Back in Chicago for the first time in two years, the ministers of mope are at it again for another night of melancholic fun.
Greeted with a deluge of overanxious sighs and cries, the goth-pop rockers opened with 'Out of this World' and continued with 'Watching Me Fall', 'Want' and a rousing 'The Last Day of Summer'. Mixing the paint-it-black motif with poppier songs like 'Fascination Street' and the crowd-pleaser 'Boys Don't Cry', Robert Smith and the boys got the crowd singing along sentimentally, gyrating in glee, and fawning over the frontman with the unmistakable anemic face and tarantula hair.
The Vic theater provided the perfect backdrop for the show. The vaudeville house able to accommodate 1,400 people, was small enough to feel intimate yet large enough to feel like an authentic rock concert. The Cure swayed from the evening's playlist, also playing two tracks (a slow version of 'Just Like Heaven' and then 'Boys Don't Cry') new to the American tour set list during their second encore and coming back on stage for yet a third encore. Smith prefaced this by saying, "We said we wouldn't do this, but here's a quick little in between."
The mix was loud and precise, though the bass stretching the acoustics of the room made Roger O'Donnell's synth inaudible at times. The songs were precise, note to note with each drowned in melody and intensity. The lighting set of deep reds, greens, and blue gave the ethereal feel of being inside the 'Disintegration' cover.
The concert announced two days before the show, sold out in a matter of minutes. For those not fortunate enough to set their hands on a ticket or able to afford the going rate of $300 a ticket from the scalpers local radio station WXRT (93.1FM) broadcasted the show live.
Amidst the deafening screams and running mascara, the kids were doing alright, many citing this as their best experience in this lifetime. A night to remember. Robert also appeared to be enjoying himself, feeding off the audience, making faces and silly arm gestures, even dancing around some. He ended his last encore saying, "Thank you. You guys have been f***ing awesome."
