(Frank Micelotta/Getty Images for MySpace)

If you're anything like the freakazoid Cure fans who one way or another managed to secure a wristband for last night's surprise Cure show at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, you should probably stop reading this right now. If you weren't at the show and opt to continue, the rest of your day might end up a little sadder, a little more glum. You'll feel left out, like all the good stuff happens somewhere else to luckier and/or better-positioned people. You'll feel like, well, the protagonist of a Robert Smith song.



Thus forewarned, we shall continue: The Cure played a nearly three-hour show, courtesy of MySpace Music, at one of the best clubs in the country to approximately 450 people last night. They played "Killing an Arab," they played "Grinding Halt." They absolutely killed "Push," with longtime Cure guitarist Porl Thompson tearing through that jangled chord pattern while Smith's own shining black guitar rang along. Like a lot of Cure songs "Push" plays like Smith's side of an argument, his lyrics a dialogue aimed at someone on the other side of the song, usually a lover or an ex. "Go go go, push him away," he pleaded, "No no no, don't let him stay." But where on record Smith feels whiny and defeated, on the little stage at the Troubadour to a crowd who knew every word to every song and had no problem screaming along, the singer, fueled by the energy, was defiant, angry. It was an awesome performance, one of the best of the night.



Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance and his wife, Lyn-Z of Mindless Self Indulgence (photo by Frank Micelotta/Getty Images for MySpace)

Of all the bands of the British post-punk movement, the Cure in 2008 have become perhaps the most influential, and you could see it in the crowd. Members of My Chemical Romance, the Killers, AFI, All American Rejects, 30 Seconds to Mars and Paramore were spotted, each of which has harnessed the Cure's brand of confessional, semi-defeated love song to strike a nerve with the lost and the lonely. The crowd was shockingly, wonderfully young, providing more proof that where some of Smith's peers in the British 1980s scene have grown up and into contemporary adults -- the biggest being the Police, U2, and Elvis Costello -- the Cure's offerings address a lost-love confusion that provides universal solace, yes, but strikes a particular  chord with teenagers and twenty-somethings. But then, Smith hasn't really grown up, either. He still wears that hideous rat's nest of hair, splotches red lipstick on his face and circles his eyes with deep black mascara.



(photo by Jeremy and Claire Weiss)

I think that Smith has remained vital in part because of those eyes. Surrounded in black, his whites pop out like Dracula's, but where you expect them to exude danger, they in fact overflow with love and generosity. Over the course of the night his eyes moved left and right, surveying the crowd, honing in on a particular person, staring and smiling and tunneling love. To steal a phrase from the poet/publisher Jonathan Galassi, he gets inside your eyes and finds the vein that is the tunnel to your heart. I was way way up front on the left side of the stage, and at one point he walked our way and locked in on me. He bore into my eyes for about three seconds (though it seemed like three minutes), and it felt like he was an inch away from me, hadn't seen me in years, and had missed me terribly. Then he moved from mine to another's, and another's. He made whole pockets of the crowd howl just by turning his peepers their way. It was amazing. (Thank heavens Smith chose the rock life instead of the cult life -- he could Charles-Manson an entire population if he wanted to.)





Smith was in a great mood, drinking Budweiser all night long (he rivals only Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices in brewski consumption), chatting with the crowd, doing little dances -- and rocking the fuck out. Louder and harder than on record, the band brought their stadium show to a little club (Jason Cooper's drums took up half the stage, Thompson and Smith's effects pedals a big chunk of the rest, and bassist Simon Gallup bent and stomped at stage left), turned ballads into denials. The band transformed a renowned folk club into a sweaty punk bar. My left ear is kind of fucked this morning; I was right in front of Thompson (who, recall, toured with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in the mid 1990s), and his guitar sounded huge and damaging. His deep blue fingnails poked at his strings with a menace, his black platform shoes wah-wahing and pedal stomping like a punker in his prime. Lacking a keyboard, Thompson picked out all those memorable melodies -- "Head in the Door,"; "Close to Me," "The Walk," "Let's Go To Bed" -- on his fretboard, and the result was a rougher, tougher, more aggressive sound. You could hear it all night long, but particularly by encore number two, which was was a goth's wet dream: "A Forest,"  "Boys Don't Cry,"  "Jumping Someone Else's Train," "Grinding Halt," "10:15 Saturday Night," and "Killing An Arab."

Yowza.

Have a good Sunday. I told you not to read this.

The Cure set list, The Troubadour, Los Angeles, December 13, 2008
(courtesy of Chain of Flowers) 

Underneath the Stars
Pictures of You Lullaby
The Perfect Boy
The Reasons Why
The Walk
The End of the World
Lovesong
Real Snow White
Hungry Ghost
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
The Only One
Wrong Number
Sleep When I'm Dead
Push
Friday I'm In Love
Inbetween Days
Just Like Heaven
Primary
The Scream
One Hundred Years
It's Over

1st encore:
Freakshow
Let's Go To Bed
Close To Me
Why Can't I Be You?

2nd encore:
A Forest
Boys Don't Cry
Jumping Someone Else's Train
Grinding Halt
10:15 Saturday Night
Killing An Arab