The Cure & The Twilight Sad @ PNC Pavilion

Yay!! The Cure are touring again.  And less than 2 years since I saw them at Riot Fest in Chicago.  We had Erik and Shelley fly in from Vegas for a few days, specifically to come and see this show.  They had been to the Hollywood Bowl earlier in the tour, and were so excited.  It was infectious.  Also Mike & Laura were coming too.  It was to be a awesome night.

I had read some reviews from the previous nights show at the PNC Pavilion (Weezer) and all talked about the trouble everyone had with parking and taking forever getting into the venue.  Because of this we left for the venue early and with absolutely no trouble at all we glided unstopped into the venue.  So well before The Twilight Sad started we were able to get a beer to combat the 90 degree weather.

We met Mike & Laura at our seats and saw the start of The Twilight Sad.  I liked their first song - very Ride-ish.  However, the next 2 were relatively similar, and we left in search of food.  I could hear more of the same as we bought dinner and a shirt.

I was, however, definitely back in my seat and ready when the Cure came out on stage and I was spellbound from the first notes of Pictures Of You.  We were about as close as what we were for Riot Fest and the band looked and sounded great.  What I can't understand is the amount of clothing the band was wearing.  It was so hot in the audience, they must have been dying up there.  I can't remember the moment he said that they decided to do only singles (or should've been singles) tonight. It could only mean one hit after another and the Cure did not let down.  Just Like Heaven got the first real big cheer for the night, but for me every song was a stand out.  In Between Days is a favorite and the back to back Lullaby / Fascination Street, but my first live Hanging Garden was unbelievable. They then finished their set with my favorite song, A Forest.  I had a "hair standing on the back of my neck" moment hearing those first chords.  It happened again in the same song as Robert Smith screamed "Again and again and again and again.....".

I was beside myself and elated.  I had not felt this good about a show since The Cure at Coachella 2009.  A new song, It Can Never Be The Same, opened the encore followed by The Crow soundtrack song, Burn, which I'd never heard live.  It was as good as you'd expect.

The second encore had the appropriately names Charlotte Sometimes, another song I was hearing for the first time.  Straight into the upbeat Primary, you'd never imagine this show could get better.  But of course it did.

Another new song, Step Into The Light, before blitzing through Never Enough, alt.end and Wrong Number.  But wait the biggest songs were yet to come.

A 5-song-4th-encore.  Unheard of before. My first ever Lovecats opened this set and was as quirky as I'd hoped it would be.  By the time the 33 song night finally ended with Boys Don't Cry, I was spent, yet on such a high.  This easily enters the top 10 of all time concerts seen.  I have rated it above the Coachella set into number 4 (behind Cure 98, McCartney Coachella 09 and Nirvana BDO 92).  I know we aren't going to be as close to the stage tomorrow in Atlanta, but I am so psyched to be doing this 2 nights in a row (I wish I could have done more).

The Crap Facts:
This is my 405th concert.
This is my 2nd concert at PNC Pavilion.
This is my 47th concert in Charlotte.
This is my 52nd concert in North Carolina.
This is my 213th concert in the USA.
The Twilight Sad are the 479th band I've seen.
This is my 4th Cure concert.