The Cure show. Never have I seen the lawn so crowded. 1st show I ever went to where I couldn't see the stage. Had to sit on the side hill in order to have any room, and there was no sightline to the stage.
Anyway thought the show was great. Band sounded great. Since I was watching the show from the screens, I can't understand the lack of camera workmanship that was presented. No closeups of the band, mostly a long shot where you couldn't see much. Lots of shots of the band without Robert Smith even in the shot as he ventured to the sides. Camera was pretty much stationary and did not move.
I'll probably get skewered for this but the show would have been better, at least for me, as a more condensed, concise set...maybe 2 hours.
Still my first time seeing them, and glad I did. Also, love being able to get out of that venue taking back roads and home in 10 minutes.
So, I caught the Philly show at Wells Fargo, as well as Merriweather. I had friends on the lawn, also had a pit ticket for Merriweather. The lawn was packed. I mean, ridiculous. Then I went down to the pit, and I've never seen a show that likewise the pit was wall to wall folks...no room to maneuver. I preferred the Philly show for several reasons: 1) it was in an arena, and collectively the energy is just different when everyone can see the stage and see what's going on. It's palpable. On the lawn, it's just extremely hard to make the same connection with the music, what's going on onstage, etc. You're watching people, not the band 2) Merriweather was heavy on Disintegration stuff, and Philly was all about the Head on the Door and a handful of older tunes like "Charlotte Sometimes". Mostly the same set, but just different enough that made it feel like a faster show and some really top-notch songs. I've also seen the Disintegration songs more, so there's less novelty for me there. 3) Merriweather, despite all the nice upgrades, is a bigger commitment of time and energy to get to/from and your experience there will probably have more variables. It's been a long time since I've seen a tour where I saw an outdoor and indoor show and could compare what are the pros/cons, but I think I've decided my preference is a Capital One Arena vs. a Merriweather or (God forbid) Jiffy Lube. Also, totally agreed on the mall for the parking. We parked at the mall and though traffic was a little hairy initially, we were outta there in fairly decent time. It's nice to see an outdoor summer show. I think the Cure could have easily done 2 nights at Merriweather though, especially given that cities like LA and New York got 3 nights, and San Francisco,San Diego, Montreal and Atlanta got 2 nights.
