Photos by Katrina Wong Shue
The Cure brought their Shows of a Lost World North American tour to Toronto on Wednesday night. It feels like it’s been too long since we’ve seen Robert Smith and the boys here. A lot has since happened since 2016 including the band being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
It seems that the time has allowed for an influx of fans from a younger generation sharing the experience with the expected OGs. A little strange maybe since their last album, 4:13 Dream, was released fifteen years ago in 2008. I’d have to attribute it to a combination of such a deep discography, some great Robert Smith collaborations including Crystal Castles – ‘Not In Love’ and CHVRCHES – ‘How Not To Drown’, and a vocal that never seems to age.
Speculation aside the depth of The Cure’s decades long catalogue allows for shuffling of songs from gig to gig during the tour. Toronto fans were treated to a sampling of new songs seemingly from their promised album including “Alone”, “And Nothing is Forever”, ”A Fragile Thing”, and “I Can Never Say Goodbye”, a song he mentioned was about his brother.
As always their set was long and full including classics like ‘Pictures of You’, ‘A Night Like This’, ‘Lovesong’, ‘Facination Street’ along with deeper cuts like ‘Shake Dog Shake’, which for a while had been their opener, and ‘The Last Day of Summer’.
‘A Forest’ was a standout with its intro and extended outro by Robert and Simon Gallup. Jason Cooper drove the beat on ‘Burn’ while Reeves Gabrels’s guitar sounded as visceral as ever on ‘From the Edge of The Deep Green Sea’.
The encores followed with the first being the darker of the two including ‘Want’ and ending with the title track from ‘Disintegration’. The second and longer encore featured ‘Lullaby’, a crowd pleasing dance by Robert during ‘Six Different Ways’, and “The Walk”. “Friday I’m In Love” was accompanied by the night’s most engaging screen effects full of heart encased eyeballs floating in a sweet “Cure” like fashion. Also included was the uplifting ‘Doing The Unstuck’, and the hand clap inducing ‘Close To Me’. The Cure finished the encore with ‘In Between Days’, ‘Just Like Heaven’ and ‘Boys Don’t Cry’.
Robert ended the night the same way he started it. Walking the stage acknowledging and appreciating the crowd. I think it’s safe to say the appreciation was more than reciprocated for a great night from a band who fought for their fans. (I’m looking at you scalpers & Ticketmaster).
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Note: if you missed the show but wanted to grab some of the exclusive merch, The Cure has also released them in their official store which can be found here.
Be sure to check out Live Nation Ontario to see all of the other great acts that they will be bringing to Toronto this year.
