[tweetmeme]Twenty-five years ago today, The Cure released what many fans consider the band’s masterwork (it won the Slicing Up Eyeballs readers polls for 1989 and the entire 1980s), the gloom-struck epic Disintegration — an album that found Robert Smith and Co. snapping out of their mid-’80s pop phase in favor of a darker, more cinematic sound.
To celebrate this anniversary, we turn to 1989′s Prayer Tour, which saw The Cure playing arenas and stadiums in the U.S., and performing the album in full, albeit not consecutively, throughout its nightly sets. Because the band has not graced fans with a film of this historic trek, we turn our lonely eyes to YouTube, where we’ve found these five fan-shot concerts.
Be warned: These are VHS-era recordings. In 1989, we couldn’t film concerts with our telephones. So the quality’s not the best, but it’s a historic document of one of the band’s true high points.
Happy birthday, Disintegration.
Dig in:
Video: The Cure @ Barcelona, Spain — June 21, 1989
Video: The Cure @ Paris, France — June 21, 1989
Video: The Cure @ Vienna, Austria — June 21, 1989
Video: The Cure @ Munich, Germany — May 19, 1989
Video: The Cure @ Brussels, Belgium — July 9, 1989 (Part 1)
Video: The Cure @ Brussels, Belgium — May 10, 1989 (Part 2)
