Happy Pearlaversary!

One year ago today, the Cure peeps convened at the Rio in Las Vegas for a party of f*(&1#%  EPIC proportions.

The next morning, a few of the hung over, jetlagged, travel weary and beautiful people crammed themselves (literally) into two or three cars, narrowly avoided being pulled over, got stuck in Vegas strip traffic, and finally gathered in front of the Las Vegas sign to take a photo (whose brilliant idea was that?) before staggering back to the hotel to get ready for the Cure-stalking that would take place throughout the afternoon. Some of them were even from Australia.

And finally, the Cure went onstage. There are about six hundred photos of that so I'm just gonna do a slideshow here:



And there was much anticipation regarding a certain book about the 30th Anniversary being given to Robert, (alas!) but the show ended early, to much despair and speculation.

Finally, I took a crapload of video that night, and so did a lot of other people. Start watching here:



I love you, my Cure peeps!

Anuus Mirabilis - My year of miracles

The 12 months spanning May 2008 - May 2009 were undeniably the most pleasurably memorable stretch of 12 months in my entire life up to now. And although I will undoubtedly see the Cure many more times, the past year has been such an amazing collection of incredible experiences that it will be hard to top. It was, as the title of the post implies, an Anuus Mirabilis, a year of wonders, a year of miracles, a year where anything was possible.

I was just thinking about how this weekend will be a year since I saw the Cure on the Summer Solstice at Madison Square Garden, and how even at that moment I had NO idea what was to come in the months ahead. I realized that I haven't really written about it all, although there are bits and pieces here and there and so the idea for this blog post was born. After that show, I thought that was the end of my seeing the Cure for the year! But let's back up just a little and start over, and I apologize in advance that this will be a little long!

I've been a Cure fan since about 1984. It took me nearly 5 years to get to see them for the first time at Dodger Stadium on the Prayer Tour in 1989. For the 18 years between 1989 and 2007, I saw them a total of 9 times and considered that I was a lucky person to see them twice in both 2004 and 2007! Prior to 2008, I knew only a couple of the more "hardcore" fans very well and had traveled with them in 2003 and 2004 but had not really met that many other "diehards".

Then along came 2008.

I will start by saying that I've been a fan of the Chain of Flowers website since the late 90's, discovering it some time in 97 or 98, and checked it on an irregular basis. In the fall of 2001, after the first birthday of our daughter and after watching a terrible year's worth of bad news (I used to be a news junkie and actually had television in my house! Strange to think of, I know!) I basically thought to myself that the only news I cared to keep up with was news about the Cure.

So I switched my homepage on my browser from CNN to CoF, and there it stayed. A daily ritual of checking in with my favorite band and their comings and goings made for a peaceful and happy start to my day, as it still does. I was finally brave enough to send in a "Curespotting" in 2003 and started volunteering server space mirrors for the various audio and video files, but any involvement with the site was minimal. I watched though, always ready to hear about news of the Cure. I was REALLY happy when Craig decided to switch the format of the news to Blogger, but I don't think anyone really knew what that would mean for those of us that were fans of the site.

It began so slowly and grew so organically that would almost be hard to pinpoint when the comments on the blog began to take on a much greater meaning. The European shows were very time-offset compared to the US, so the catalyst was really when the Cure entered the US in May for the start of the US part of the tour. Each show setlist thread started to grow with commentary, and by the time that the 4-Tour reached Chicago, people from all around the world had started to tune in to the blog for the chance to chat with each other during the "live show" and comment on the set list as it arrived, and as the 4-Tour progressed, individual personalities began to emerge from the woodwork and interact with each other. Many of the people that would become important to my life later on in the year were those that I first met in the comments on the Chain of Flowers blog during the "show chats".

For our part, we started out with our original planned 2 dates to see them at Red Rocks and in Salt Lake City. We met the Cure just before their Salt Lake City show and I got my permanent autograph. We went to see them for the third time in 2008 in Sunrise, FL, and for the first time met some of the people that we had interacted with on the CoF blog.

Following the FL show, interacting with other people on CoF convinced and conspired to bring me to Madison Square Garden, where I recorded much of the soundcheck from an undisclosed location, then met a metric ton of Cure and CoF peeps and then got to the third row for an incredible show... and then thought that my Cure days for 2008 were done! The 4 Tour was officially over, and many of us that had met and interacted at shows and during the show chats were feeling a little, well, lost. So, the birth of the Meebo chat room was a direct result of the ending of the 4 Tour and the live show chats.

The rest of the summer and fall passed, mostly uneventfully, with the release of the rest of the singles and then the album release. I had passed the time by writing several Cure-related articles, and by designing another new teeshirt.

Then, on one otherwise uneventful evening in in November, it was less than two days before my 40th birthday when I got the news, the Cure were going to be taping shows in LA in December! I got the show tickets for the Carson Daly taping on Friday the 12th, and then when it was confirmed, we bought plane tix. However, we wouldn't be able to take enough time away to do the earlier show (Leno on Thursday the 11th) or the later taping (Jimmy Kimmel, on Monday the 15th) so I took a little bit of heat from my significant other over the idea that we were heading down to California for just one three-song concert. However, I asserted that since I was using the occasion as my 40th birthday present, it was my choice to go. Of course, this later turned out to be the best decision, like, ever, given that we just HAPPENED to be in LA for the now-legendary Secret Show at the Troubadour. And of course I got to give the Cure a batch of my Nightmare shirts and got a signed one back, (thank you so much forever, Keith!) but you can read about ALL of these adventures here, here and finally the actual 12:13 Dream show HERE.

The dust had barely begun to settle from the LA shows when the NME Awards were announced in London, and at first, I didn't even consider going. The economy was tanking, the holidays were just past, and everything was up in the air. The Coachella date wouldn't be announced until the end of January, and so it looked like the NME shows were the only game in town. Then more and more people were going, and the cost to go got smaller and smaller. Shared accommodation, shared transportation, meals at home, a week's pass for the Tube, reduced airfare due to the tanking economy and inexpensive show tickets sealed the deal, and before I knew it, I was spending a week in London. I got to see Tim Burton give Robert and the Cure the Godlike Geniuses award, and then stood at the front of the O2 Arena with 20,000 other people and a whole crowd of Cure peeps from all over the globe. Getting to see Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Bath, Avebury, Hyde Park, the Royal Albert Hall, Big Ben and scores of other sights with some of my favorite people on the planet just put the icing on the cake. These two shows marked the first time that I had ever traveled overseas for the Cure, and it was only due to the intense level of cooperation and coordination between a worldwide network of other fans that it even happened.

Speaking of Coachella, the Pearl show in Las Vegas just prior to the Coachella show had been announced while we were all in London for the O2 show, and you should have seen the panic when the US peeps realized that the announced ticket sale time was in the middle of the night in the UK! But of course we all took care of one another as we always do and eventually everyone had a ticket to what was hotly anticipated as the nearest thing to the Troubadour show that those who had missed it could imagine.

Somewhere in between the Troubadour show and deciding to actually go to London, I came up with the idea for the BOOK. Although the original plan was to give it to them at the NME awards, I think that the decision to wait and give it to them in April was the right one, as it really did allow a much greater level of participation and the end result was much more meaningful than it would have been, and I met so many amazing and wonderful fans through the project that it really took on a life of it's own.

So plans were made again and the fans converged on Las Vegas on one very warm weekend in April, and this time the reunion of the peeps was even more massive and heartwarming than the one before in London. Many CoF fans that had kept in touch via the Meebo chat were able to come together and for many, meet for the first time. We even managed to coordinate a group photo next to the Las Vegas sign! Although it was a disappointing ending that we now know was a bizarre fluke, the Pearl show rocked! And most of you know that story, as well as the incredible story of Coachella and some may have even read about the Belgian radio interview on Robert's 50th Birthday. The Other Voices book was successfully given to the Cure, and the hardcopy versions were created. Finally, on May 8th, 2009, the 30th anniversary of the release date of Three Imaginary Boys arrived.

And now sitting here in June of 2009, and looking back at those last 12 months, my heart is blown wide open with the amazingness of it all and how much everything has changed. I met the people that I've admired and loved for over a quarter of a century, in person, and have a permanent reminder of that day.

In the past 12 months I met more "diehard" Cure fans than I ever expected to meet. I've made some amazing friendships that I hope will be lifelong. Some of those are only now just beginning and others are deepening and becoming even more important, and there are even more people to meet and get to know better in the future.

I saw 10 shows in 12 months, and many of those have been with some of the most amazing people that I am now honored to call my friends. I've shared so many beautiful experiences with my wonderful husband, and had his solid support for those things that we could not share together.

And although these are not necessarily Cure-related, these events definitely added to the miraculous feel to the year. In August of 2008, I changed jobs to be in a much more supportive and appreciative environment. President Obama was elected in November of 2008, and later that month, I turned 40 years old. Over the week of Thanksgiving, we took our children on a family vacation and spent a week in the Florida Keys, where we were married in February of 2000 - it was the first time we had taken our children there. In April of 2009, I bought a VW Beetle, which has been my dream car for many years, and we took it on our big road trip to Vegas and Coachella.

Moving forward from now, I definitely consider the 12 months from May 2008 to May 2009 to be my Anuus Mirabilis, my most miraculous year to date. Thank you to the Cure for bringing us all together, and to everyone I've met and interacted with in the past year, thank you ALL for being the best Cure peeps on the planet!

Here are the blog posts that I've finished, there are several more to come, but it's going to be a little while until they are done, so I wanted to get this out sooner rather than later.

The Year of Miracles - 12 months - 10 shows

1. 4Tour - Red Rocks, Morrison, CO - Blog | Photos | Video

2. 4Tour - Salt Lake City, UT - Blog | Photos | Video

3. 4Tour - Sunrise, FL - Blog | Photos | Video

4. 4Tour - Madison Square Garden, NYC, NY Blog | Photos | Video

5. LA Shows - Carson Daly Show Taping, Burbank, CA - Blog | Photos | Video

6. LA Shows - Secret Show @ the Troubadour, W. Hollywood, CA - Blog 1, Blog 2 | Photos | Video

7. NME Awards - O2 Academy, Brixton, UK - Blog | Photos

8. NME Big Gig - O2 Arena, Greenwich, UK - Blog | Photos | Video

9. The Pearl Theater - Las Vegas, NV - Blog | Photos | Video

10. Coachella Festival- Indio, CA - Blog | Photos | Video

Other Voices - Signed, sealed & delivered!

Those of you that have been watching the updates on Chain of Flowers know that the book was delivered to the band in Vegas. Here is the "official" story of the how and why and when, as well as the extenuating circumstances surrounding it.

When Friday, April 17th, 2009 dawned in Las Vegas, Nevada, those of us who were there for the concert were full of optimism that it would be a very special night, indeed. The Cure were in town for an intimate show at the Pearl Theater, and many CoF peeps had gathered from all corners of the globe. We spent the afternoon at the casino in front of the box office, socializing and pretending to gamble. I received two last-minute pages at the casino and took over the concierge desk at the Palms so that I could put them in the album and make sure that the book was in top form before giving it to the Cure.

Returning to the "line" near the box office, several people had asked to see the book, and so we pulled up some chairs and went through the book several times so that people could see their pages and the cover and other decorations. Many people commented on how much better the artwork pages looked in person, and I agree, it was hard to capture the real beauty of the pages of the book in photos, and I hope that can assure all of the contributors that the band will be very impressed at all of your dedication, all of the love you have for the Cure and their music was very evident in the pages that you sent in.

Many fans who were waiting at the box office got to meet Simon at one of the nearby bars, and if I had only known how the night was to end, I would have given the book to Simon, as I was one of the first fans to approach him that afternoon. Hindsight, as they say...

When the concert began, I had at least three separate avenues lined up to be able to connect with the band prior to or following the show, but as we all know, the concert did not end as expected. When the lights went up after "A Forest", I had a strong feeling that I should try to give it to them that night, in case something went wrong and they canceled their Coachella appearance. We weren't sure quite why the concert had ended early, and when the setlist with the encores on it was given out to those in the crowd, it confirmed to us that there was something going on. There was a lot of speculation that night about just what had happened, but in the heat of the moment, all that mattered to me was that it was my one chance that I was certain of to make sure that people that I trusted were able to take the book from me and deliver it to the band. So I handed it to Darren (Simon's guitar tech) as he was onstage breaking down the equipment, and he promised me at that time that he would give it to them. I confirmed through my contacts that the Cure were not receiving visitors backstage following the show at the Pearl.

When we were at Coachella on Sunday, I approached Darren after the show to confirm that they received it, and he assured me that he would give it to them at the soonest possible time. One of my contacts had also emailed a person connected to the band who confirmed on Monday morning that it had been given to Robert and the band. My original plan was to try to get a photo of the band with the book, but as we know now, Robert had injured himself at the Pearl, and it was not possible to do so.

So, will Robert or the band acknowledge the project somehow? Of course we would love him to do so, but most likely, he will not. Their own 30th anniversary celebrations must be getting underway, and of course with an injured hand he cannot type very well, so I think that we can be happy knowing that they have gotten it safely and that our messages have been signed, sealed and delivered. However, if I DO hear anything, I will be sure to let you all know!

Thank you again to all of the contributors and supporters for being a part of this amazing project. I am still doing the hard copy of the book and I will be announcing that here when they are ready to order, they will be available very soon.

P. S. - If you haven't yet heard the interviews with myself and Vicky, one of the contributors to the book on Studio Brussel, you can read about that here and also listen to the archived interviews. We were interviewed about the book and I was also asked about the Cure's set at Coachella.

Photo 1 courtesy of Caterpillargirl2
Photo 2 courtesy of Barb / Thistle
Photo 3 courtesy of Faithdesired

12:13 Dream - An Evening with The Cure

Part 1-2 | Part 3

So there we were, finally allowed in to the Troubadour at the Myspace Secret Show, and with a mad dash we took our places on the rail and just behind, to settle in for the long wait before the show. I confess that I was very dazed with how surreal it was, that I was actually in a tiny, legendary club in Hollywood, California, and that I was about to be just a few feet away from The Cure as they played a show. For a lifelong, diehard fan, this was a complete dream come true, and for me it was something that only ever happened to other people, and never to me! So I apologize to my friends who were there if I seemed extremely ditzy or hyper, as I was!

The bar grew ever more crowded, the excitement level went up and up and up, and by the time that the Cure took the stage, I was in a complete tizzy. We were directly in front of Robert, and many of my CoF peeps were on the rail either to the left or right of us, and in my area there was Yvonne the fan VIP and her daughter Zyla, Kel, sugar*girl, Midnight and Steph. We all held space for each other so we didn't get too crushed by the crowd, and Midnight and Kel took turns with us so that we all got a spot on the rail for a little bit of the show. Thank you so much ladies and Kel I am so sorry about your arm!! =)

Having attended the 4Tour shows where they played Underneath the Stars, the show prelude of the waves crashing was a huge part of my experience of the song, much like other intros such as "Adagio for Strings" or "Intro", so it was a little jarring to have the Cure come out and launch into Underneath the Stars without hearing the crashing waves first. However, I was very charmed when Robert came out and told us "It's taking me back before we even start", presumably referring to the intimacy of the venue reminding him of the early days of The Cure. When they launched into the first strains of the music, though, we were swept up in the magical atmosphere of this song, and swayed along with the crowd as the waves of sound washed over us. The band sounded very relaxed and yet so together. It seems to me that sometimes it takes them a song or two to really get into their groove, but this night there was an immediate connection with each other and the audience that felt so warm and welcoming, and having this song be the opener was the perfect way to capture the ambience of the night.

Once the warm strains of Underneath the Stars had faded away, the chimes of Pictures of You brought a rousing response from the crowd, and I was taken right back to Dodger Stadium in 1989, the very first time that I heard it played live. I was struck by the disparity between hearing the song in this club vs. a stadium with 50,000 others, and also realized how nearly twenty years had passed between these two shows, and how timeless the song really is.

An animated version of Lullaby was a real crowd-pleaser as usual. Robert seems to very much enjoy enticing whoops and screams from the crowd with his performances during Lullaby, and of course we all loved seeing him dance and have fun as well.

A short pause and then "Another new one" introduced a lovely version of the new single "The Perfect Boy". Robert sounded great, very smooth and the band was very tight and together on this song. Following this song, Robert spoke to his sound people about the levels briefly before they launched into alt.end, the most notable thing about this song was when Robert told us at the end of it something about not thinking that he would be "singing it 4 years later, and yet, here I am".


The Reasons Why was really great to hear live, and sounded pretty similar to the album version. It did not get a great response from most of the crowd, but for those of us who are already familiar with the new album, it was a nice treat. It was very amusing afterward when Robert did a fairly long commentary on being able to remember the new songs. He says (as well as I can transcribe) "It's a f'is (to) remember that one. Particularly if you've been drinking. It's difficult anyway to remember. It's hard, like the new songs cause we've only done em a couple of times, it's like, normally you get into a groove, and so coming out of nowhere and doing these ones is a bit weird though . It's good though. I mean I'm singing the right words in my head, they're just not coming out my mouth. It was much better when none of you knew them." Then he launched into The Walk by saying "You'll know this one", which of course, we did, and sang joyfully along until he segued without any comment into "The End of the World".

After TEOTW, the familiar strains of Lovesong came along, and for once, I was completely enthralled with this song. Not so much so with the song itself, as it is not my extreme favorite in Cure love songs, but I was completely taken with the change in Robert's body language when he sang it. Understanding a little of the history behind this song, it was extremely interesting to me that his posture and face changed so much while he was singing Lovesong. For most of the other songs, he was very interactive with the crowd while singing, glancing around, dancing or tapping his toe on stage, smiling and generally enjoying the audience. However, when Lovesong started, it was as if we all suddenly vanished for him. He closed his eyes almost for the entire song, and seemed very lost in his own private world. It almost seemed like he was in a sort of a trance, from which he awakened as the song was ending, and after looking around for a moment, couldn't quite work out why we were all there.

From the blissful trance of Lovesong to the gutter of The Real Snow White was quite the transition, but I can tell you that from the album, this song does not have the justice done to it that a live version can do. It's a much more powerful song in person, and has a great rollicking feel that moves the story along without dwelling too much on the narration. The buildup of tension in the song is very skillfully done, and as on the album, they went straight into the alternate universe of "The Hungry Ghost" which had a really strange tempo and subdued presentation as compared to the album. Interestingly, they did a very similar version of the song when they played it at the Jimmy Kimmel taping, so perhaps it's a slightly reworked version from the album. One thing that I noticed is that Robert sounded much more intense and angry on this song live as compared to the studio version.

When The Hungry Ghost was over there was a bit of a lengthy pause, but when the first bars of "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea" came out, I just about died and went to heaven. I'm sure you understand. This is one of my all time favorite live songs, and one of my top 5 all time fave Cure songs, so it was really wonderful to hear it played at this intimate show. The crowd was very into the song, throwing their hands in the air at all the right places and generally having a blast.

A very sensual version of The Only One (and I LOVE, I LOVE, I LOVE, I LOVE the live ending to this song!) was followed by a rousing Wrong Number which must be one of Robert and Porl's favorite songs to play live. The following series of songs was a very bouncy set which encompassed old and new songs alike, proving that the pop sensibility of The Cure's music is firmly entrenched. Starting off with the new/old song, Sleep When I'm Dead, slamming into Push, jumpstarting the slackers with Friday I'm in Love, picking up the pace with Inbetween Days, roping in anyone left over with Just like Heaven and finally topping out with the legendary pop classic Primary, anyone in the Troubador who was not dancing after that series must have been either near death or terminally boring.

After this very dance-y interlude, the mood in the house shifted dramatically with the introduction of The Scream, one of the most intense songs from 4:13 Dream. This became the first song of a 1-2-3 punch that included 100 years and It's Over, with the Cure striding offstage afterward, leaving the main set hanging on a strident, angry , headbanging note that diluted the sugary pop aftertaste of the prior series like a rough whisky shooter after a pina colada.

The first encore brought The Cure back onstage with Robert saying "The last Myspace thing we did was a soundcheck in Sydney, and it was like, 5 songs, that's it. That's what were just out there reminiscing. (something) Right, we'll do some pop. It's Saturday night, Simon wants pop music" and then launching into their 4-Tour "Pop Encore" starting with Freakshow, and then continuing up the dance beat with Let's Go To Bed followed by Close to Me and finishing it up with Why Can't I be You. The guitar effects that Porl has created for YCIBU are really wonderful and I always look forward to hearing them.

A second encore brought out the best in Simon as he attacked his bass during the end of A Forest, with Robert making a quip about running the last two encores together so they didn't have to go up and down the stairs! Finally, I nearly rubbed poor Kel's arm raw as I bounced along to the third and final "Old Skool" encore. The classic sounds of Boys Don't Cry started us off and then we jumped on the train! I was SO ready for the 1-2-3-4 transition into Grinding Halt! It was so punk, angry, and raw! The spare desolation of 10:15 never fails to bring the crowd along as it drips , drips drips, and then finally, Killing An Arab (Another) brought the night to an end. It's still unbelievable to me that a song written so long ago can still completely and totally rock out without a bit of over-the-hill datedness. And yet, it does. Robert finished the night saying "Thank you very much, that's it. Thank you, this f-ing rocked!"

With the show over, there was little left to do but stumble in a haze and a daze out to the streets of LA. Some of our CoF peeps were upstairs in the VIP lounge, some were around back watching the van driver polish his windows incessantly, and some were wandering hither and yon, looking for warm clothes and a drink. After a bit of time out front, we joined the crowd waiting for the band out in back of the club. The Cure were in no mood for socializing after two hours spent being mobbed in the VIP room at the club, so they went straight from the club to the van without stopping. One fan shoved a poster in the van and the boys signed it and gave it back, but that was the only contact with the fans out back. Speaking of the schwag, there were some gift bags given out just after the show along with the great lithograph posters, but I was in such a daze immediately afterward that I completely missed the posters. However, my Cure angel that was with me all weekend was sitting on my shoulder once again as I stood on the street after the Cure had departed, talking with with Midnight and Steph a good two hours after the concert ended. Just as the words left my mouth "I didn't get a poster, I completely missed getting one." a man happened by just at that precise second, overheard me, turned around and said "You didn't get a poster? Here." and handed me one. A-MAZ-ING. Just like the rest of the weekend. Thank you, whoever you are, for my treasured memento of the evening. Thank you to The Cure for an unforgettable night. Thank you to Myspace for the Secret Show. Thank you to all my Cure friends who were there with me and helped make it something we'll talk about for the rest of our lives.

A Curemas Miracle (Part 3)

Part 1-2 | Part 4


Very early in the morning on Saturday, Dec. 13th, we had finally checked into our hotel and were unwinding from the excitement of the previous day. I had descended to the lobby of the hotel to retrieve something from my car, and I was checking the Chain of Flowers front page on my phone in the elevator. At the same time, in our hotel room, Sean was checking his Myspace account. Various other people were getting the news as well, and my phone rang practically nonstop for about 15 minutes until it was apparent that all who were in our group had been informed. It was something that I never thought would ever happen to me. The Cure had announced that they were going to be playing a Myspace Secret show at the Troubadour club in Hollywood! As excited as we were, we were also in desperate need of a few hours of good sleep, so instead of heading out to sleep on the streets of LA, as some others did, we got about 5 hours of shuteye before awakening at 7 am to head out to the line at the club.

Upon arriving at the line "near" the Troubadour, I was so excited that I literally flew out of the car without turning it off and went to get my "unofficial" line number of 23. This brilliant idea, courtesy of Midnight, allowed people to be able to move in and out of line without fear that they would have to fight for their place in line and also made sure that when the time came, there was absolutely no question as to who was there first.

After I settled down a bit and re-parked my car (remembering to turn it off this time) we got out our red chairs from the day before and whiled away the time by chatting to the other fans in line. There were a lot of folks that were in the Carson Daly line from the day before, and some who were also at the Leno taping from Thursday. I finally remembered to send some pics to Craig as well! Soon after we arrived, there was a bit of unexpected excitement when a small accident occured in the nearby intersection. An older lady in a car had run the red light and struck a man on a moped. Fortunately, he did not seem to be too injured as he promptly got up from the pavement and began chewing out the lady in the car! The fans in line were the first to call 911 and run over to check out the accident, since we even had a nurse in the crowd.

Once the hubbub over the accident had subsided a bit, Sean and I went to the cafe around the corner from the Troubadour to get some breakfast. About halfway through our meal, I pulled out my phone and checked in at the CoF blog, where I found the report about needing a printout of your Myspace account in order to get into the show. We were pretty concerned about this and hurried through the rest of our meal, all the while strategizing about where I could go to print out a page from my laptop. As it turned out, on our way out of the cafe, we ran into Keith Uddin and Ricky who were getting coffee there also! The crew had just arrived to do setup for the show and of course the cafe was the nearest place to go. We stopped and chatted with Keith for a moment and asked him about what we had just read, but he reassured us that it was not true and that no printout was needed. He also told us that someone would come out around noon and distribute wristbands, and that these would be the ticket to get into the club. We were very relieved and went back to the line to distribute the information to the others who were waiting, and discovered that some had already left to try to print out their pages.

People trickled into the area bit by bit all morning, and just before noon there were well over 180 people in line, with most of those arriving after 11-11:30 am because they read on the announcement that no line-ups would be allowed before noon. Well, we were unofficially lining up LONG before that, so my bit of advice to anyone who wants to get into a show like this is to get there as early as you possibly can, and your patience will be rewarded. Waiting in line for a few hours for an opportunity like this is something you will never regret!

The anticipation grew as the morning wore on, and there were a lot of people milling around and waiting and asking questions. Finally, about 10 minutes after noon, some people came out of the club with a few handfuls of wristbands, and the security guard shouted for everyone to line up according to their number! This was a great vindication of Midnight's idea and it was awesome because there was no pushing, no fights, and you really could not claim you had been there before someone else if your number was higher. Unfortunately for those arriving later, there were only about 130 wristbands given out initially so there were quite a few disappointed people. I have heard that a few more wristbands surfaced some time later in the day, but I haven't been able to confirm that. We were instructed to hold out our right wrists for the bands and when we got them we were told NOT to touch them or take them off, not to cut off the loose end or ANYTHING! They were very stern about this and when they saw my camera hanging off my shoulder I got a big lecture about getting kicked out if they even saw a ghost of a camera in my possession. So of course in balancing out the idea of smuggling my camera in to record the historic occasion vs. getting kicked out completely and not getting to witness said occasion at all, you can tell which option I chose in the end.

We were then instructed in no uncertain terms to scatter and not show ourselves again prior to 7 pm, lest we risk the loss of our wristband or be pushed to the back of the line to get in. So most people chose to scatter. Having brought my "club" clothes with us when we left the hotel in the morning, there was no reason to go back, so we ended up driving a few places with Crowbi-wan and even went out to the Santa Monica Pier which was pretty and crowded but also extremely cold and windy so we did not stay long. Arriving back in the vicinity of the club, I camped out at a coffeehouse a few blocks away and took the opportunity to charge my phone a tiny bit and also upload some photos to my flickr account. Later in the evening, we had dinner at a small Indian restaurant near the Troubadour and ended up meeting Autumn there which was wonderful, being an admirer of picturesofyou.us for several years. She was warm, funny and kindly even helped me in the ladies room to zip up my corset :D, so thank you again to Autumn!

It was getting close to the magic hour of 7 pm, so heading back over to the area of the club, I found a strange sight. It seems that the club people preferred that the 100-plus fans who actually had wristbands should wander in and out through traffic and nervously wait in the median as opposed to waiting in an orderly fashion on the actual sidewalk by the club. Since we were strictly NOT allowed to line up, it ended up that all the fans collected themselves on the median of the street in order to be as close as possible to the line, since we were not allowed to step foot on the sidewalk which the club touched. In my opinion, they should have simply honored the numbering system already in place and let people wait just as we had that morning. As it was, exactly at 6:59 pm, there was a mad dash across the street, literally through the cars waiting at the light, for the "survival of the fittest" fight for the front of the line. Once in line, we still had another hour to wait before we would be allowed in the club at 8 pm, and security came down the line several times, checking that all in line had wristbands and tossing out the few people who were in line without them.

Before we even knew it, an hour had passed and the line began to move! Read all about Part 4 - 12:13 Dream, An Evening with The Cure on the next post.

A Very Merry Curemas! (Parts 1-2)

Part 3 |Part 4

Part 1 - Trepidation!

When I first heard about tickets for Last Call with Carson Daly, way back in November, my first thought was that it had the potential to be another Soundstage fiasco. For those of you who missed that one, the Cure were supposed to play an intimate taped show for Chicago's Soundstage program in June 2008. Much to my chagrin, the show not only did NOT happen, but it was denounced by Robert on the Cure's website as proof that the only source for legitimate Cure news was on their site.

So, there I sat, in the middle of November, just a few months after that experience, with yet another event that not only had NOT been confirmed by Robert on the official site, but had the potential to be even less of an experience than Soundstage. And yet, I jumped, again, on the opportunity, figuring that if it really did fall through then at least we would have a nice weekend in LA with some friends, but this time, I was richly rewarded for my Cure fan optimism. I was asked several times if I was really going for "just three songs" at the Carson Daly taping, and each time I would reply "No, I'm also going down there to hang out with some wonderful Cure friends." This is the thing that came true the most for the whole weekend!

Being an optimist, again, I booked our airline tickets to come in very early on Friday morning and then to leave later on Sunday, leaving the Saturday night open for, well, whatever was going to happen! Suddenly, it WAS confirmed, and we began hearing rumours about the KROQ show, other tapings and appearances and very shortly, the weekend began to solidify into a veritable festival of Curemas!

Part 2 - Carson Daly Taping

The weeks flew by, and then suddenly it was time to go to LA! We dispatched our children to their grandparents' house, our dog to my sister's pet resort, and then I stayed up all night anxiously awaiting our very early morning flight to California while Sean got just a few hours sleep. I woke him at 5 am to go to the airport, and after a quick nap on the plane we arrived at the Long Beach airport just after dawn on Friday the 12th.

Once we arrived in Burbank, a fast but excellent breakfast at Theresa's Restaurant prepared us for the long day's wait in line. Cure friends old and new greeted us as we settled in, and we passed the time in line by chatting, taking photos and video and generally milling about. The Cure fans in line that I had met in person before the Carson Daly taping included my special Cure pirate sister, Sugar*Girl, the inimitable Cat, the lovely Chris and the quietly brilliant Crowbi Wan, and these were soon joined by people I had long chatted with, like SaraB, AndytheCurefan, Amber and Cure Heart and those I had long heard about but never met, such as KittenCult, Midnight, Yvonne, Kat, and the sweet and talented guys from the Curse.

In preparation for this day, I had made some special long-sleeved tee shirts in my Nightmare before Curemas design in order to give them to the band and those around them. I frankly had no idea how I was going to convey them to the band, but as with many things, I figured that the Universe would provide a way if it was meant to be. About halfway through our day of waiting, I had brought out some of my shirts in order to give them to those who were asking about them, when almost on cue, a gentleman appeared in the parking lot and I was informed that this man was Keith Uddin, the producer for the Cure. I approached him and asked if I could give him one of my shirts, and when I told him that I had made them for the guys, he offered to bring them in to them. He asked me at the time if I wanted him to get one of them signed and bring it back out, but I did not want to bother him if he was busy, so I said he didn't need to.

As the day wore on in the line, more and more people joined, and it began to grow ever colder and darker. Two men came out with a small camera and interviewed several fans in line, particularly those who had camped out the night before. I'm still not certain why they were videoing, but maybe someday we will find out. The line grew longer and the night grew ever chillier, until at long last, an assistant from the show came along to check our tickets against a list of names.

We passed through a metal detector screening and then were allowed to line up along a series of benches next to the studio wall. We could hear the soundcheck as we waited with ever greater anticipation for what was ahead of us. Finally, we were allowed into the studio and were directed to our seats by the various assistants. We were informed that we were to be the studio audience for two night's tapings. There was a comedian who was the entertainment for the studio audience and who tried his best to keep us laughing when he knew we were all there for the Cure!

We sat through an interview of an actress which was the first night's show, and then the stage was prepared for the eggnog chug challenge. Sean got called out of the audience right at this time and he was worried that he would have to do the eggnog chug. However it turned out that his role was just to make a fool of himself for everyone's entertainment :D and yes, he really did win a Subway card with $5 on it when he "won" the dance-off.

After the Eggnog challenge, Carson interviewed Will-I-Am and I thought this was really interesting, as I very much like him, being introduced to his work through the songs he produced for the Obama campaign.

FINALLY, the rest of the taping was over, and the lucky people on the floor were allowed to go and stand in front of the stage. The stage hands started clearing the floor for the audience, and some people were allowed in who had been waiting outside. Then just a few rows of the studio audience were allowed down onto the floor. We ended up very close to the stage on Porl's side! Then the Cure came on and of course the magic was in the air. The band sounded brilliant, very edgy and tight! Robert's voice was very smooth and he seemed to be in a great mood, making lots of eye contact with the crowd and watching the bleachers just beyond the floor audience. One bad moment came about halfway through the taping when an extremely rude person pushed his way right into the front of a bunch of us who had been there since the beginning! That was some seriously bad karma there, so I hope whoever you are dude, you got what was coming to you!

Since we were in front of Porl, we got a great appreciation for his guitar work, especially during Sleep When I'm Dead. He was really shredding it up, and I have no idea how he doesn't fall over during performances with his high heels on! Since we were so close to the front I got to see how Robert taps his foot on his toe while he plays and other details that you can't tell from a concert setting. He has some ginormously large boots and I noticed during the weekend's events that he was wearing cargo-style trousers with a very dark camo print on them, and of course his big black shirts with the stars around the left chest pocket. It's such a surreal experience to be so close to the band that you could literally reach out and touch them, you begin to notice so much that you miss, even on television. I could see a lot of Porl's tattoo details, and noticed that his hands are very decorated, it reminded me of the henna patterns that people get on their hands in India. A photographer at the KROQ concert on Sunday noticed this same thing too, it seems.



It seemed like Robert was just getting into the groove when all of a sudden it was over! We screamed and stomped, and Robert leaned forward and shook a few hands, and I was worried that a couple of the more zealous fans were going to pull him down into the crowd because they grabbed his hand so hard. He managed to shake free, and they walked off stage, and then the audience was herded back out to the parking lot. As we filed out, I saw a few people off to the side of the backstage area talking to Keith Uddin, and when he spotted me he motioned for me to follow him. When I did, he showed me that he had actually gotten one of the shirts that I had made signed by the band! I was very much blown away by this, and by the time that I reached the parking lot, I was in complete tears, so Keith if you ever read this, thank you for not listening to this silly fan girl :D Thanks a million!



The rest of the night was taken up in the mundane tasks of obtaining food and checking into the hotel, and we will go on to Parts 3-4 for Saturday's events!

13 Infinite Possibilities

The forthcoming studio release from the Cure, 4:13 Dream (which is scheduled to be released in the US on October 28th) has be the most greatly-anticipated Cure album in the past 15 years.

The growth of the Cure's fan-base on the Web has greatly facilitated the exchange of knowledge, opinion, file sharing and general discussion among fans, literally worldwide. When the Cure play a concert in this day and age, the images and music are broadcast out around the globe in hours, sometimes even bare minutes from the end of, or even during, the performance.

So when the Cure began to play some of the new songs of this album on tour as early as October of 2007 (Notably, the Download festival, where "The Only One" was first debuted as "Please Project" ) and continuing on throughout the 4Tour in 2008, interest in these new songs was fueled primarily through amateur concert video and audio tapings, and limited amounts of rapidly-Youtubed television footage. It is a testament, then, to the sheer raw power and brilliance of these songs, that even a fraction of their real magic was captured and transmitted online.

Far from diminishing interest in these songs, these limited glimpses into a new world of Cure music have helped to stoke interest in the new material to a fever pitch. Indeed, the four singles released during the summer of 2008 shot readily into top of the sales charts worldwide with, in the US at least, a trivially minuscule amount of radio play. That a band can sell so many copies of a recording based almost entirely on interest generated through non-mainstream media channels is unprecedented, and should bode well for the future of the Cure. That they can do it in an age where music is freely available online through simple searches and a minimum of technical ability, speaks to the deep devotion the Cure's fans have to the band. Clearly, their fans care enough to continue to support the Cure through purchasing their music as well as helping to sell out their live shows whenever they tour.

Speaking of fans, I would like to extend a huge thanks to Craig over at Chain of Flowers for his endless patience and love for the band and his fellow fans as expressed through his website and new blog. Chain of Flowers was my primary source of Cure information for many years, and I have been thrilled to interact with Craig and the other fans throughout this past year as the new blog format has allowed us to do. It's been an amazing time, and I very much credit Craig with helping to introduce some wonderful new Cure friends into my life. The music of this album will always bring back fond memories from this past year of attending concerts "virtually". For the shows I did go to, knowing that there were other fans waiting breathlessly for every text, as I had done at other shows, helped to create a feeling of community that is still so amazing to me. I'm happy to be a part of the "family" over at CoF!

With that being said, I'd like to preface my review of the album with the disclaimer that this may not be a "typical" review as I don't have much to say about the more technical side of the music, so that which follows will be informed more by my own interests in the symbolism and meaning of the songs themselves. As usual, my opinions are my own and are in no way meant to be definitive. Rating the songs individually as bad or good is not part of my intent, for ultimately I love the album as a whole and believe each song has it's own story to tell. This is my interpretation of those stories.

(Graphic: A Wordle of the top 13 words on 4:13 Dream)

For an album that abounds with mythical and legendary creatures such as sirens, angels and "The Perfect Boy", the song "Underneath the Stars" begins the album on a note firmly rooted in the physical world while at the same time introducing a beautiful scene of intimacy and love. I will never forget the first moment I heard this song, with the sound of the crashing waves holding me stock-still in amazement. (So much so, that I forgot to turn on my camera!)

Prefacing the lyrics invoking the very creation of the Universe, (13.73 billion years ago, to be precise) the sound of the waves breaking echoes both the watery beginnings of life on earth and the water which cradles human life inside the womb. The scene is set of lovers entwined, floating together beneath a beautiful, starry sky. They lose themselves in each other, and in the infinite possibilities of the universe, held in a moment where the present, past and future intersect. That this song encompasses the most intimate of moments wrapped up with philosophical wonderings about the entire, infinite universe is quite impressive, and even in low-fidelity recordings became an instant and much-anticipated classic. It's musings on love and eternity are bound to place it very high on the charts of those Cure fans who revel in the dreamily romantic songs of the Cure's extensive discography.

Once the soft, dark night of "Underneath the Stars" has faded into daylight and everyone has woken up and had a good lunch, the Cure go in for a bit of afternoon delight in "The Only One", with Robert elucidating the many ways in which he is explicitly delighted by his lover. Unabashed and completely unashamed, this openly sensual riff on an adult repertoire has a bouncy beat and ecstatic rhythm completely befitting the subject material.

Like a visit from a particularly interesting and yet psychologically-unstable friend, "The Reasons Why" brings us out of our hazy afterglow with some jarring lyrics about suicide and friendship. Fittingly released near Halloween, this song seems to speak of someone who is in contact with the spirit world, and who is thinking about joining them very soon. The third-person style of this song is a bit unsettling after the extreme intimacy of the first two songs, however it seems to fit the material more closely, and certainly serves to put some distance between the singer of the song and the ideas expressed within (suicide, right to die). Interestingly, the conversation expressed near the end of the songs calls to mind the same symbolism found in "Underneath the Stars" regarding the infinite nature of the Universe as well as seeming to express some of Robert's belief regarding the afterlife, or lack thereof.

Perhaps driven by a need to get rid of some of the emotional baggage left over from "The Reasons Why", "Freakshow" lurches onto the dancefloor and shakes like a freak until the weight has dropped away and all that's left is a hallucinatory bubble of sights and sounds. Settling itself down next to the hookah in the back room, "Freakshow" leaves the harsh reality of the everyday world behind and pops open a hooky, catchy chorus determined to make you forget your woes. Aliens, swing dancing and a somewhat cranky girlfriend make for a psychedelic trip to the club downtown and you will be singing along even if you don't quite know what "infradig" means

The distressingly short "Sirensong" unfolds itself languorously from the mists of ancient memory, enchants us with glimmerings of golden paradise, leaves us aching rapturously for more, and then, disappears like a wisp of shimmering smoke.

"The Real Snow White" is all grown up and looking nervously around the room at seven dwarfs who want her to visit another kind of cave. Here, the raw, pale underbelly of life is exposed and crawling with seedy sycophants, disorienting drugs, lost time and lost innocence, and Snow White has been left wanting ever more.

Leaving the world of grime and slime behind, and perhaps inspired in a perverse way by the journey through it, Robert waxes philosophical with an exploration of the concept of "The Hungry Ghost". In Tibetan Buddhism, as in many other faiths around the world, the hungry ghosts are "a metaphor for people futilely attempting to fulfill their illusory physical desires". The placement of this song just after "The Real Snow White" seems like a deliberate way to contrast two extremely different states of mind and being. Debauchery and addiction have been cast aside in favor of robes of saffron and somber contemplation, and the effect is extremely thought-provoking indeed!

The introspection continues during "Switch" as Robert begins to question everything about his life, friendships, possessions, thoughts and habits, and ultimately decides that he's changed, but he is not certain why this is so. In this hard-rocking lament, difficult questions abound, the answers are few and far between, and all we can do is suffer alongside Robert on his quest for truth.

Spinning yet another tight vignette of a song into being, "The Perfect Boy" marries a sunny, poppy love song with a jaded, cynical tale of lust and betrayal. The girl believes, and the boy believes too, as long as he gets his way in the end. Fortunately, the song ends long before the optimism does.

"This. Here and Now. With You." is a perfectly Zen moment of clarity expressed in quirky, chiming rhythms and expressive beats. The words and phrases tumble over each other as if the moment will pass too quickly and they will be left behind. The urgency and immediacy of the lyrics weave a story of lovers brought together fatefully, perhaps bringing to mind the illicit relationship expressed in the song "Strange Attraction" from 1996's "Wild Mood Swings".

Resurrected from the "Head on the Door"-era demos, the updated (presumably) song "Sleep When I'm Dead" presents either a waking dream or walking nightmare, complete with conversations with angels and cute baby animals. Hallucinatory echoes reverberate throughout this ethereal landscape and the catchy chorus compels us to sing along, pulling us through the mirror and into an alternate reality littered with divine beings and reflected visions of the world we left behind.

The story of the "Scream" begins slowly, in the springtime, and plays out throughout the seasons as the subject of the song grows progressively more distant and distraught until the final drawn-out scream spins her into a whirlwind of frantic action and emotion. A picture is drawn of someone moving in a slow motion, as if they were in a time-lapse film, as the year spins faster and faster around her, until she is snapped into reality by the intensity of the "Scream" and upon awakening, finally looks around with a lingering sense of horror at the wreckage.

The tone of finality of the closing song "It's Over" takes on literal and figurative meaning, spinning the loss and distress expressed in the lyrics of the "Scream" into an angry return to the grim, drug-fueled world of "Snow White" where time is once more lost and deeply lamented.

The lucid introspection and philosophical meanderings of earlier songs has turned to remorse and self-hatred. The sense of limitless possibility captured in "Underneath the Stars" has turned bitterly, sourly wrong, cynicism rules the day, and the angry howls of disgust are all that are left behind. Launching a sonic assault on our hearts and minds, "It's Over" leaves us hoping desperately that it is not over at all, and that the long-rumored dark album will continue the story much, much further.

Cure Chat!

I will be hosting a Cure chat tonight at 7pm pacific, 8pm mountain, 9pm central, 10pm eastern. Topic is Favorite 4Tour Moment. Password is craigp.