In what’s already being hailed as unforgettable performance, The Cure has just wrapped up a 44-song, nearly four-hour performance at the Vivid Live Festival at Australia’s famed Sydney Opera House — a concert that found Robert Smith & Co. running through the band’s first three albums in their entirety and reuniting with former keyboardists Lol Tolhurst and Roger O’Donnell.
According to the setlist and fan accounts posted by Chain of Flowers, the band — for the first of its two “Reflections” concerts — played its first three albums — 1979’s Three Imaginary Boys, 1980’s Seventeen Seconds and 1981’s Faith — with O’Donnell joining the lineup for the first time since 2005 for the latter two albums, and Tolhurst performing with The Cure (on Faith) for the first time since his ouster 22 years ago.
Following the three full-album sets, The Cure returned for three separate encores totaling 14 more songs. Keeping with the night’s theme, the band stuck to early era singles and B-sides, performing cuts such as “Descent,” “The Hanging Garden,” “Splintered in Her Head,” “Charlotte Sometimes,” “Another Journey By Train” and “Killing An Arab” — the latter of which Smith continues to perform as the more PC “Killing Another.”
UPDATE: Video is starting to surface on YouTube of this historic concert; so far, we’ve posted, below, a few clips from each album and much of the encores.
UPDATE #2: For their second and final night in Sydney, The Cure performed largely the same “Reflections” setlist, with the additions of a “happy birthday” salute to bassist Simon Gallup and a performance of the “Weedy Burton” instrumental that closes Three Imaginary Boys. See more at Chain of Flowers.
See The Cure’s ‘Reflections’ setlist and video after the jump…
Setlist: The Cure, ‘Reflections,’ Vivid Live Festival, Sydney Opera House, 5/31/11
1st Set: Three Imaginary Boys
1. “10:15 Saturday Night”
2. “Accuracy”
3. “Grinding Halt”
4. “Another Day”
5. “Object”
6. “Subway Song”
7. “Foxy Lady”
8. “Meathook”
9. “So What”
10. “Fire In Cairo”
11. “It’s Not You”
12. “Three Imaginary Boys”
2nd Set: Seventeen Seconds (w/ Roger O’Donnell)
13. “A Reflection”
14. “Play for Today”
15. “Secrets”
16. “In Your House”
17. “Forever”
18. “The Final Sound”
19. “A Forest”
20. “M”
21. “At Night”
22. “Seventeen Seconds”
3rd Set: Faith (w/ Lol Tolhurst and Roger O’Donnell)
23. “The Holy Hour”
24. “Primary”
25. “Other Voices”
26. “All Cats Are Grey”
27. “The Funeral Party”
28. “Doubt”
29. “The Drowning Man”
30. “Faith”
1st Encore:
31. “World War”
32. “I’m Cold”
33. “Plastic Passion”
34. “Boy’s Don’t Cry”
35. “Killing An Arab”
36. “Jumping Someone Else’s Train”
37. “Another Journey By Train”
2nd Encore:
38. “Descent”
39. “Splintered in Her Head”
40. “Charlotte Sometimes”
41. “The Hanging Garden”
3rd Encore:
42. “Let’s Go to Bed”
43. “The Walk”
44. “The Lovecats”
THREE IMAGINARY BOYS:
The Cure, “Subway Song,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
SEVENTEEN SECONDS:
The Cure, “Play for Today,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
The Cure, “A Forest,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
The Cure, “Three/Forever,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
FAITH:
The Cure, “Doubt,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
ENCORES:
The Cure, “World War,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
The Cure, “Boys Don’t Cry,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
The Cure, “Another Journey By Train,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
The Cure, “Descent,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
The Cure, “Splintered in Her Head,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
The Cure, “Charlotte Sometimes,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
The Cure, “The Hanging Garden,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
The Cure, “The Lovecats,” Sydney Opera House, Australia, 5/31/11
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Robert Smith hints The Cure may perform more concerts after ‘Reflections’
- Milestones: The Cure’s ‘Standing on a Beach’ released 25 years ago today
- The Cure playing first 3 albums in Sydney with Lol Tolhurst, Roger O’Donnell
- Free MP3: Snow & Voices covers The Cure’s ‘Disintegration’ for its ‘Covers Project’
- Milestones: The Cure’s Robert Smith is 52 today; watch ‘Top’-era TV performance
- Vintage Video: Depeche Mode and The Cure in the studio via 1987 TV report
- Teaser: The Cure’s Robert Smith and The Japanese Popstars, ‘Take Forever’
- The Cure to headline U.K.’s Bestival; billed as band’s ‘only European show of 2011′
Splintered In Her Head live? Another Journey By Train? They MUST bring this to North America!!!!
I agree ^!
This sounds amazing. I can’t wait for the DVD.
I wonder if they’ll switch up the encore songs tonight?
Wow!!! That is so epic. I wonder when was the last time they played ‘So What’? I hope they bring this to the States. Thanks for posting!!
http://brethelm.blogspot.com/2010/11/cures-best-15-songs-5-best-rarities.html
Rumor is that tonight’s encore will be “The Top” in it’s entirety!!!!
This looks amazing, what a treat to have been there…I live in Melbourne, just one hour by air and was unable to get to Sydney to see this one-off event due to immediate sell-out…the word is this will be the only time The Cure do this…can’t wait for the DVD which I hope will be the entire show in its entirety plus whatever different they play on the 2nd night…
yay, how exciting, I’m going tonight! I have been looking forward to this for months.
u.s. tour or dvd, either way i’m so there.
I agree that they should tour this in North America. Please, please, please. :-)
They’re getting smart and playing old material. Their new stuff is crap.
Yes. I couldn’t agree more.
The old stuff is great, but the music (especially the lead guitar) sounds a bit sluggish/off tempo. But who am I kidding — If they came to North America with it, I’d jump at the chance to hear all of 17 Seconds and Faith live!
Yeah I noticed a few bunk notes in there too. Oh well, it’s a novel idea I suppose… but truth be told I probably would have dozed off halfway through.
They’ll bring this to NA or they will do The Top/The Head on the Door/ and maybe Kiss Me over here. They played the first trilogy in Europe (Porn, Disin, Blood) and this one in Sydney.
NA is due for a trilogy show at some point. Either play Reflections again in LA and NY, or do the next 3 albums over here.
Robert said ‘See you again for The Top’, so I think he is hinting they plan on doing more albums in the future.
This concert was one of the highlights of my life so far. I feel very blessed to have gotten tickets and watched it with my man, who is the biggest Cure fan I’ve ever met. Also knowing that it is released on dvd at the end of the year means that we have the memories of the night preserved forever. Life is good.
I was fortunate enough to see The Cure in NYC at Hurrah’s during their first US tour . They played almost all of 17 Seconds + material for 3 Imaginary Boys . Stood 10 feet from the stage directly in front of Robert Smith . Saw them again during the Faith tour at The Ritz in NYC . I’m in Japan now and I duobt they’ll ever do Reflections here , so I’ll have to wait for the DVD . It was so great to see Lol back on stage with the band !
I would LOVE to see this on a DVD or better yet live, but I’ll settle for the DVD. They already have a Paris concert (yeah I know, it’s an album), so, they should do this one! :)
Too good to be true !! Early Cure = best Cure. Can’t wait. Really bugs me there’s no release date for this. My laser’s gonna wear out playing this. Especially if the quality is anywhere near the ¨Trilogy¨ DVD, which I bought for the ¨Pornography¨ part alone BTW.