August 28th 1989, The Cure at CNE Grandstand

Looking back on it, 1989 was a pretty good year for concerts.

I saw REM play at Maple Leaf Gardens on the Green Tour, and I went to two shows by The Who at CNE Stadium. I also saw New Order on the Technique tour with Public Image Limited and the Sugarcubes, and that was an amazing show. John McGeoch played guitar for PIL, the Sugarcubes were riding the success of their first album, and New Order were mind-blowingly amazing, playing brilliant versions of Ceremony, Temptation, The Perfect Kiss, Blue Monday and a ton of other songs. It was my friend Carrie's very first concert and even though we didn't know each other then it makes me happy to know that it was another moment that we shared together in a long history of shared moments.

But of all of the shows that happened in 1989, The Cure's Prayer Tour stands out the most in my mind. This is one of those shows that felt like it was special, like it was important. And it was special. It was important. 

In April of 1989 The Cure released two advance singles from their upcoming "Disintegration" album, a full month before it was scheduled to come out. Lullaby was the lead single in the UK, readily available as an import at any number of the Yonge Street record shops, and Fascination Street was the domestic release, easily obtainable everywhere else including the record store that I worked at. It was an unexpected treasure trove of riches, and it was enough to keep anticipation at bay long enough for the full album to come out. I remember my first time listening to Fascination Street, all low slung bass lines and chiming guitars, Robert Smith coaxing the listener down into the deep depths of deepness. It's a great song and well deserved of the high praise that most Cure fans have for it. Lullaby is equally as good, violins and strings and threats of an unpleasant date with a Spider-Man that would give Peter Parker nightmares. It's The Cure at their playful and scary best, a catchy track that kind of frightens the crap out of you if you listen closely enough. Needless to say both songs were great, really strong work leading me to expect that "Disintegration" would be an awesome album.

My anticipation would continue to grow until about a month later when Lee Carter from CFNY got an advance copy of the album and promised to play a few tracks from it on his radio show. I remember listening with my headphones late on a Thursday night with all the lights off and my eyes closed, pointedly reducing any other sensory distractions so I could concentrate on the music. Carter played Plainsong, the track that opens the album with the sound of wind chimes and deep synth lines and I was pretty much overwhelmed by it's beauty and its lyrics about a cold that's like the cold if you were dead. After that he played Lovesong, and I guess it would be a little silly to say that I fell in love with it right away, wouldn't it? But I did. It's another amazing song by The Cure, somehow perfectly attuned to my own feelings about love and forever and all of those other things.

And then he played what would become my favorite Cure song of all time. The eponymous Disintegration is an epic eight and a half minute tour de force filled with self-loathing and despair and some of the best lyrics that Robert Smith has ever written. "Now that I know that I'm breaking to pieces, I'll pull out my heart and I'll feed it to anyone, crying for sympathy, crocodiles cry, for the love of the crowd and three cheers from everyone". How can you not agree that this is Smith at his very best, truly a high point in an illustrious career? Brilliant stuff that connected with me from my very first listen and still resonates with me today.

The album was released shortly after that, and I bought it on CD at the Record Peddler while it was still across from the Carlton Cinema. Needless to say, it's a perfect album and will always stand as The Cure's masterpiece. I mean, honestly, you can argue that you like other Cure albums more, and I can appreciate that their catalog has favorite albums that fans may prefer for various reasons but really at the end of the day "Disintegration" is the best thing they've ever done, a collection of dizzying heights, heart-aching beauty, and crushing lows. It's a brilliant emotional roller coaster of a record, and I like to think that Kyle from South Park is absolutely correct in his assessment that "Disintegration" is the best album ever.

Once the album had been released, The Cure announced dates for the Prayer Tour which was billed as the last tour that the band would ever do. Looking back on it now it obviously wasn't the last time the band would tour, but that feeling of finality combined with the awesomeness of the album they were supporting gave this show a real sense of importance, an air of gravitas, and when tickets went on sale for the Toronto show at CNE Grandstand at the end of August, my friend Dave H. and I made sure that we got a pair.

The night of the show we arrived a little bit late, so we missed Shellyan Orphan's opening set, but we made it in time to see The Pixies. They had just released "Doolittle" earlier in the year and they put on a pretty good show. They did an excellent manic version of Monkey Gone to Heaven that night, and there was a big cheer when Robert Smith and his wife Mary walked across the field with Simon Gallup to watch their set from side stage.

Love and Rockets played that night too. I've always liked Love and Rockets, they have an awesome catalog of songs, and No New Tale to Tell, So Alive, Kundalini Express and more were all delivered really well that night. I'll admit that I went into the show hoping that they'd play Holiday on the Moon and I was a little disappointed that they didn't, but overall I was pretty impressed by their set.

But as good as the opening acts were, we were all really there to see The Cure, and there was a huge cheer as the lights went down and were replaced by a dark purple glow, the chimes of Plainsong playing as the band took the stage, opening the set just as majestically as it opens the album. Robert Smith was wearing a long black sweater and his hair was perfectly coiffed like the nest of a giant dark winged bird of doom, and he looked really cool. Simon Gallup wore a wide brimmed hat and a long white shirt over tights and army boots, and he looked really cool too. I'll be honest, I don't really remember what the rest of the band wore, I think Roger O'Donnell was wearing a jacket over a dress shirt, and I think that Porl Thompson may have been wearing a long black shirt with tights, but I've seen The Cure a number of times and I may just be confusing shows. I really have no idea what Boris Williams wore, he was kind of hidden behind his drum kit the whole night and I don't remember him ever getting out from behind it at all. Regardless, I'm sure he looked just as cool as the rest of the band.

They played everything from "Disintegration" that evening, even the two songs that were only released on the CD and cassette versions of the album, and it all sounded amazing, each song given a new life and energy in a live setting. Pictures of You and Closedown were dreamlike and beautiful, and Last Dance (another favorite of mine) had a particular poignancy to it that made it all the more impressive. Fascination Street was a great opportunity for Simon Gallup to stretch out his part and remind us what an awesome bass player he is. The Same Deep Water as You was haunting and perfect, and Robert Smith sustained that note he sings in Prayers for Rain for an interminable length, you know the one, long enough to make me wonder how he could keep breathing at the same time.

But it wasn't just songs from "Disintegration" that night. Interspersed between tracks were some Cure classics like A Night Like This and Just Like Heaven, all delivered with passion and intensity. Charlotte Sometimes was amazing, and A Forest was another highlight, stretched out to double it's original length, always a great live moment.

Disintegration closed the set before the encores, the sound of breaking glass and a heavy bass line opening the song, a steady strobe playing throughout it's entire length. It was a physically and emotionally draining performance, and when it was done I felt like I'd traveled to the heart of darkness and been left there as a quivering mass of gelatinous gooey quivering goo. What an awesome feeling!

The first encore included Lullaby and Close to Me, and the best extended version of Why Can't I be You? that I've ever heard, breaking it down and throwing in verses from Young at Heart by Frank Sinatra, Everybody Wants to be a Cat from the Aristocats soundtrack, and their own Lovecats. Smith's delivery of the lines "Life gets more exciting with each passing day, and love is either in your heart or on it's way, Don't you know that it's worth every treasure on earth to be young at heart?" were particularly moving, a few simple words that speak volumes about The Cure's work. Funny that a song from 1965 could capture a band so succinctly almost twenty five years later.

Homesick and Untitled were part of the next encore, along with A Strange Day from the "Pornography" album. They closed out the night with a foursome of songs from "Three Imaginary Boys" which has become kind of a live Cure tradition, And after that, about three hours after they started, the show was over, a perfect performance if ever there was one.

The day after the show, I hopped on a bus to Detroit so I could see the show again. I didn't have a ticket, I didn't know how to get to the venue, I was really kind of jumping into the darkness on this one, but I was determined to see the show again, and I figured that determination would be enough to get me through any difficulties. And it did. They played in an indoor arena in Auburn Hills called the Palace and the set was pretty much identical to the Toronto show, but it was still magical, still a perfect performance. I'm glad I had the chance to see it again, and there's no question in my mind that those two nights on the Prayer Tour in 1989 were the two best shows I've ever seen The Cure do...