The Cure – Trilogy, Blu-ray (2009)
Studio: Eagle Rock Entertainment EVBRD 33324-9
Video: 1:78:1 for 16:9 color, 1080i HD
Audio: English DTS Master Audio 5.1, Dolby 5.1, PCM Stereo
Extras: Interview, Encore set, Alternate angle tracks
Length: 248 minutes
Rating: ****
Despite being released years apart and non-concurrently, the albums Pornography, Disintegration, and Bloodflowers represent, to certain fans and apparently to the band themselves, the Cure in its purest form. All the three albums feature dense, sometimes baroque arrangements, dark and morose lyrics, and a relative lack of the sort of cheekiness found on quite a few of the band’s other albums, especially 1987’s Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me.
Performed over two nights in Berlin’s Tempodrom in 2002, the concerts are the three albums played in their entirety and in the order they were released. First is 1982’s Pornography, a gothic rock classic and a difficult, tortured album that yields up little in the way of pop songwriting. More than the other two albums, Pornography benefits immensely from the DTS-HD audio mix, which sounds crisp and immersive, enhancing the sense of claustrophobia and despair the album is so famous for. Credit must also go to frontman Robert Smith, who fully inhabits the album’s depressive space, honoring the album’s mood instead of winking to the audience or letting on that he knows how self-serious it all sounds.
Disintegration and Bloodflowers both sound as amazing as Pornography, especially songs like Plainsong and Pictures of You that feature huge ethereal synthesizer sounds. The audience has been turned way down in the mix, something you only realize when the band kicks into a classic song like Pictures of You or Lovesong and you don’t hear the familiar crowd roar that comes when a band plays the opening chords of a song everyone in the arena recognizes.
Throughout the concert, different lens effects and film stocks are used to simulate the song’s different moods and aesthetics, but it’s all slightly unnecessary since the music and the lighting is more than enough to create a sense of drama. The clarity of the HD images throughout is very impressive, especially when you consider the the difficulties in filming a live concert with constantly changing light sources and a whole lot of shadow.
I highly recommend Trilogy, especially for Cure fans who have had difficulty appreciating the Pornography album. It’s rare to see a concert movie that looks and sounds this good and the band’s energy and commitment throughout is superhuman.
TrackList: One Hundred Years, A Short Term Effect, The Hanging Garden, Siamese Twins, The Figurehead, A Strange Day, Cold, Pornography, Plainsong, Pictures of You, Closedown, Lovesong, Last Dance, Lullaby, Fascination Street, Prayers for Rain, The Same Deep Water As You, Disintegration, Homesick, Untitled, Out of This World, Watching Me Fall, Where the Birds Always Sing, Maybe Someday, The Last Day of Summer, There Is No If…, The Loudest Sound, 09, Bloodflowers.
— Daniel Krow
