How The Cure Endures

Wonderful article by Annie Zaleski at Salon, here's an excerpt:

"It’s not correct to say The Cure is underrated—after all, no band selling out 10,000-seat (and up) arenas is. But it’s almost too easy to take them for granted, since the group haven’t released a new studio album in eight years and, even then, tend to keep a low profile. Yet the Chicago concert—and, frankly, this entire tour—underscores the singularity of the band’s music. Post-punk, dream-pop, synthpunk, goth and psychedelic rock —all of these influences coalesce into something that can only be described as sounding like The Cure. That’s always been the case; after all, even their pop crossover hits “Lovesong” and “Friday I’m In Love” sounded like outliers. It’s significant that groups inspired by The Cure tend to only mimic certain facets of the band: the dark guitar creases, the sparkling keyboards, the roiling post-punk storms. No band has been able to capture the depth—and nooks and crannies—of the group’s sonic chemistry.

Near the start of the Chicago show, The Cure launched into “Push,” a fan favorite from 1985’s “The Head on the Door.” The crowd let out a huge, cheering roar as the song began, dancing joyfully to the extended instrumental intro and pumping their fists to the song’s “Go, go, go!” chorus exhortation. That communal ecstasy cropped up again and again throughout the night, as the audience reveled in the familiar and the unexpected. The Cure’s music and reputation was predicated on unifying outsiders—those drawn to (or plagued by) unrequited or missing love, fatalistic romances and general melancholy—but this outlaw attitude has only become more of a bonding experience as the years have progressed. Forty years on, the misfits haven’t exactly won—but at a Cure concert, they’ve certainly found a place they can feel at home."