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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Curiosa
Festival
Nashville, TN July 28, 2004 By Trae cadenhead A few months ago The Cure announced that their 2004 tour of the U.S. would be turned into a mini festival and they would bring along many friends of theirs. Curiosa Festival was the tag that this traveling event earned. I attended the third outing of the festival, which appeared in Nashville this time. There were two stages, the main stage and the side stage. The main stage was huge (a capacity of 17,000, I believe) and the side stage was quite small, located in a gravel parking lot of sorts. As soon as we got through the gates, the first band on the side stage was beginning - The Cooper Temple Clause. It was an almost depressingly small crowd gathered for this early 5:00 show (I'd guess about 150 max). However, I must say that those who showed up later really didn't miss much. TCTC is an electronic hard rock outfit with about 70% of their music seeming to be pre-recorded. With six band members this was pretty unimpressive. The band struck me a bit as a British version of Skillet, not exactly something that we need in my opinion. The first band on the main stage was Mogwai, a Scottish instrumental band who is well known for their deceptively soft flourishes which build to a wall of atmospheric sound. The band played for about two minutes when one of the amps cut out and they left the stage. They came back a few minutes later with time for only four songs. Once they began playing, the music sounded pretty good, but there was a lack of energy to get people involved. For those who were gathered on the grassy lawn with general admission tickets (such as myself), mostly Mogwai worked as just background music. The bright afternoon sun didn't help too much either. Next on the side stage was one of the worst things I've heard in a good while, Auf Der Maur. Basically this is Melissa Auf Der Maur and her band backing her. She used to play bass in Smashing Pumpkins. The general tactic of the band seemed to be to cover the lack of vocal talent with dark, hard rock. It didn't work too well. Things turned around with the next main stage show, The Rapture. The band has only released one album so far, but they proved to be incredibly catchy and enjoyable. Their sound was something like White Stripes meets The Cure in an off kilter way. The presence of a band member who played cowbell and saxophone made it even harder to pin the band's sound down. They were very loose and unforced, but in a deliberate way. Undoubtedly, The Rapture would be a lot of fun in a smaller setting. My final side stage trip (and the only worthwhile one) was to see Muse, a British rock band who is often accused of trying to be Radiohead. Perhaps a more accurate description would be that Muse is what Radiohead would sound like if they decided to go for mass appeal and radio singles. Matthew Bellamy's soaring vocals were even more impressive live than on CD. The highlight of the set was "Butterflies and Hurricanes" where Bellamy showed his prowess on the piano before blasting back into the goosebump inducing chorus. The disappointing thing was that the band only had a 30 minute time slot to play and it certainly went by fast. Short of The Cure, Muse was easily the best act of the festival. Muse Set List:
And so back it was to stay at main stage for the rest of the night. Interpol began right as I got back. I quickly noticed that vocalist Daniel Kessler doesn't have the same live voice as I had become accustomed to on CD. Here it was much more nasally. Of course, everyone talks about how Interpol is the Joy Division of our current day and that influence was certainly apparent in their live show as well. The band played a couple new songs from the upcoming Antics album, which were some of the best of the set. I'm sure the 40 minute set would have been much easier to appreciate in a decent small to mid size venue. Interpol Set List:
Of course, the big draw of Curiosa Festival was The Cure, so when they came on stage the place went crazy. With dead silence for a few seconds and a sense of anticipation as to how this set would begin, the band launched into the classic "Plainsong" and the show was off to an amazing start. The atmosphere that the band creates through some of their best work (especially Disintegration) is fantastic in the live setting. Of course, The Cure has been around for 25 years and their long career has gone through many phases: the dark gothic rock phase, the aforementioned atmospheric rock phase, the pop phase, and the current phase of just trying to dig for a place where their new material will be respected. There was certainly a noticeable difference between old and new material in the band's live show. Most of the older songs possessed a spirit and energy that made them go over easy. For the most part the songs from the new album seemed to be weak, lacking the punch to make them truly exciting. The exception was the dark atmospheric love song "The Anniversary" which created an almost magical musical moment. My favorite Cure song "Pictures of You" was delivered beautifully. Many of the songs were accompanied with video footage in the background. Perhaps the song that made the most impressive use of this was "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea." The band tore up "One Hundred Years" before launching into "Disintegration" to close out the set. Of course, there was an encore with the favorite "Lovesong" (sadly more well known these for the version by 311 performed in 50 First Dates), which was fantastic. The final song of the encore was the easily singable "Boys Don't Cry." Sure, the band's set faltered in spots, but overall it was a fantastic live show which I am very grateful to have experienced. The Cure Set List:
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