it’s friday, i’m at work

but last friday i wasn’t…

…and that was a good thing.

when i was going into high school my mom decided i needed to learn how to manage money and wanted to combine that with the lesson of how expensive teenage shit is (i presume to discourage me from getting a girl pregnant, but poor diet, hair, and wardrobe choices made that less of an issue than she realized). i negotiated an extra ten bucks (her number was $50, which in the summer of 1985 was pretty impressive) due to her promising to keep me in the columbia record and tape club, but realizing it made more sense to just front me ten bucks and let me buy a tape locally (they were almost fifteen with shipping through the club).

anywho, i was walking through the top floor of barton creek mall, three fresh twenties in my pocket, and i saw this poster in the window of camelot music (which was where “build a bear” is now, for anybody curious):

what’s NOT in the pic is the yellow lettering that said “The Cure” and “Inbetween Days”. i ran in the shop and found the tape (the head on the door) that was a new release that week in august, 1985, and bought it. that pretty much set the tone for high school.

what’s freaky is back then this made me quite the outcast in my small town…but then i went to this recent show and the crowd was diverse as all hell. it used to be no matter how large the venue, you go see a band like the cure or depeche mode and most of the crowd looked like they’d be on the dance floor of curfew or basics or the planetarium, all underground “goth” clubs (the term “goth” had yet to be coined in this regard at the time of those venues existence) at the time.

but now? the show sold out the erwin center with a diverse crowd of metal head looking guys and football player looking guys and then the “usual suspects”. all there to see the same band. all paid the same price to get in. all had a great time. it was odd to sit amongst the crowd that chastised me for listening to that “fag music” back then now singing along with “friday, i’m in love”.

it’s nice to see they’ve grown up!

thirty-one years and some change after i saw that poster i took the ufc to her first cure concert, which she really enjoyed. it was the fourth time i’d seen them live, and i think this was my favorite set list. they weren’t touring for a new album, so they focused on shit from their “golden era” playing predominantly eighties stuff.

great show, great time, and worth the two bills the night cost me between tickets and merch. if you get the chance go see ’em – they’ve still got it!

(see how happy this post made robert?)