Cursive @ King's College Student Union

(Photo not from Kings College gig, from elsewhere)

Cursive are a tough band to pigeon-hole, either the music's so diverse over a whole album that its hard to catagorise or that from album to album, their style changes so generalisation is a tricky business. From the dissonant, angular guitar work of Domestica, to the lyrically amazing, technucally brilliant and cello-ladened The Ugly Organ, now comes the cabaret-esque, bombastic, horn-filled follow-up.
I wish i could use so many adjective to describe the support act that performed tonight's headliners but all i can think of is the word average. They were, averagely good, averagely talented, were averagely energetic and were averagely good looking, so i stop talking about them and get on to more important matters.
Tonight, the release night of Cursive's new album Happy Hollow, Tim Kasher and co were accompanied by a three piece horn section and a new cellist, as they are now post-Gretta. There seemed to be a real buzz about the venue, alot of people had waited long and travelled far for this event, you could sense it was going to be special. First of all the hit us with a new one, full of brass but with still that angular guitar and seething lyrics that is so Cursive. The set was full of oldies and newies that the adoring crowd just lapped up, Sink To The Beat and A Radiator Hums had us scream and dancing along, as did all the Ugly Organ tracks they play (i particularly enjoyed The Recluse when the brass section all joined in on shakers). The new tracks went down equally as well, single Dorothy At Forty was a blast with its triumphant horns that filled the room and Bad Sects,full of melodrama and a dancable groove, contain some razor-sharp Kasher lyrics. Tonight, the front man wasn't that interactive with crowd, only stopped for a few words here and there and letting other guitarist, Ted Stevens, take over the singing duties sometimes. But when the songs were in flow, Kasher was on fire.
The main set ended on A Gentleman Caller, with its quite sing-alongable ending then they return for their quite obvious encore, Staring with quite an instrumental song, Kasher then lead a teasing opening to The Martyr, which sent the crowd crazy, so crazee in fact that Neb ended up shouting out the line Your tears are only alibis a little bit too loudly, especially when he came in too early. Set closer, Big Bang, is a perfect example of what i've heard off the new record, loud and brassy with some of the most intelligent lyrics i've heard from Kasher's mouth, my favourite line bring In this world of entropy, why can't we just simply be, which is pretty good physics and a good message.
They left us wanting more, shouts for Sierra and The Lament For A Pretty Baby were heard as they left the stage, but i guess thats what all good artists do.
Sorry for such a lame review, i'll try better next time, just i'm a lil bit drunk at the moment

Cursive - A Radiator Hums
Cursive - The Recluse
Cursive - Big Bang

New album is out now, get it here