Swandives

The Myers-Briggs personality type indicator is one of the most enduring personality profilers around, and having recently been subject to it as part of a work-thing, it’s been top of mind of late. So what do get when you put a whole heap of Introversion (I) types in the Entertainment Centre? Why, the quintessential Cure gig, of course.

Actually, whether or not you agree with the validity of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, it’s quite an amazing thing to watch a entire audience internalise some very full-on sensory output. One of the things I love about live music is the magic moments of feedback that happen between a band and an audience, where the energy transfers from stage to stalls and back again and you end up with this amazing, unspoken interaction that makes it worth grinding through all the boring mundane moments of life to experience. Thinking about it, it doesn’t sound as if people internalising music would engender any kind of feedback at all. But it’s just not the case.

The Cure’s ability to mix pop with heavy rock, to layer sounds and beats, to play around with familiar tunes and turn them into something extraordinary - well, it seems to create this weird harmonic with all these internalising people, until they literally vibrate. Looking around last night I saw thousands of people vibrating with the energy from this band. And it was joyful, even when the lyrics were dark. And it was tribal, even if people weren’t specifically interacting with each other.

They played for more than three hours. I am so glad I can say I’ve seen them live.