The Cure’s Robert Smith at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, June 2, 2023 (Photo from the band’s Facebook page)
Thunder roared from the sound system and bursts of simulated lightning set an appropriately stormy tone for The Cure to take the stage. The band eased into the instrumental prelude of “Alone” while Robert Smith wandered to the very edge of the stage front. Slowly, deliberately, one step at a time he crossed from stage right to left, pausing with each step to gaze into the audience as though he were making eye contact with each and every person. It was a magic trick that made Vancouver’s Rogers Arena feel intimate on this June 2, 2023 night.
Forty years of musical history is a lot to cover but The Cure took the next two hours and 45 minutes to do just that. Performing songs from all but two of their 13 studio albums, Smith and company journeyed through the tumult, angst and glorious alt-pop that earned them a well-deserved spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
They slipped right into three songs from Disintegration, the album that first brought Smith’s themes of romance and gloom together in an epic saga of a record. “Pictures of You” shimmered as it rolled from one melodramatic bridge to the other, with Smith making certain that the audience felt the same heartache as he: “If only I’d thought of the right words…I could have held on to your heart.”
Bassist Simon Gallup is the longest-standing member of The Cure (other than Smith) and a mentor of The Cure’s distinctive sound. He uses chord progressions to add as much melody to the songs as do the lead guitars and keyboards. “Lovesong” is one of his best bass lines as he twists between lift and low-end that provide a rhythmic canvas for the gorgeous synth washes and hooky guitars. Aside from his musical prowess, Gallup is just plain fun to watch. With his guitar strapped just above the knees, he hunches to reach the strings, skips around the stage, and occasionally perches atop a monitor like a parrot with a pompadour ruling over the bedlam of his bandmates.
It was a glorious beginning that spilled into a deep dive of more arcane songs that afford the guitarists the room to show off just how musical they are. Perry Bamonte, a longstanding member, provides a steady rhythm for Reeves Gabrels’ leads, soundscapes and effects. When Smith joins with them, they form a virtual guitar orchestra, creating an atmospheric river of tones, noise-scape and rhythmic drive. Poised at his keyboard rig, barely moving the entire night, Roger O’Donnell stoically represents the calm of the storm, adding the intoxicating synth parts and keyboard melodies that are the essence of The Cure’s beauty.
An ambitious setlist doesn’t always work in a band’s favor and early on it felt like Smith and company had bogged down with a sequence of songs that all felt too similar together. Two new songs, “And Nothing is Forever” and “A Fragile Thing,” are beautiful but sandwiched together with “It Can Never Be The Same” they’re smothered by too much, ironically, of the same. They deserved more room to breathe on their own to be fully enjoyed.
Showcasing the jackhammer drive of drummer Jason Cooper, they lit the stage fire-red and exploded into the brooding rocker, “Burn.” All eyes were on Cooper as the backdrop for the entire song was a close-up of him relentlessly pounding out a sort of industrial “Hey Bo Diddley” rhythm. Cooper’s secret power is his ability to blend beats—world, jazz, Latin, R&B—to whip up a punky jazz polyrhythm that is his own.
“Push” opens the door to a more raucous energy not exhibited until this point. On the stage backdrop the audience sees itself via a camera located from the point of view of Cooper. It’s a cool effect and it pumps up the audience energy as it responds with the most thunderous applause of the night. The band keeps the energy high with two songs from Seventeen Seconds, “Play for Today” and an extended version of “A Forest,” that crescendoed madly into a guitar duel between Smith and Gallup, giving Smith the opportunity to show-off his Hendrix-esque chops.
Watch “Play for Today” from the show in Portland on May 31
Reeves Gabrels is tasked with the responsibility of duplicating guitar parts that were mostly created by Smith and are integral components of the songs and sound of The Cure. An accomplished musician with a long history with David Bowie, Gabrel arduously accomplishes his assignment while finding the space to add his own flourishes and solos. He shines on every song and though he has never recorded with The Cure, his chemistry with Smith and the other band members is fraternal.
They close the set with “Endsong,” which was maybe too clever. Finishing on the high energy note of “Shake Dog Shake” would have had the crowd loud and stomping for more leading into the encore. But that probably doesn’t matter to Robert Smith.
There are two encores. The first begins with a cathartic ode to Smith’s lost brother, “I Can Never Say Goodbye,” in which his vocal is riddled with aching pain and Gabrels’ guitar solo is fierce and angry. The sweeping and majestic “Plainsong” follows and then “Disintegration.” Smith’s vocals have been exquisite all night, displaying a range of emotion that few can match; vulnerability flows to joy and slips into sorrow.
On “Disintegration” his vocal intensity amplifies and elevates into a never-ending crescendo of rage as he laments “songs about happiness, murmured in dreams, when both of us knew, how the end always is.”
When the band returns for the second encore, it playa 10 songs, all but one of which are included in the band’s 2001 Greatest Hits album. Without breaking it down by song, it’s a whirling kaleidoscope of despair set to timeless pop hooks, delirious synth washes, crashing drums, see-sawing guitars riffs and buoyant bass lines, each a little masterpiece on its own. Smith announces that they have six minutes till curfew and off they go with “10:15 Saturday Night/Killing An Arab” to finish.
I can’t think of a way to sum this up but to use the words from Trent Reznor’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech: “The Cure are one of the most unique, most brilliant, most heartbreakingly excellent rock bands the world has ever known.” They were all that and more tonight.
Watch the Cure perform “10:15 Saturday Night” and “Killing an Arab” at this show
Tickets to see The Cure are available here and here.
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1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationBest review yet. I was in tears after reading what you wrote about the Cure. I couldn’t agree more with ending on a quote from Trent reznor. You obviously know and understand the band a lot better than other journalists. Equating them to a fine wine was . And people who know best and love them best and appreciate them best can always have a critique. Yours were spoken like a true fan and true appreciator of the better things in life. Thank you!