Who remembers Bumpers, the old teen dance club in Surrey?
New Wave kids of a certain vintage will have danced there in the 13400-block of King George Highway (now Boulevard) in Whalley. The dance floor was a big, open space in the middle of the 600-capacity room, a former bowling alley, now a Kintec footwear shop.
I was there in the mid-80s. Maybe you were too.
No band reminds me of the era more than The Cure, whose dark, brooding songs frequently filled Bumpers on weekend nights, awash in mascara for all and jet-black hair teased with super sticky hairspray.
• SURREY NOW & THEN: Bumpers and other teen dance clubs were big in the 1980s.
Last Friday night in Vancouver (June 2), many of those same songs filled Rogers Arena, and it sure was a blast from my past.
Singer/guitarist Robert Smith has led his band to a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame career that dates back to the late-1970s, and his voice sounds fresh and familiar. It’s not like Smith ever had a perfect voice — it’s flawed, for sure, but he sounds just like he did in the 1980s, which is remarkable.
^^ Stageside view of "Friday, I'm in Love" by @thecure at @RogersArena in Vancouver last Friday night. Appropriate. @VancityJilly pic.twitter.com/UWERxOr9ri
— Tom Zillich (@TomZillich) June 5, 2023
Smith and the five other band members played a lengthy, 29-song set that included a hit-filled second encore, which began with “Lullaby,” continued with “In Between Days,” “Just Like Heaven” and more, and closed with “Killing An Arab,” which the band played for the first time in decades, apparently. Appropriate for a Friday night, “Friday, I’m in Love” featured floating hearts on the two stageside video screens.
There wasn’t much of a light show, and that’s OK because we expect a mostly darkened stage during a Cure concert.
At times the opening set included some too-long, self-indulgent dirges that bordered on prog rock. Yawn. The Cure would be wise to edit some of their songs in half.
What I’ve realized is that Smith is a hopeless romantic who writes beautiful love songs. Google says he’s been married to Mary Theresa Poole since 1988 and first met her at age 14 in drama class. That’s quite a love story right there.
The Cure has carved a legacy with chiming guitars, airy synths and well-chorused bass lines. It’s not exactly party music, unless you’re at a Goth wedding, but Friday’s concert reminded me of just how many great songs the band has recorded over the past 40-plus years.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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