Late last month The Curse, a cover band with a small but devoted following, played to a sparse crowd at the Malibu Inn. Normally this would be unremarkable, but the east L.A. group, which covers hits by the legendary post-punk English group The Cure, is symbolic of a unique phenomenon: the adoration of English bands by Los Angeles’ Mexican-American community.
On this night in late September, poor promotion meant the group—a Mexican-American quintet comprised of JC Trueba (drums), Jesus Zamudio (guitar), Carlos Garcia (keyboards), Alexis Gonzalez (bass), and Brian Soto (lead singer/guitars)—had to play an abbreviated set, in order to clear the stage for a Tuesday night dance party featuring 15-year-old, overplayed rap tunes from Snoop Dogg and Notorious B.I.G.
But in the short slot allowed The Curse on Sept. 25, the band masterfully sprinkled a few album cuts with early signature hits such as “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Lovesick” (the pining tune with the eternal “I will always love you” refrain) and “Just Like Heaven”—arguably, along with the epic breakup song “Pictures of You,” the Cure’s most recognizable hit.
The Cure burst onto the post-punk scene in 1979 with their first album. Centered around charismatic singer/songwriter Robert Smith, an androgynous-looking figure with a fern-like black ’do and eyeliner, the band went on to release 13 studio albums, 10 EPs and more than 30 singles. All told, The Cure has moved 30 million units.
One unique result of this worldwide fame is the impact the band and its contemporaries made here in the Southland, of all places.
The Cure, alongside fellow British acts the Smiths (and lead singer and subsequent solo act Morrissey) and Depeche Mode, occupies a unique segment of fandom among Los Angeles’ Mexican-American community. Latin audiences have disproportionately supported massive stadium shows in Los Angeles. At least two documentaries, “Passions Just Like Mine: Morrissey and Fan Culture” and “Is It Really So Strange?” (2004) tried to get to the center of the connection between Latinos and the English acts.
Since 1992, Jose Maldonado, nicknamed “The Mexican Morrissey,” has been playing around Los Angeles in the Smiths and solo Morrissey tribute band Sweet and Tender Hooligans. In “Passions,” he was asked about the Latino-Morrissey connection; a question even Morrissey himself has raised.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” said Maldonado. “The easy answer is by virtue of numbers,” plus L.A.’s Latinos relate to Morrissey’s themes of “alienation and isolation.”
“They connect with him because he always sings about being an outsider,” Maldonado continued, adding that Morrissey’s songs often address “love lost, unrequited love, sorrow of a relationship that did not last.”
The Cure’s Robert Smith has had a similar effect.
“It’s almost the soundtrack to my life,” said Curse keyboardist Garcia, who found a Cure song that resonates with each different period of his life. “There’s a lot of struggle and pain in the music.”
The popularity of the English bands also allowed young Mexican-Americans to break out of stereotypes and feel free to be different.
Gina Vadnais is the flautist for the Sweet and Tender Hooligans, which bill themselves as “the ultimate tribute to Morrisey and the Smiths.”
“When Smiths/Cure, etc. came around, suddenly, there was a way to dress that didn’t label you as Mexican,” Vadnais said. “You could wear Dickies, Chuck Taylors, a black tee and Ray-Bans, and no one would bother you. You were labeled as ‘artsy.’ The gangs wouldn’t try to recruit you. No one called you a beaner. You had your own thing, and that’s what that Mexican generation in LA was looking for, their own thing.”
This popularity has resulted in an elevated status for cover bands, comprised of Latinos, putting their own twist on the music that has come to mean so much to their community. It is against this backdrop that The Curse has become perhaps the premier tribute band for The Cure in SoCal.
“Close your eyes,” said longtime trendsetter/former KROQ ‘80s music DJ Richard Blade, “and you would swear you were in a small crowded London club in the early ’80s with Robert Smith and the boys playing away at the height of their power.”
The Curse will play Romano’s Concert Lounge in Riverside on Sat., Oct. 27. For more information, visit the band’s Facebook page.
