One thing I love about living in Southern California are the numerous concerts, museums, conventions and geektivities that are available within a decent driving distance. This weekend, The Collectress and I attended The Cure Tour 2016 and saw the 80s goth band play at the Hollywood Bowl. I’m such a great blog-mate; I bought these tickets back in October and when I found out Collectress was a fan, decided to take her for her birthday. As a reformed goth girl, the Cure holds a special place in my black, black heart and their popular 1983 release, “Lovecats” is one of the first songs I remember actively enjoying on the radio when I was just a wee Diva!

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Unfortunately, Robert Smith didn’t decide to play OUR FAVORITE, but we still had a blast! Here are my 3 impressions.

The Venue

The Hollywood Bowl is an amazing place to enjoy a relaxing evening of music and friends. I’ve attended the LA Philharmonic performances there, but this was the first actual pop show I’ve seen at the Bowl. What I love about the Hollywood Bowl is that visitors can bring in food, drinks, blankets and picnic baskets and sit under the the Hollywood sign and just enjoy the environment. To private “leased” events (such as, when a performer rents the venue as the Cure did), patrons are not allowed to bring in cans or bottles. During the summer events such as the Philharmonic performances and jazz festivals, audiences are allowed to pack wine and beer. Collectress and I bundled up, brought a picnic, enjoyed the sunset and swayed to the mellow sounds of the Cure echoing off the hills all evening. Even the cheap seats have a great view and a wonderful sound! If you’re like me and hate to drive in traffic, there are park & ride options all over SoCal that will get you to the Bowl for pretty much any event held there. We parked in Pasadena and took a shuttle into Hollywood, getting us through the melee of fans leaving the venue and we made it home before midnight.

SoCal Goths Unite

My people! California is such an eclectic sample of diversity and no better place to see it than at a goth show. The Cure hasn’t toured North America like this in a decade, and so the freaks came out in droves. Not only did I hang with the Collectress, but my oldest friend and her husband were at the show, having purchased tickets without me even knowing. Apparently, even Bryan Fuller (Hannibal showrunner and all around adorkable dude) was in attendance at this once-in-a-lifetime show.

While “the scene” in Hollywood has changed a lot since I was a youngster, the audience at this show reminded me so much of days gone by and combat boots I’ve long since misplaced. Everyone and their mom wore black…well, except that one dude in the orange polo shirt that the Collectress kept pointing out to me. He was in dad shorts, but hey, to each his own.

The Tunes

I already complained that The Cure didn’t play “Lovecats”…nor did we hear “Friday I’m in Love” until we got in the car on the way home. Still, The Cure has a 37-year-old discography, and so most of the songs were crowd pleasers. This band hasn’t released new music in a while, but during the FOURTH encore, Robert Smith did announce and play one new tune, which sounded great as we were on our way down the hill to beat the crowds and catch our shuttle. I did get to hear and record one of my top 3 Cure tunes, “Pictures of You”. I let Collectress know the song reminds me of 11th grade, to which she said was, “very specific”. Well, yeah, I wrote angsty poetry about the song and maybe stole a line from it that had to do with broken hearts or something. I used to be goth, dude.

If you’re interested in attending in a town near you, visit The Cure’s website for tour dates.

xoxo

C. Diva

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