As we all are fully aware, the Cure are playing Boston tonight, a sold out show at Agganis Arena. Earlier in the week we chronicled their April 1980 performance at the Underground in Allston, a subterranean post-punk haven just up the road at Agganis at 1110 Commonwealth Ave. — a show that was not only their first-ever Boston performance, but one that also fell on Robert Smith’s 21st birthday.
Turns out there are more great Allston stories involving the Cure frontman, and the latest comes from Boston filmmaker/documentarian and former Damn Personals drummer Mike Gill.
Gill, who is currently working on a documentary on Boston music icon Billy Ruane, shared the story on Facebook Thursday afternoon, and it involves the time Smith shot some pool at Allston’s Model Cafe.
For real.
Here it is, reprinted with permission:
“Years ago, the Damn Personals’ friends the Dandy Warhols opened for the Cure somewhere in town. [Damn Personals singer/guitarist] Kenneth Cook was backstage afterwards and Robert Smith expressed interest in going to a bar in which he could play pool.
So, Ken took him to the Model Cafe (yes, this was that long ago, when the Model still had a pool table). It was a weeknight so fairly dead inside, save your typical Allston hipster or 2.
As Smith was playing pool and Ken was getting them pints at the bar, he overheard:
“Look at that dipshit at the pool table who thinks he’s Robert Smith.”
True story.
There you have it. Allston forever.
Watch the trailer for Gill’s still-in-progress Ruane documentary below.