the Cure

So, everyone knows that my favourite band of all time is the Cure. I saw them live on the Wish Tour in 1995 in Montreal at the Molson Center (when it was still called that) and have been waiting for them to return to Montreal since then... they haven't. Last summer I heard that they were going on a world tour and they were actually going to come back to us in September. Being in South Korea at the time didn't make getting tickets easy, but I did (thanks S). And they were good seats too...

But then in August, they announced they were postponing our show until May. I held onto my tickets, but then I decided to move over here, and well, my dream of seeing the Cure again disappeared with the return of my tickets.

I knew they were playing London, but the gig was sold out. My friend had tickets, but they were all accounted for already (since they'd bought them months in advance). I had resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't see them this time. Unless, of course, I wanted to be gouged by a scalper - which there was no way I could afford.

BUT, thanks to a great friend, I was alerted to an ethical ticket exchange site where there were a couple of tickets for sale at face value. I sorted out my ticket (I only needed one) and was set to meet this guy at a pub before the show. It kind of sucked to be going on my own, but it was the CURE! A few minutes later my friend called me back and told me that one of her tickets actually opened up! It was fate telling me I had made the right decision. I canceled on the guy and took hers, so I could at least appreciate it with someone.

In '95 the set was great, Wish was new, so they played a lot of songs from it, which up to that point was not their best album. But they played for three hours and still played many of my favourite old-school songs. Last night, they upped the ante and played the most incredible set-list a true Cure fan could ever want to hear! In it's glory (except for the new ones I don't know) here it is... don't drool, don't be too jealous, just enjoy it, put it together on a playlist on your computer and pretend you were there.

Plainsong
Prayers for rain
Strange day
New *
A night like this
New *
Lovesong
To wish impossible things
Pictures of you
Lullaby
From the edge of the deep green sea
Hot hot hot
New *
The walk
Push
Friday I’m in love
Inbetween days
Just like heaven
Primary
New *
Shake dog shake
Never enough
Wrong number
100 years
Disintegration

Encore 1
At night
M
Play for today
A forest

Encore 2
Lovecats
Let’s go to bed
New*
Close to me
Why can’t I be you

Encore 3
Three imaginary boys
Fire in cairo
Boys don’t cry
Jumping someone else’s train
Grinding halt
10:15 on a Saturday night
Killing an arab

I couldn't believe they started with Plainsong. I went through a faze in my life where I couldn't sleep at night without listening to this song... amazing to see it live... They played almost all the songs that I would have wanted to hear, including Three Imaginary Boys, M, Disintegration, Primary, Push... anyway, you can read the list but those are some of my favourite songs of all time... it was truly amazing.

The only thing that could have made it any better would be to have the kind of seats that I had in Montreal... We were in the nosebleeds last night, but that was fine by me, because at least I was there. And it's probably a good thing that I was... who knows if/when they'll ever tour again... and with a set-list like that I can only think they've done it to appease all the old fans because they'll never do it again.

It was exactly what I needed to Cure ;) my winter blues...

i've been tagged...again...

this tagging business can be annoying, but oddly i couldn't stop thinking about this one...

the top five songs i would play at my own funeral and though it is rather morbid... it's also kind of fun...

as kassandra (who tagged me) insinuated, the cure makes the top of the list. i actually thought of listing the entire album 'disintegration' but i'll settle for this (which isn't even from that album):


the cure - the funeral party. partly because of the title, but there are other reasons that i would rather not get in to here... just take it at face value... oh, and the above video is not approved by the cure, but made by some guy who posted it on youtube...thanks, or i never would've found this song to play here!

number 2:


the smashing pumpkins - 1979. from a great time in my life...oh to be young again... plus it has great bass, a great beat, and you can all dance and sing along!

number 3:

the doves - there goes the fear. why? well, really it's just one of my favourite songs... it helps remind me to live every second of my life like it's my last...

number 4:

U2 - One. need i say more?

number 5:

Longpigs - On and On. again, one of my favourite songs. i can't really say why...it's love and hate, and life and death, and everything that you don't want to face.

there's the top five. also on my list... i'd have to dj the whole party, you see... i couldn't leave that up to anyone else... except maybe kassandra ;) in no particular order:
Dido - life for rent, sand in my shoes;
Ash - walking barefoot;
Counting Crows - 'round here;
Gary Jules - mad world;
A-Ha - the sun always shines on TV;
Rolling Stones - paint it black, she's a rainbow, ruby tuesday;
Belle and Sebastian - get me away from here i'm dying, the boy with the arab strap, lazy line painter jane, this is just a modern rock song...;
Jean Leloup - i lost my baby;
Abba - chiquitita;
Oasis - wonderwall, champagne supernova;
Rialto - perfect day (no, not the lou reed version);
the Arcade Fire - rebellion (lies);
Billy Idol - dancing with myself, mony mony;
Six by Seven - stop the world;
Coldplay - parachutes, yellow, the scientist, in my place, everything's not lost;
Smashing Pumpkins - disarm, landslide, tonight tonight, bullet with butterfly wings;
U2 - kite, walk on, wild honey, stuck in a moment, all i want is you, sunday bloody sunday, new year's day...;
Johnny Cash - i walk the line, a boy named sue, folsom prison blues, daddy sang bass;
the Cure - disintegration (the whole album, and specifically the song), three imaginary boys (yes, the album...), plastic passion, just like heaven, inbetween days, close to me, the upstairs room, play for today, M, the exploding boy... i think you get the point... my funeral would not be without the cure... and lots of it!

okay, i have to stop now... the list would just go on and on until i'd listed my entire play list here... you get the point. at least you all know what i have on my ipod shuffle now!!!

now, who will i tag??? ... how 'bout kimbirdy, stranger, and awesomebringer.

my first nurae bang

what's a nurae bang??? well, if you've seen "lost in translation" you'll remember the funny little karaoke rooms that they visited... nuraebang is the same idea - it Korean Karaoke - they LOVE it here and they're everywhere. i thought that karaoke was the same as in NA here, but the little room makes it a lot more fun and you don't even need a couple of drinks before you get going. since you're not standing in front of a bar full of people (just your friends) it makes karaoke a lot easier, and more fun.

Eolssu Korea

on our field trip the other day, our last stop was "Eolssu Korea" - a traditional folk music show. it was put on by the Cheongju City Korean Traditional Performing Arts Center just for the EPIK group. the first performance was Daechwita - Great Military Music. it originates from military exercises of the kings procession during the Joseon period. Chwita means to blow and strike, thus the music is performed with wind and percussion instruments. this was interesting but not my kind of music! lol... it was sort of like a high pitched whining with cymbals keeping the beat. the costumes were great though.

The second performance was Gayageum Sanjo in the style of Kim, Juk Pa. a gayageum is a 12-stringed zither and was accompanied by a kind of drum. Sanjo means (literally) scattered melodies - so the zither player was improvising as she went - it starts off slowly and gets faster and more chaotic, but the zither being what it is, chaotic is still quite calm and beautiful.

the third performance was Pansori, which is like Korean Opera, without the music. it is a "vocal genre" where the performer tells a long narrative story accompanied by a drum. the singers also act out the peice while they were singing. their voices were deep and resonating - it was very interesting and must have been funny because the Korean speakers in the audience were laughing throughout it.



the fourth performance was Gyeonggi Area folk Songs - this singer was incredible. her voice could do things that i could never even have imagined. Her name is Hwang Shi-Nae (in Korean the family name goes before the given name) i wish i had some video or audio of this because it was truly beautiful and one of my favourite parts. after her performance, she got the audience to sing along to a traditional korean folk song called Arirang:

(chorus) arirang, arirang, arariyo
arirang gogaero neomeoganda (i am crossing over arirang pass)
nareul beorigo gashineun nimeum (the man/woman who abandoned me)
shimnido mot gaseo balbyeong nanda (will not walk even ten miles before his/her feet hurt)

it was interesting (to say the least) to hear over 100 english westerners singing in Korean... but it was fun.



the last two performances (sorry no pictures - it was too dark and no flashes allowed) were done by a sort of oorchestra and were excellent. they all used traditional korean instrument, except for the synthesizer. they said it was a sort of fusion music using the traditional and the modern.

one of the best parts were the incredible costumes - as you can see. we all had a great time, and i can say that it was the highlight of the day.