The Cure Setlist

Open
alt.end
A Night Like This
The Walk
Push
In Between Days
Just Like Heaven
The Snakepit
Pictures of You
The Perfect Girl
High
The End of the World
Lovesong
Dressing Up
Lullaby
Fascination Street
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
One Hundred Years
End
— Encore —
It Can Never Be the Same
Want
Shake Dog Shake
— Encore 2–
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
Charlotte Sometimes
A Forest
— Encore 3 —
Never Enough
Burn
Wrong Number
— Encore 4 —
Hot Hot Hot!!!
The Caterpillar
Let’s Go to Bed
Close to Me
Why Can’t I Be You?
Boys Don’t Cry

Twilight Sad Setlist

Reflection of the Television
Last January
That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy
In Nowheres
It Never Was the Same
There’s a Girl in the Corner
And She Would Darken the Memory

Tour Dates

06/11 – Chicago, IL @ UIC Pavilion
06/14 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
06/16 – Boston, MA @ Agganis Arena
06/18 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
06/19 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
06/20 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
06/21 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
06/22 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post
06/24 – Atlanta, GA @ Aaron’s Amphitheater
06/26 – Miami, FL @ Bayfront Park Amphitheater
06/27 – Miami, FL @ Bayfront Park Amphitheater
10/07 – Helsinki, FI @ Hartwall Arena
10/09 – Stockholm, SE @ Ericsson Globe Arena
10/11 – Oslo, NO @ Spektrum
10/12 – Gotenburg, SE @ Scandinavium
10/14 – Copenhagen, DK @ Forum
10/17 – Hamburg, DE @ Barclaycard Arena
10/18 – Berlin, DE @ Mercedes-Benz Arena
10/20 – Lodz, PL @ Atlas Arena
10/22 – Prague, CZ @ O2 Arena
10/24 – Munich, DE @ Olympiahalle
10/26 – Vienna, AT @ Marxhalle
10/27 – Budapest, HR @ Papp Lazlo Sports Arena
10/29 – Bologna, IT @ Unipol Arena
10/30 – Rome, IT @ Palalottomatica
11/01 – Milan, IT @ Mediolanum Forum
11/02 – Milan, IT @ Mediolanum Forum
11/04 – Basel, CH @ St. Jakobshalle
11/06 – Stuttgart, DE @ Hanns-Martin-Shlever Halle
11/07 – Frankfurt, DE @ Festhalle
11/08 – Leipzig, DE @ Arena
11/10 – Cologne, DE @ Lanxess Arena
11/12 – Antwerp, BE @ Sportspaleis
11/13 – Amsterdam, NL @ Ziggo Dome
11/15 – Paris, FR @ AccorHotels Arena
11/17 – Lyon, FR @ Halle Tony Garnier
11/18 – Montpellier, FR @ Park & Suites Arena
11/20 – Madrid, ES @ Barclaycard Center
11/22 – Lisbon, PT @ MEO Arena
11/24 – Bilbao, ES @ BEC
11/26 – Barcelona, ES @ Palau St Jordi
11/29 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Arena
12/01 – London, UK @ SSE Wembley Arena
12/02 – London, UK @ SSE Wembley Arena
12/03 – London, UK @ SSE Wembley Arena

All dates with Twilight Sad

You’d think playing thirty-four songs in three hours with four encores, was saved up to reward the fans because The Cure hadn’t played Minneapolis/St Paul since July 1996…- nope, just another night on their successful 2016 North American Tour.

The evening got started on the right foot, with a band we’ve seen much more recently, Scotland’s The Twilight Sad, still in support of 2014’s Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave (Fat Cat Records).

The group’s last appearance in town was in the 250-person capacity 7^th Street Entry, and now they were opening in a hockey arena, though their large and fuzzy sound seemed a better fit than expected.

‘In Nowheres’, played a third of the way in, was particularly strong, with singer James Graham constantly in motion while singing, often jerking about or holding his hands up to the sky.

Graham paused after the song, remarking “This is the point where I try and speak to the crowd… and nobody can understand a word I say because I’m too Scottish!”

Like their contemporaries Glasvegas, We Were Promised Jetpacks, and Frightened Rabbit, there’s the underbelly of a perennial unhappiness to their songs, but through all the noise and wall of sound, a glimmer of redeeming light. Their set ending ‘And She Would Darken the Memory’ from 2007 personifies that notion, as Graham “puts up” with the gloom from the lyrics.

Amidst local band Low’s music serving as a taped intro, the members of The Cure strode out onto a local stage for the first time in two decades. Though the lineup has changed, the current incarnation is full of veterans to support the somewhat ageless Robert Smith, who still sports his trademark bird’s nest of hair.

Simon Gallup on bass/keys (since 1979); Roger O’Donnell – keys (who first joined in 1987); and Jason Cooper – drums (since 1995) were joined by Reeves Gabrels – guitars/bass (only in the band since 2012 but was David Bowie’s guitarist for the decade-plus previous).

Beginning fittingly with ‘Open’, the setlist each night of the current tour seems to favor one particular album and this night it seemed to be 1987’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, with Smith and co. playing six different songs from the album.

Smith’s words between songs were characteristically minimal, with no mention of not having played locally in so long, and with only a subtle tribute to Prince as he played a purple guitar for the majority of the show (to be auctioned for charity at a later date) on this, what would have been Prince’s 58^th birthday. “The pressure of holding a purple guitar is really getting to me” Smith would say.

Radio hits were peppered in amongst the deeper tracks, with the band wholly on point and taking us along for the ride of this “Cure-a-Thon” spanning almost forty years of music.

Smith hardly moved from his mic position and the right and left screens hung above, were woefully small with only one dark fixed camera angle on each, from the corners of the stage.

But it was the music that was the focus, and the back-to-back of ‘In Between Days’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’ had fans jumping in their seats. ‘Pictures of You’ was picture-perfect, ‘High’ rose fans’ collective spirits, and 1992’s ‘From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea’ took us on their journey, “miles and miles away from home again”.

Ninety minutes in, they finished their main set, appropriately with ‘End’ from 1992’s Wish, but in fact, were just getting started. The first encore started with the lone new song of the set, ‘It Can Never Be the Same’ which fits neatly amongst the others in the band’s canon.

After an anguished ‘Shake Dog Shake’ the band again retreated, but quickly returned for a stunning 2^nd encore, playing ‘Charlotte Sometimes’ followed immediately by ‘A Forest’ with Gallup’s bass propelling the track while obscure visions of dark trees spread on the video backdrops.

The third encore gave us a sampling of the band’s mid-90’s output with ‘Never Enough’, ‘ Burn’ and ‘Wrong Number’ all dated from that decade.

And then, the fourth and final encore pulled out all the stops, with the band blazing through a six-pack of memorable songs, re-igniting the excitement for anyone that was still in the building.

Ending with the 1980 classic ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, the band even exceeded the venue’s extended curfew by three minutes, but didn’t seem to care, and the crowd that had waited oh-so-long to see them again, could have cared less as well.

“See you again!” Smith said waving to the crowd, and here’s hoping Minneapolis/St. Paul won’t have to wait quite as long for The Cure’s next area show.