Festival Sudoeste, Zambujeira do Mar, Portugal

When we woke up this morning, we wandered around and found a canteen selling bread, milk and juice, so we had a fairly good breakfast.

We are in the shade until 11.30 am, when it started to really heat up. The camp site was filling up, but we managed to keep space for the other four. At one pm, Simon went for a walk and, amazingly, came across the others just getting off the bus.

Once they set up their tents, we all cooked an early dinner at five pm before heading over to the arena. It took an hour to get in and get our wristbands that will get us back in the next two days.

Festival Sudoeste, Zambujeira do Mar, Portugal

The first band we saw was Hypnotica, a Portuguese hip-hop/rap band. We watched half the set before going to look around the markets and food stalls in the grounds. We also ran into our drivers who bought us out. They were working one of the many bars. The site has only two stages with the earlier bands playing on the small side stage, while the four main bands played on the larger main stage.

Next up we saw Sergio Godinho, who, from what we could tell, was a Portuguese legend, as everyone was getting into it. He seemed like a Portuguese cross between crooner Tony Bennett and rocker Jimmy Barnes. We found out later that Godinho has been around for 20 years and is quite politically active. Midway through his set, the crowd started a huge “Ole!” chant, like we were at a football match. The noise was incredible.

Sergio Godinho, Festival Sudoeste, Zambujeira do Mar, Portugal

The next band was Ratos do Parao, who are a Brazilian death/thrash metal band. Their lead singer is a huge man and, while unlike Godinho musically, they have a similarly massive following in Portugal. All of their songs are in Portuguese, so obviously we had no idea what they were singing about, but the band was excellent and worth it for the singer’s wild antics alone.

Up next were Therapy?, an Irish rock band who were also awesome (despite some awkwardly bad between song banter). A couple of their songs were familiar (Nowhere, Knives opening the set). Again, they were well received, and while I liked them, they had the unenviable task of playing before The Cure. I did find out later that they were a last-minute replacement for Ash, and a favorable substitute.

I had been annoying Roberta for two days repeating Robert Smith’s “Ullo! This is called Shake Dog Shake” quote from the The Cure’s Live in Orange video. And continued for the hour it took between Therapy? and The Cure. Now, at 1.30 am, as the fog started rolling in, covering the moon high above the stage, out came The Cure. I lost my shit. I was like a teenage girl seeing her idol for the first time. I have waited a long time to see The Cure, after missing the 1992 Australian tour. I could now stop kicking myself. This was the best concert I had ever seen. Better than Nirvana at the Big Day Out. From the opening chords of Shake Dog Shake (ha ha!) till two hours later at the end of Killing an Arab, it was great song after great song. There were only two songs that I didn’t know, but Just Like Heaven, Lullaby, Never Enough and Inbetween Days were highlights. Not to mention Boys Don’t Cry and A Forest in the five-song encore.

The Cure, Festival Sudoeste, Zambujeira do Mar, Portugal

It was all over at 3.30 am, as the humbled band walked off stage. I went back to my tent and struggled to get to sleep because of the buzz I was having.

The Crap Facts
This is my 149th concert.
Herdade de Casa Branca is the 40th venue I've seen a concert in.
Zambujeira do Mar is the 31st city I've seen a concert in.
Alentejo is the 4th state I've seen a concert in.
Portugal is the 2nd country I've seen a concert in.
Hipnotica are the 191st band I've seen.
Sergio Godhino is the 192nd band I've seen.
Ratos de Parao are the 193rd band I've seen.
Therapy? are the 194th band I've seen.
The Cure are the 195th band I've seen.