Tonight’s The Night!

I woke fairly early and then snoozed again. Another check of the weather proved rubbish with cloud and storms all day and a downpour at exactly the time The Cure are due on stage. Outside was indeed cloudy but as yet no rain.
As soon as Tre awoke she announced she was hungry and so a walk to another boulangerie we had seen yesterday was undertaken. Ten minutes later we were seated in yet another boulangerie with an amazing arrange of foods to choose from. Tre had a pain au raisin while I grabbed a croc monsieur with a chicken topping. Amazed, Tre mentioned the need for a second pain au raisin - never in all the time I’ve known her has she eaten two of them. Anyway - a further order was made of the pain and also two small apple doughnuts for me.
On the way back to the hotel we grabbed some tea bags for the room and also some small bottles of water to take this evening. The walk back also had the first spits of rain which quickly stopped.
Back at the hotel the Tour de France was on the TV and we decided rather than walk around in the rain, also as we were due a late night tonight (possibly again in the rain), we would hunker down at the hotel for a while.
We watched small downpours of rain outside, nothing very heavy and very short in duration, more concerning to me was the semi frequent thunder claps and also lightning strikes.
For ease we decided that rather than go food shopping pre leaving for tonight, I would walk the five minutes to MacDonalds and grab us some food while Tre showered.
The food from Maccy D was shite, as expected really and a reason if we needed it to avoid it at all costs moving forward. Equally shite was that the lightning had knackered the hot water at the hotel, so Tre was not too impressed at a chilled water supply. By the time I got to it the water had slightly warmed 😂
6.15pm we walked from the hotel towards the arena about 15 mins to walk. The sun was shining and it was as yesterday bloody hot.
At the arena we immediately visited the merch stall as I had decided I wanted a second T-Shirt. As we queued in line the skies darkened . . . but still no rain.
The security entry was really chilled and 10 seconds to pass. Walking into the arena we circled a short distance around before finding our inner entry point. A small flight of stairs and we were inside. The seating was effectively scaffolding with wood plank seats and backboards. Tre enquired with the girl staff member as to our seats. She pointed immediately to the two right where we were standing and front row of the first raised section. It was only at that point I remembered when we booked we couldn’t work out how to purchase standing tickets. So we had decided to pick decent seating - front row and not up in the heavens - result. We were sort of head onto the stage but slightly set to one side.
The first support act was Zélie Zéphyr à Lille based artist. She is really worth a listen and we really enjoyed her entire set of about six songs. It turned out her guitarist’s family were seated in a small VIP just below us and you could see how proud they were of what was obviously Dad on stage.
Our other seats although in a prime position were small as the amount per person was less than wide and so when two huge guys appeared and sat next to Tre I had to ask people further up the benches to move along, otherwise I’d have been sitting on the stairwell 😳. They were actually good guys and obviously aware they were imposing on the whole row 😂
The second band was And Also The Trees - which they renamed themselves during the first track to And Then The Rain - as the first raindrops started to fall. Everyone ignored them for about 29 seconds and then the rain coats started coming out. Slightly embarrassed Tre agreed to wear the pac-a-mac I had lovingly purchased, carried to venue and presented to her. Once on however she loved it and it was all I could do to get her to take it off later. The band were a marmite moment - some will love their weirdness some won’t - I was definitely in the won’t camp, but Tre quite liked them. By their third track the rain had stopped (it had been quite light) and the sky brightened again.
During the interval one guy on our benches four down from us stood us and shouted loudly a cheer as if doing a one man Mexican wave. I thought to myself - ‘muppet!’ Then he did it again, then again like a one man show in this full colosseum. Then after about his sixth attempt five people over the far side echoed his cheer and Mexican wave. He returned it and then as if by magic the whole bloody arena was doing a Mexican wave - it was actually very funny especially as this guy had been so persistant to get it going totally in his own.
The bands when we listened from outside last night, had taken the stage at 7pm, 8pm and finally 9.30pm sharp.
Tonight was no exception and so the atmosphere at 9.25pm was fever pitched.
9.30pm was the start of one of the best if not the the best concert I’ve ever seen - absolutely captivating. The band were absolutely on it and the sound was stunningly good. It was as if listening to an actual released recording but with all the add ons you get from a live performance. The set consisted of 30 songs with two encores.
On leaving the stage at midnight spot on - Robert Smith thanked the crowd and in true Crawley style announce the night had been ‘Fucking Great!’ - it had . . . and no rain to pee on this parade.
We were outside within five minutes and decided to grab a beer in a nearby bar - both of us were still a little buzzing from the show.
Drinks done we toddled the 15 minutes home and into our room.
A 1.30am bedtime is quite a late finish for us two old farts!

A brilliant day despite the weather, but a staggeringly brilliant evening - words can’t describe how good it was.

Song of the day:
Boys Don’t Cry - The CureRead more