The Cure bring back lush memories to a sold out crowd

Merriweather Post Pavilion -Baltimore Maryland, June 22^nd 2016

By Ron Senyo

The legends known as The Cure came to Baltimore, MD this evening and they brought a mammoth crowd with them. The 19,000 plus seat Merriweather Post Pavilion was sold out months in advance for the outdoor spectacular. The sea of people was a diverse mix from every walk of life. There were goths, old heads, emos, transgendered, and everything in between, yet the crowd was peacefully assembled for one reason, our undying love of Robert Smith and music of The Cure.

This night The Cure ensured that the throngs of people would not be disappointed. They performed nearly a three hour set with only a few short breaks between encores. They pulled songs from their expansive catalog that spans their nearly forty year career.

Throughout the night Robert was a man of few words. Only pausing briefly at the end of several songs to mutter “OK” before the band moved on to the next piece of music. Occasionally he uttered a few words, but mostly only to mention which album a particular song came from.

They started the set off with “Open” from the album Wish and quickly pulled the crowd into the their lush soundscapes of depression and melody. “Pictures of You” came in very early in the set, giving the crowd a taste of the hits that we all know and love. All 19K fans sang along with Robert as he crooned “I’ve been looking so long at these pictures of you, That I almost believe that they’re real, I’ve been living so long with my pictures of you, That I almost believe that the pictures, Are all I can feel.”

Robert sounded amazing after all these years as he breezed through all the classics. I however did not fair as well. It was a hot and very muggy evening and I had to have one of the venue’s delicious frozen margaritas. Shortly after having indulged, I had to make my way to the restroom. As luck would have it, they played my all time favorite “Lovesong” as I was relieving myself. It never fails, when nature calls the song you want to hear most comes on. The saving grace was that with the crowd being so vast you really couldn’t get a good view of the stage. It was amazing to just be there in the moment and listening to the sweet serenade of Robert Smith.

From there I made my way to the merch. booth and was surprised that the shirts were only $25. I snagged one with Robert on the front and was quite pleased.

In total The Cure played four encores. Each one more epic then the previous. In the first encore we heard “Sinking” and “It Can Never Be The Same” which is a song I’ve always adored.

For encore number two they played “Shake Dog Shake” and then “Burn” which was featured on The Crow Soundtrack back in 1994. Listening to that made me shed a tear thinking about the lost life of Brandon Lee.

Encore 3 featured a few of my favorites with “Lullaby”, “Fascination Street”, and “Wrong Number”.

They saved the best for the forth and final encore. They delivered lots of fan favorites including: “Hot, Hot, Hot,” “Let’s Go to Bed,” “Close to Me,” and ended with “Boys Don’t Cry” which was a perfect way to bring the night to an end.

I would have loved to hear “Friday I’m In Love” but wasn’t going to complain because with the collections of songs The Cure has its difficult to play everything. The night was a perfect with such an amazing band; it has been far too long since I’ve seen them and hope they come back around sooner rather than later. Such an amazing band and in my opinion one the best front man of all time.

SETLIST:
Open
High
Pictures of You
Closedown
Kyoto Song
A Night Like This
The Walk
The End of the World
Lovesong
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
All I Want
Push
In Between Days
Just Like Heaven
Bananafishbones
Never Enough
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
End

Encore:
Sinking
It Can Never Be the Same

Encore 2:
Shake Dog Shake
Burn
A Forest

Encore 3:
Dressing Up
Lullaby
Fascination Street
Wrong Number

Encore 4:
Hot Hot Hot!!!
Let’s Go to Bed
Close to Me
Why Can’t I Be You?
Boys Don’t Cry

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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