Classic rockers The Cure played and played a marathon performance Sunday night-Monday morning in what has already become one of the most memorable sets at Coachella ever.

Whether you were watching the show at Coachella in Indio, California, in the dripping heat of the desert night, or watching in the comfort of your home via the web, it was a rare and special treat. That's until Coachella organizers pulled the plug at 12:34 am, 33 minutes past the 12:01 am curfew.

Beatle Paul McCartney played some 50 minutes past curfew on the opening night of Coachella. Indio police said the organizers are charged $1,000 per minute after the curfew time.

The Cure, led by front man Robert Smith, played mainly slow jam rock for the first hour with songs like "Underneath the Stars" and "A Strange Day." Almost as if it were perfect timing, the band broke out into a nearly two-hour long, blissful and frequently 'jam-like' set of songs including "Love Song", "Pictures of You", "Lullaby", "In Between Days," "Just Like Heaven" and on and on.

On their third encore performance, past 12:30 am Monday, The Cure played "Grinding Halt" until the main speakers and video screens were shut off (notice the irony in the song title). Even when the field lights went up, and the main amp was cut off, the band kept playing "Boys Don't Cry" with just the sound from their onstage monitor speakers. See The Cure's full set list, including three encores, at Cure-Concerts.

There is little doubt that The Cure's epic two and a half hour set will go down as one of the longest, most memorable, perhaps 'best', performances in Coachella history. The Cure did accomplish one major feat at Coachella - they proved to their cynics, critics, and even loyal fans, that the band is not washed up as chatter of late has implied.

In past years, AT&T (who edited out Eddie Vedder's comments about Bush at Lollapalooza 2007) has made many Coachella sets available in video archival format after the festival. If so, you'll definitely want to see The Cure set. A few questions remain. One is, how many fans missed the band because they had to be at work in the morning. Someone else mentioned that Robbie might want to tap Perez Hilton for some makeup advice. Either way, The Cure threw it down!

"Friday (I'm in Love)" - The Cure from Wish (1992)

"Just Like Heaven" - The Cure from Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987)

"A Forest" - The Cure, live in concert (1984)

"A Forest" (The Cure) - Bat For Lashes cover

My Bloody Valentine Screams Bloody Earshot

Right before The Cure set, My Bloody Valentine 'played'. Some described it more as an 'assault' complaining that the gigantic amps were cranked up way too high.

So, for all you who had to literally leave during My Bloody Valentine's set because the volume was essentially bursting your eardrums (including people wearing ear plugs!), you might be interested in seeing the band's performance on the AT&T video archives (if it's posted) where you control the volume.

Loud music at a rock concert is nothing new, but people standing one hundred feet away were blocking their ears or heading for the other end of the venue or to leave altogether when My Bloody Valentine came on. Even hard core rockers were running for cover. Still, for those who braved the amplitudinous wall of noise, MBV did not disappoint. The ringing should stop in a week.

All joking aside: If you experience persistent ringing in your ears, for whatever reason, please see a doctor - it could be serious. Many people, including the greatest rockers, have permanent hearing loss. Speaking from personal experience, I lost 30% hearing in one ear because I was stupid and young enough to stand by a towers of amps at a U2 concert without ear plugs. The organization H.E.A.R., co-founded in 1988 by Dr. Flash Gordon - really that's his name - has tons of information to read about hearing loss and prevention.

"Only Shallow" - My Bloody Valentine from Loveless

"Only Shallow" (My Bloody Valentine) - Japancakes, cover version

Labels: Coahcella 2009, Indie Artist/Group Profiles, The Cure

Do you ever feel like you're in a tug-of-war with two of your favorite rock groups because one of them disses the other? What about if the "disser" also takes a shot at you and everyone you know in the same breath?

Well, leave it up to Robert Smith, everyone's favorite aging rocker, who had more than just his usually bad hair day today.

In an interview with Music Radar, The Cure's frontman lashed out at Radiohead, saying he "disagreed violently" with their pay-what-you want model for their 2007 blockbuster release, In Rainbows. Smith said allowing fans to determine their own price to download the album was an "idiot plan."

"You can't allow other people to put a price on what you do, " Smith said. "Otherwise you don't consider what you do to have any value at all and that's nonsense. If I put a value on my music and no one's prepared to pay that, then more fool me, but the idea that the value is created by the consumer is an idiot plan, it can't work."

Not only is it just stupid to attack Radiohead fans - many of whom are probably Cure fans as well - but it's also stupid to talk like a diva when you're an aging rocker. Never mind that Smith spit on a growing movement that will only do more to allow the best, and the least greedy, musicians and groups to flourish creativity while expanding their fan base by offering a fair price for music. The old models are gone and they might leave musicians like Smith with them. It's been happening for a decade now.
Listen to High-Quality 2008 Concert of Radiohead

If you are a RadioHead, listen to this transformational two-hour Radiohead concert broadcast recorded by NPR on August 28, 2008 at Santa Barbara Bowl. I was lucky enough to see Radiohead play in San Francisco during the Outside Lands Festival (in photo above, thanks to insdecelebs) two weeks after this featured show.

The SF show was the most amazing concert I've ever been to - well worth the chance I took to have my car towed to see Radiohead play in the fog drenched Golden Gate Park with tens of thousands of people.

Labels: NPR Music, Radiohead, Radiohead in Concert, Robert Smith, San Francisco, The Cure