing the In Between Days tune for a few seconds ! Play For Today included lots of improvised lyrics. Shiver and Shake (a relatively short version) wasn't played elsewhere on the European tour.

25th
Munchen, Olympiahalle
Still about taking foreign language classes, Robert Smith confessed before Freak Show that the only German he knew after all these years was "bitte nicht storen" (please do not disturb"). Life through hotel doors...

27th
Zürich, Hallenstadion
Quite a funny statement after forgetting some lyrics on Please Project/The Only One ("I don't know the new songs we're doing, I forget the words... Fucking how I forget words to songs that are 25 years old..."). Before concluding about communicating : "Here you go, I talked ! He talks ! He talks...fucking rubbish !") . Other Voices was played for the first and last time of the tour.

29th
Roma, Palallotomatica
A Forest had the particularity of having a whole and improvised verse sung at the very end of the song. Apparently the band's family and especially Robert Smith's nephews and Porl's son attended the show. The "pop" encore was the opportunity for them to go wild at the left side of the stage with Robert joining on Close To Me and going completely mental dancing ! Simply amazing.

MARCH

02nd
Milano, Palasharp
Catch was played for the first time in Europe. Too bad they didn't do the other songs they tried during the soundcheck but if they didn't feel like it... M included some improvised lyrics. The "new" songs didn't have definitive titles ("this is called... no idea"). Robert Smith also pointed out : "If only Simon had his own mic, it would be so much more interesting."

04th
Marseille, Le Dôme

05th
Valencia, MTV Winter Open Air
A special show arranged to be filmed for MTV. Entrance was free and the band was supposed to play for 30 minutes only. But of course stayed on stage for more than two hours despite the tiredness accumulated on tour..

06th
Madrid, Palacio de los Deportes
Good show despite Robert Smith getting annoyed by somebody in the audience pointing a laser beam at him. That person was invited to meet him afterwards to "play laser beams together".

08th
Lisboa, Pavilhão Atlântico

10th
Barcelona, Palau Sant Jordi
Robert told the same old joke about the man who thinks he's an orange before Never Enough ! It's starting to get funny after all these years actually. A Forest was introduced by Forever-like guitar chords as often on the tour.

12th
Paris, Bercy
The show was filmed. Lots of balloons in the audience. How Beautiful You Are (introduced by "where we are now" since the lyrics refer to Paris) included a projection of a picture of Notre Dame church contrary to the previous shows. This concert was possibly their longest ever : 210 minutes (close call with London'89) ! Faith was played for the first time of the tour as a fourth encore with discordant guitar solos. Quite differently from later versions. It seems that Robert Smith wanted to play other songs as well but was restricted by the time.

14th
Antwerpen, Sportpaleis
A bit of a weird evening with Simon Gallup being pissed off at somebody in the audience (?) and showing it clearly. On a funnier but still unusual note, Robert Smith grabed a plastic kazoo thrown on stage during Close To Me and actually whistled the saxophone tune with it ! Kazooman power ! Some chords from Mirage (a Banshees' song) were played before The Walk.

16th
Oberhausen, König-Pilsner Arena
A few minor mistakes here and there (but nothing major) led Robert to apologise : "Sorry, we're having one of these nights...". The Figurehead was played for the second time on tour and included the same verse sung twice along with a few improvised lines ("I'll never wait for you again"). The encores saw an interesting statement about requesting songs : "The quiet people never get what they want, cause they don't bother to shout and just go -please, please, please, please- putting their hands together..." Worth noting was Jason who went completely carried away on Boys Don't Cry for the first half of the song with a slightly different beat.

18th
Rotterdam, Sportpaleis
The band came back on stage for the encores being a bit unsure of what to play next. So, Robert Smith asked the audience what they would prefer to hear : "four songs from the Faith album or six upbeat songs ? Or both ?". "Both" got the most response from the people there. All of this with a few notes from The Holy Hour on bass being played...but following with The Lovecats ! Finally, some compromise was found with the last encore which included Faith & AForest.

20th
London, Wembley Arena
Already the end of the tour in Europe. And against all guesses, the band didn't play the "Faith encore" despite Robert Smith declaring "I have a feeling your wish will come true". Maybe a matter of mood or he was thinking about something else. Great show anyway. Three Imaginary Boys was introduced by some chords from Foxy Lady.