New Order & The Cure Kick It 1983 Style

New Order & The Cure Kick It 1983 Style

There’s always a lot of fear involved with re-experiencing something you loved in your youth years later as an adult, whether movies, music, or Count Chocula. The main concern being: is this going to suck? With bands that have been kicking around for 30 years, especially; nobody wants to ride the nostalgia train and find the destination a wan and/or barren imitation of its plumper, more youthful self. But two of the festival’s biggest draws—and main throwback acts—proved it doesn’t have to feel so bad, and both sounded perfectly pristine. In fact, Bernard Sumner and Robert Smith’s voices have changed so little since they originally recorded their hits you might assume they’ve been giving their vocal cords daily eucalyptus steam baths since the mid-’80s. New Order slayed even without Peter Hook, playing hits like “Temptation,” “Perfect Kiss,” “Blue Monday” and, yes, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”; their old-timey synths sounded wonderfully modern, and fresh air from the EDM stage a field over. The Cure, who closed out the fest, played for two hours straight, playing ALMOST ALL THE HITS from Disintegration, Wish, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, and Head on the Door. What song do you play last when you’ve had a career as storied as theirs? The answer, of course, was “Boys Don’t Cry,” with Smith actually deepening the song from its original recording: his voice was tender and sweet. Clearly he’s learned a thing or two since, you know, 1979. Biggest disappointments were lack of “Six Different Ways” and that one song from The Crow soundtrack, but everything else? They made the case for not killing yr idols.