Recorded over the veteran band’s summer 2005 tour of Europe, Festival captures The Cure in full flow.
Shock headed Smith still mopes romantically and his band can stir up heartbreaking melodies with a confidence befitting their experience and stature.
The performance of the DVD itself pales in comparison. Recorded by a mixture of fans and venue organisers and then edited by Smith himself, the footage is grainy and shaky with some seriously disturbing wobbling going on during one of the standout tracks ‘End Of The World’. Fat Bob looks scarier than usual whilst being bathed in some garish lights which get more distracting as the disc goes on.
However, in the words of about a million and one no-mark indie bands ‘it’s all about the music, man’ and Smith et al can still call up the magic when it matters; the punky stomp of ‘Never Enough’ and intense desolation of ‘A Forest’ sound particularly great. Definitely one for the converted.
