Alright, we just got back from the Cure concert over at the handily located Vector Arena – maybe 10 or 12 minutes walk from our apartment. 20 minutes if you add in a side-trip to the supermarket to purchase FORBIDDEN SNACKS which we then HID in the hidden compartment in Annettes handbag. Which, by the way, security at the door FOUND and turned us away. So we sneakily .. and pay attention to the detail of this particular caper, as it’s a bit Oceans 11 in it’s sneakiness … took the food out of Annettes handbag and PUT IN IN MY JACKET POCKET which they didn’t check as they were only checking bags. Good thing no ordinary human could store foodstuffs in a pocket!
Anyway, inside with our ILLICIT FOODS we enjoyed the minstrel-ry of Mr Bob Smith and his Merry Band of Misc Other Guys. It was pretty good – musically VERY tight, though freakin’ loud. Next time, earplugs. The Vector Arena is LOUD. It was also .. LONG. Really long. Hours. 3 or 4 encores. And they played a LOT of stuff – I’m a fan, and I didn’t recognise much of what was being played. It was a three-hour gig and could, to be honest, have been edited down by an hour easily.
There was also a hilarious disconnect between Mr Smith and the audience. For the first 5 or 6 songs they’d just play a song, Bob would say “Thankyou!” .. and they’d launch into the next song. It got to the point where I was laughing each time he did it. There was certainly no “Hello Auckland!” or “Auckland is the rocking-est place we visit!” or any of that sort of thing. Just music, thankyou, music, repeat.
They _didn’t_ play Love Cats, which I was expecting. But they _did_ play A Forest, which I was not. So at least there is symmetry.