For a show played 44 years after their 1979 debut, the Maryland date of post-punk/pop group The Cure’s tour “Shows of a Lost World” was stunningly good.
The Cure performed at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, an amphitheater in Columbia that served as a catch-all date for the entire DMV. And catch all it did — the venue was totally full, making the experience a crowded one. Concertgoers were packed into the general admissions pit and lawn like sardines, and those who prioritized comfort and sought out somewhere with breathing room sacrificed any visibility of the show itself. But venue issues aside, the music was spectacular.
The Cure came out to an outburst of applause, and they didn’t go off for three hours. That was really the most incredible part about the show: aside from a few minutes at the start to get set up and talk to the crowd a bit and two three-minute breaks later into the set, The Cure started playing and they did not stop. With the addition of an hour-long opener, the entire show came out to around four hours long.
Something somewhat unusual was the amount of crowd chatter; if you’re someone who enjoys the “how are we all doing tonight?!” casual style of a show you might be a bit disappointed, but if it was anything it was the most musical bang for your literal buck. They opened with fan-favorite “Pictures of You” and delved deep into their discography for a setlist that would satisfy both fans of the hits and some of their deeper cuts.
The pure musicality of the show was beyond impressive. Over 4 decades after their first release, a band full of 60-somethings was playing with the same impressive pacing and vocal performances as they did in their debut, with only minor vocal pitch changes to account for age and the strenuous nature of live performances. Frontman/guitarist Robert Smith, armed with only a microphone, guitar, and several plastic cups of what was either a remarkably headless beer or (as I heard several crowd members proclaim) apple juice, put on the show of several lifetimes. At 64, Smith’s vocal range seems to be in nearly pristine condition.
Of all 29 songs played, the band played the most off of their 1989 magnum opus Disintegration, with almost all of the album making an appearance throughout the show. But it wasn’t just songs from the 80s and 90s: the tour serves as an album tour for their upcoming album Songs of a Lost World, their first since 2008’s 4:13 Dream. While 4:13 Dream was received to middling critical success, if this is the current quality of The Cure’s music in 2023, I have nothing but high hopes for Songs of a Lost World.
5/5 Stars
