Remember folks: "Goths Die In Hot Fields" and it didn't get much hotter than today, the warmest June day on record saw 35,000 decamp to Blackweir Fields, Cardiff newest outdoor event space, to take in the indie/goth/rock pioneers, and Olivia Rodrigo's favourite band.
Before all that though we made our way across the vast field filling up our water bottles and looking for the promised additional shade, which didn't appear, we settled into place for Flintshire alt rockers The Joy Formidable (8).
They began the evening loudly with some jangling post rock guitars, alt rock grooves and dual vocals from guitarist Rhiannon "Ritzy" Bryan and bassist Rhydian Dafydd, accompanied by their current drummer and another member who shifted between keys and singing saw, they're a big sounding band, despite basically being a duo, at a crossroads where post meet alt rock.
With the final "Diolch" they left the stage to applause from the early arrivers as the files began to fill for the headliners. This meant that The Twilight Sad (7) had a bigger crowd and while their style is a bit more theatrical, their music did sort of blend into one grungy post punk noise at times.
The issue is differentiation, the music is suposiyto be the focus here, each track adding to the stage performance, the licks and melodies of guitarist Andy MacFarlane, flowing through the body of vocalist James Graham who releases them into the world through his voice. I get it, but I did find little variation in what they do, still, it set the right moody atmosphere for what was to come.
Now the field felt like 35,000, all here to worship his gothness Robert Smith and as the chimes began the lights came down and Robert along with his band of misery makers took to the stage in Cardiff to a heroes welcome. Smith took his bows, stepped up the microphone and the magic began with Plainsong, Cardiff bewitched by The Cure (10) and the usual mammoth set list.
Much like New Jersey's favourite son Bruce Springsteen, The Cure setlists are fluid beasts, often hooked around a few "key songs" and then drawing songs from across the various albums and styles The Cure have adopted over the years. Be that electronic industrial bruising, driving post punk, moody goth shoegazing or shimmering new wave pop.
There's even time for, as my colleague put it, "Mr Smith's House Of Funk" all bass and choppy guitars but mostly this was The Cure in goth opulence as six from this set of twenty eight(!) songs came from 1989's Disintegration, with four from Head On The Door and the rest from another seven of their fourteen albums, even busting out Burn from their rarities collection and Wrong Number from their 1997 single release.
Ultimately though, amongst the sold out crowd those that were down the front would have been hanging on every single song but for the rest it's Pictures Of You, Just Like Heaven, A Forest, Disintegration , Friday I'm In Love, Lovecats and Boys Don't Cry that illicit the biggest cheers.
With these in their arsenal and the shifting setlist, it's easy to see why so many people would put The Cure as their favourite band and it's a testament to the enduring legacy, as they managed to indoctrinate this hardened metalhead into the cult of Robert Smith.
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