The Cure
Troxy, London, November 1, 2024
It’s been 16 years since The Cure’s last studio album (2008’s 4:13 Dream), and nearly a year since they played Bogota, Colombia on the last date of their 2023 tour. Tonight, they’re launching their new album Songs Of A Lost World, and – perhaps unsurprisingly, given the excitement surrounding the band’s long-awaited return - there’s been huge demand for this intimate sold-out show. Lead single Alone was released in September, and some songs from the album were performed on the world tour, but this is the first time anyone will hear the album live in its entirety.
A flamboyant Grade II listed Art Deco building in the old East End, Troxy feels the right venue for such a grand, sweeping set of songs. Sounds of thunder and rain echo through the speakers, adding to the excitement in a crowd that spans Gen Z enthusiasts and sixty-something punks. When the lights dim at 8pm the band are onstage and ready, launching straight into Alone, Jason Cooper’s stately drum pattern driving the majestic wall of chords and guitars. The backdrop features film of earth receding into space, as Robert Smith harks back to his boyhood gazing at the stars.
They segue into And Nothing Is Forever, a hymn to friendship, fallibility and regret, and the soulful swing of A Fragile Thing, before switching gears to the dark and monstrous mood of Warsong. “All we will ever know, is bitter ends, for we are born to war,” sings Smith, his plaintive tone emphasising the futility of fighting, both on a personal and a global level. He leads the band inexorably to the saddest yet most powerful song of the first set - I Can Never Say Goodbye, which is about the death of his older brother Richard. “Something wicked this way comes,” he intones, his voice almost drowning in a wave of synth chords and guitar feedback, while behind them runs film of a ghostly, deserted merry-go-round.
For all its weighty themes of grief and loss, The Cure’s new album has a dazzling eloquence and focused intensity. Still, it’s a lot to take in, and some of the audience are growing restless, wandering off for beers and chats – that is, until the final Endsong where Reeves Grabels’ pulverising guitar solo stuns them into silence.
The end of the first set is greeted by loud, appreciative applause, then a ten-minute interval and a natural segue into the dense, epic Plainsong from 1989’s Disintegration. Pictures Of You brightens the mood, especially with the black and white image of a teenage Robert Smith as a backdrop, and Lovesong lifts the crowd further into a soaring singalong.
Now the band are on a roll – Burn, their song from The Crow soundtrack, has a blistering power tonight, as Cooper and bassist Simon Gallup lock together in a hypnotic groove. 1985’s The Head On The Door is also well-represented, with the synth pop brashness of A Night Like This, In Between Days, and the open-hearted Push, where the crowd join in, arms aloft and voices to the rafters. There’s no restlessness now. Smith slides into a transcendent Just Like Heaven from Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, and it’s remarkable how strong and clear his voice is. Even though he asked himself in a recent interview for the Cure website, “Do I [at 65 years old] have the drive and persistence to still do this?”, his sparky energy and enthusiasm are palpable.
Thunder sounds punctuate another short break before the band are back with a treat – five tracks from 1980’s austere second album Seventeen Seconds. The taut, melodic guitar of Play For Today always goes down well, as does the gothic distortion of At Night (“It’s like Hammer Horror tonight,” Smith quips). But, to the delight of the crowd, there’s also Secrets, which The Cure haven’t played live since 1987. In contrast to the rest of the set’s splendour, the song stands out for its spare guitar strum and Roger O’Donnell’s simple toy piano. There’s also the giant red holographic M hovering in the air while the band sing M, and a huge spooky post-Halloween rave-up finale with A Forest.
It would have been fine to end the evening there, with everyone elated by the chart hits. The Cure have already been onstage for two and a half hours. But there’s more with the encore – 1983 single The Walk, a lurching, comic Lullaby, plus Why Can’t I Be You and Friday I’m In Love, complete with a backdrop of giant psychedelic hearts.
Among its sombre reflections on mortality, Songs of a Lost World frequently finds Smith looking back to his childhood innocence, so it seems right to celebrate his perkier chart triumphs alongside its darker melancholy. Fitting then, that they finish the night with a warmly ironic version of Boys Don’t Cry.
SETLIST:
Songs Of A Lost World
Alone
And Nothing Is Forever
A Fragile Thing
Warsong
Drone
I Can Never Say Goodbye
All I Ever Am
Endsong
[INTERMISSION]
Plainsong
Pictures Of You
High
Lovesong
Burn
Fascination Street
A Night Like This
Push
Inbetween Days
Just Like Heaven
From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
Disintegration
At Night
M
Secrets
Play For Today
A Forest
ENCORE:
Lullaby
The Walk
Friday I’m in Love
Close to Me
Why Can’t I Be You?
Boys Don’t Cry
Pictures: Tom Pallant
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