cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why I will never see The Cure live again A friend gave me a ticket to see the Cure and I have thoughts. Our tickets were for the the lawn at Merr1weather P0st Pavillion. These seats were in the back of the back of the venue. Who are Cure fans? I wondered this while we drove the three hours there. Some of them are 14 years old, wearing outfits from Hot Topic. Some are in their 60's. Some look like cool scene people. Some of them are in their 50's and dress like golfers and talk through the entire fucking show. The Cure served an essential social role in the 80's and 90's. They were the training wheels for weird music for many. The basic test of whether someone you met might be kinda cool. If they were into The Cure, they were probably ok. Thirty years on, I have heard the music of The Cure playing in grocery stores more than once. There are many types of Cure fans. Those who have listened to Seventeen Seconds on repeat while falling asleep. Those who have listened to Faith while in some sort of psychotic break. And those who really liked "Friday I'm In Love" and "The Caterpillar" and "High" and "Lovecats." I think that it was primarily the latter group who nested themselves high on the lawn at the show that I just attended. Shuffling through their phones and chattering through torch songs and never fucking shutting up while The Cure are actually playing music nominally right in front of them. Nominally. Because we could not actually see The Cure for most of this performance. They were down there. Supposedly. We enjoyed the homeopathic Cure experience. I guess that they knew that were were out there, because they played to fill a stadium or an arena or whatever this godforsaken venue thinks that it is. Played to fill it by having the drummer fill songs out as if it were Muse playing Wembely. Songs from the Seventeen Seconds album, which originally featured sparse percussion that is defined by the spaces left open, had hard and extra drumming hits that utterly ruined the touching emptiness of the originals. This was the first arena concert that I have been to since attending Ozfest '98. I never need to go to another arena show. The chattering idiots. The total inability to actually see the band. The chattering fucking idiots who talked through the entire show as if they had anything to say that could possibly be any more interesting than The Cure actually playing a concert right in front of them. But really there are more interesting things than The Cure playing the hits to an audience which included two women behind me discussing various options for buying chicken tenders and fries for about 40 minutes. The second band that I saw last night at the Ch1nchilla Cafe had Sonic Youth energy. They were tight, they were energetic, they had the whole fucking room pogoing. The Mums, from Lynch6urg, VA. They did originals, they did a cover of Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl that fucking set me on fire. Fuck this stadium bullshit. Fuck these legacy bands. Fuck The Cure. And I say that as someone who saw The Cure on the Wish tour in '92. This is a dark fucking time. Fascism is on the rise globally. Neo-nazis are now the mainstream in William F. Buckley's former stomping grounds. There is war in Ukraine, Roe V. Wade has been overturned, and Florida is at war with my friends' trips to the fucking bathroom. So was the summer of '69. War in Vietnam, race riots. So was punk in 1977, with the legacy of war rationing and no fucking jobs in the UK. So was was grunge in the early 90's, which was maybe just pissed off at the lack of progress since '69 and didn't know what to do with that. Out of dark times great subcultures and movements are borne. And this is one of them. There is no word yet for the scene and sound of the current house venue situation. Places where people rent a house and just book bands and invite people and collect money to give to the bands. BYOB. If you want to be welcomed, bring a twelve pack of PBR and a bag of ice and a six pack of selzer. In mainstream culture, people are saying that rock is dead. But no, it's just underground which has been where it has always belonged. I go to rock shows a couple of nights a week and 16 year olds and 25 year olds and 45 year olds are banging some hard shit. Bands in front of audiences of 30 or 40 people that would have been huge if they could have launched according to the rules of 20 years ago. It used to be that a band that was good played some local shows, got good, got signed to a label, released an album and a single that got played by college rock radio stations, made money from the album sales, made a video for MTV, the video hit, sold more albums, they toured, built an audience, got more radio play, etc. There is no path to breaking out for a rock band anymore. There is no MTV, there is no college radio network that anyone listens to, there are not album sales when everyone is using Spotify which pays about $75 for what would have been a gold record before. So now I can jump around 20 inches away from a band every bit as good as The Cure were when they were five years into their career for a $10 cover charge for 3 or 4 bands. Why would anyone go to see The Cure instead? I'm left wondering that. I will never again go to another stadium gig. Those bands are too wealthy and divorced from their roots to bother with. I don't even begrudge them the money -- it just isn't real rock and roll anymore. The Mums were fucking killing it less than ten feet in front of me. Why sit through the chatter of people who cannot accept that their childhood is over when some kids who genuinely give a fuck are pouring their hearts out for the first time? 5:13 a.m. - 2023-06-26 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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