At the Shoreline was The Cure
Being an Angeleno gives us access to one of the country’s best outdoor concert venues, the Hollywood Bowl. I’ve seen many a concert here and was fortunate enough, for a while, to have a friend who sat in high places gifting us box seats and the occasional backstage meetings with musicians, magical LA moments I’m forever grateful for.
I’ve been feeling nostalgic these days after my mother’s passing in the fall of 2022, a loss further reminding me how precious our momentary existence is. I’ve been making a conscious effort to seize life’s joyful opportunities, so when I received the pre-sale notice of The Cure’s North American Tour performances at the Bowl, I knew this was going to be one of those moments. The sound of “Pictures of You” spilling out my bedroom window on a warm summer night as a young girl, lyrics that hit more profoundly now, came flooding back finding me feeling there was nothing in the world that I ever wanted more than to feel the energy of my favorite band in person. I was disappointed to see their dates coincided with my trip back east, sadly, I knew I’d have to miss them.
Lucky for me as the months wore on, an adage came to fruition—life really does have a way of changing your plans. Having postponed my trip for unforeseen reasons, I found myself opening Instagram one morning, in May of 2023, and a friend’s stories from the night before began playing, one after the other. It was her at the Bowl blissfully singing “Just Like Heaven.” I’d completely put the chance to experience a Cure concert out of my mind months ago and with one more performance left, I told myself this was the universe holding up a sign I couldn’t ignore. Besides, I’d made the mistake of not purchasing tickets to see Tom Petty the last time he performed at the Bowl thinking we’d catch him next time, tragically, a week later he died. In my efforts to shorten my list of potential life regrets, the quest was on to secure a night with The Cure.
Searching for newly available seats for a sold-out concert is a sport only the savvy internet users (or lucky fools) find themselves achieving. Trying to finalize payment on those perfectly located and priced seats placed in your cart is like playing the slots in Vegas. You never know if you’ll be successful once clicking place order or if another buyer will hit the jackpot first. Let’s just say, I emotionally ran a marathon with my repeated attempts wondering if the universe was having a bit of fun at my expense.
Luckily as the day wore on, my FOMO bested any thoughts of throwing in the towel. I even enlisted a friend I’ve spent many a night at the Bowl with, yes, I sucked her into my craziness because at this point, my fiancé had dipped out of the equation not wanting to rush to the concert in the 13th hour. My bestie and I agreed we’d continue to attempt purchasing tickets up until the opening act, Twilight Sad, was on the stage being that we both lived relatively close to the venue.
Past the point of obsession and teetering on the verge of insanity, I kept at it until Twilight Sad almost completed their set, but all I could find were single seat tickets, nothing together. I sat there for a long time sulking in my defeat until I reopened my MacBook, pulled up The Cure concert schedule, and there listed as their next stop was the Shoreline Amphitheatre just outside of San Francisco. Did I dare ask my fiancé about turning this show of craziness into a California road trip? Expecting him to throw some reasonability at my harebrained antics, he was my knight (in shining) amorously melting my heart with his resounding, “Yes, let’s do it babe.” And just like that, I was back in the game!
By noon the next day, my fiancé realized the only cure for my manic state of persistence was to bring me to The Cure so, opening his laptop he joined me as we double-teamed Live Nation. It didn’t take long for us to secure our tickets, now I needed to shift all that ambition into packing since the concert was the following night. We’d always talked about taking another trip back up to San Francisco ever since our first summer together up there, but we hadn’t yet. We were both stoked my Cure mania was finally making it happen.
As we walked into Shoreline Amphitheatre on the cusp of summer with the laid-back vibe of the crowds walking the paths, the gorgeous sky, I immediately fell in love with what would become my new favorite outdoor concert venue. It’s like we walked into another dimension, the bustling euphoria permeating off the fans and staff, I knew we were right where we needed to be. As Robert Smith, Simon Gallup, Jason Cooper, Roger O’Donnell, Reeves Gabrels, and Perry Bamonte took the stage playing an instrumental portion of a vaguely familiar song, they opened the night with “Pictures of You.” Just a few notes in I could feel the tears welling up while a lifetime of gratitude filled my heart…all those childhood memories, the love for their music, the love for my parents and the life I’ve had so far—sometimes the cure is The Cure.