Well, my first time to see The Cure. My reactions are kind of mixed.

They played for over two hours barely pausing between songs. Smith never really spoke to the audience, except to say thank you at one point. After awhile, it all started to get kind of samey for me, one song basically blending into another. Smith’s voice, the ripsaw guitars, great rhythm section. But the pacing of show was off and I don’t think I’m the only one who noticed this. Because looking at the crowd, at roughly 90 minutes in they were all bouncing up and down, fists pumping in the air. And at 120 minutes in, they were mostly just standing there. I didn’t feel this building towards anything.

Smith himself, aside from the make-up, is not the most theatrical of performers, mostly just standing there singing and playing guitar. During two songs he picked up a hand mike, walked to either side of the stage and just sort of faced the audience while he sang, not doing any typical rock star moves to pump up the energy – and I suppose there are some who would appreciate that.

But for me, it started to just wear on. And mindful of the crush to get to the train at the end of the concert, we decided at 130 minutes in to beat the crowds and head out.

Overall they sounded great and I’m glad I went. But something was missing for me. Really good, yes. Transcendent, no.

One of the highlights of the night for me was looking at the guards trying to deal with this guy who went to the front of the seated section, placed his briefcase on the railing, and just stood there bopping up and down. One guard came over, tried to get him to move, shined his flashlight in the guy’s eyes, but the guy wasn’t budging. So the guard called over guard #2 and they both stood there asking the guy to leave, both shining the flashlight in his eyes, and he still wasn’t budging. (Not to be racist here, but will mention just in passing that the guy was Asian.)

Neither guard laid a hand on the guy. They tried to get him to move for about 15 minutes, he wouldn’t move, and they eventually just gave up and left him there. Back in the days when I worked rock concert security, we would have been a lot more physical about it. But either times have changed or these were clearly the politest security guards in the business.

My friend (I think she’s my girlfriend now but still not 100% sure) really got into the show from the very beginning, yelling after the second song that “they sound really good!” And about an hour in, we were both up and dancing. But I think after two plus hours she was also getting a little bored – she’d gone back to just sitting there, watching, tapping her feet.

So we got to the train, got seats, decided to head over to Causeway Bay for a late supper and then, well, around midnight and (sigh) separate taxis to our separate homes. Which is why I’m blogging now and why I expect to have trouble falling asleep ….