Love and Rockets plays first show in 15 years at Cruel World — here’s setlist and video

Love and Rockets at Cruel World | via YouTube

A severe weather alert may have ended the Cruel World festival abruptly before Siouxsie’s rare headlining set, but the much-anticipated reunion of Love and Rockets was able to go ahead earlier in the day today, with the group performing for the first time in 15 years.

The trio — Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins — performed an 11-song set featuring material from their first four albums, opening with back-to-back cuts off of 1989’s Love and Rockets, and including favorites like “No New Tale to Tell,” “So Alive,” “Mirror People” and their cover of the R&B classic “Ball of Confusion.”

See the full setlist below — and video from the set.

RELATED: Daniel Ash on Love and Rockets’ reunion, his new band — and figuring out how to play “So Alive”

The three members played Cruel World last year at the same site in Pasadena, California, with Bauhaus — but that band’s reunion, which started in late 2019, derailed last summer when Peter Murphy entered rehab.

Before tonight, Love and Rockets had last performed live in 2008 when the trio played festival sets at Coachella and Lollapalooza. The band’s last album was 1998’s Lift, and its last tour followed that in 1999.

In addition to tonight’s set at Cruel World, Love and Rockets will play 16 more U.S. concerts in May and June, beginning Sunday night in Oakland and winding up back in Los Angeles on June 20. See those dates below.

The band is also in the midst of a vinyl reissue campaign via Beggars Arkive, which will include the release next month of My Dark Twin, a new two-disc set of outtakes from the sessions that led to 1996’s Sweet F.A.

Below, check out the band’s Cruel World setlist and some video from the show.

Setlist: Love and Rockets at Cruel World, Pasadena, Calif. — 5/20/23

1. “I Feel Speed”
2. “No Big Deal”
3. “Kundalini Express”
4. “The Dog-End of a Day Gone By”
5. “Haunted When the Minutes Drag”
6. “An American Dream”
7. “No New Tale to Tell”
8. “So Alive”
9. “Ball of Confusion”
10. “Mirror People”
11. “Yin and Yang (The Flowerpot Man)”

 

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So holy shit this happened. Love and Rockets #cruelworldfest pic.twitter.com/pHfCJ3q3P0

— And As For Pimps (@hubis) May 21, 2023

Love and Rockets 2023 tour dates

May 21: Fox Theater, Oakland, CA
May 24: Sandy Amphitheater, Salt Lake City, UT
May 26: Roseland Theater, Portland, OR
May 27: Roseland Theater, Portland, OR
May 28: Moore Theater, Seattle, WA
June 5: Palace Theatre, St. Paul, MN
June 6: Riviera Theatre, Chicago, IL
June 7: Royal Oak Music Hall, Royal Oak, MI
June 9: Kings Theater, Brooklyn, NY
June 10: Fillmore, Philadelphia, PA
June 11: Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD
June 13: Coca Cola Roxy, Atlanta, GA
June 15: Factory in Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX
June 16: ACL Live at The Moody Theater, Austin, TX
June 17: Boeing Center at Tech Port, San Antonio, TX
June 20: The Theatre at Ace Hotel, Los Angeles, CA

PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS

• Love and Rockets adds Los Angeles concert to end of its 17-date reunion tour
• Q&A: Daniel Ash on Love and Rockets’ reunion, his new band — and figuring out how to play “So Alive”
• Love and Rockets announces “My Dark Twin” — new 2-disc companion to “Sweet F.A.”
• Love and Rockets expands reunion tour with 10 additional concerts across U.S.
• Love and Rockets’ short run of reunion dates grows with second show in Portland
• Love and Rockets to play 4 more U.S. concerts following reunion at Cruel World
• Siouxsie, Love and Rockets, Iggy Pop, Adam Ant, Billy Idol playing Cruel World 2023
• Love and Rockets vinyl reissues, “The Albums 1985-1996” box set announced