The Cure closes Robert Smith’s Meltdown by going ‘there to here and back again’ — hear the full set

The Robert Smith-curated Meltdown festival in London wrapped up Sunday night with a headlining performance by The Cure — or, rather, CURÆTION-25, as the band was billed — that featured a there-and-back-again, two-set retrospective of the band’s 40-year career.

Opening with “Three Imaginary Boys,” Smith and Co. went on to play one song off of each of The Cure’s albums, from 1979’s Three Imaginary Boys through 2008’s 4.13 Dream (“You’ll be seeing there’s a theme,” Smith said after the band played “A Strange Day”). The first set concluded with “It Can Never Be the Same,” one of the two unreleased songs debuted on the group’s 2016 tour.

After a short break, The Cure returned and played “Step Into the Light,” the other new song, before going back in time, performing a second song off each album, in reverse-chronological order. Well, almost. The show wrapped, encore-less, with “Boys Don’t Cry” instead of a second song off Three Imaginary Boys.

Smith was joined by the current Cure lineup — Simon Gallup on bass, Reeves Gabrels on guitar, Jason Cooper on drums and Roger O’Donnell on keyboards — despite speculation that the Meltdown show might feature special guests, possibly even past bandmates like the Reflections concerts a few years ago.

Meltdown’s organizers had described tonight’s set as Smith being “joined onstage by four of his curious friends – and other, imaginary accompanists – to perform special interpretations based on a very particular selection of songs he has sung throughout the years.” (The festival presumably couldn’t bill the show as being by The Cure for contractual reasons, as the band’s huge 40th anniversary concert in London’s Hyde Park in two weeks was advertised as The Cure’s only European performance this year.)

While, in the end, there were no surprise guests, nor any special arrangements, The Cure did present a novel “there to here and back again” set, as Smith called it, that stayed largely away from the band’s hits, sprinkling in fan favorites like “At Night,” “Bananafishbones” and “Sinking” among the setlist regulars.

“Thank you very much,” Smith said when it was over, “See you in a couple weeks. Thank you.”

Below, check out the full setlist, plus stream audio of the entire show via @Snuffybear.

We’re also rounding up video and photos from the show.

Setlist: CURÆTION-25 aka The Cure, Robert Smith’s Meltdown, London, 6/24/18

SET 1
1. “Three Imaginary Boys”
2. “At Night”
3. “Other Voices”
4. “A Strange Day”
5. “Bananafishbones”
6. “A Night Like This”
7. “Like Cockatoos”
8. “Pictures of You”
9. “High”
10. “Jupiter Crash”
11. “39”
12. “Us or Them”
13. “It’s Over”
14. “It Can Never Be the Same”

SET 2
15. “Step Into the Light”
16. “The Hungry Ghost”
17. “alt.end”
18. “Last Day of Summer”
19. “Want”
20. “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea”
21. “Disintegration”
22. “If Only Tonight We Could Sleep”
23. “Sinking”
24. “Shake Dog Shake”
25. “One Hundred Years”
26. “Primary”
27. “A Forest”
28. “Boys Don’t Cry”

PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS

• Robert Smith to play Meltdown with ‘curious friends,’ says he’s working on new music
• The Cure to mark 40th anniversary with new documentary: ‘Robert himself will tell the story’
• The Cure to play giant 40th anniversary concert in London’s Hyde Park next year
• Tim Pope confirms work on ‘The Cure project,’ promises ‘bumper year for the 40th anniversary
• The absolute best of The Cure: All 225 songs ranked by Slicing Up Eyeballs’ readers