The Cure | Photo by Kevin Estrada, @KevinEstradaPhotography
The Cure today expanded its Shows of a Lost World 2023 tour by adding four additional North American dates, including second concerts in San Diego, Montreal and Atlanta, plus a new stop in Portland, Oregon, that bandleader Robert Smith says is an “experiment” to see whether simply using non-transferrable tickets is “enough protection” to keep seats out of the hands of scalpers.
The new concerts are set for May 21 in San Diego, May 31 in Portland, June 17 in Montreal and June 28 in Atlanta, the band announced this morning on social media.
Anyone with previously issued, but unused, Ticketmaster Verified Fan presale codes “from any market” will have the first crack at tickets for San Diego, Montreal and Atlanta, the band says. That presale begins at 10 a.m. local time Friday, April 7, with a limit of four non-transferrable tickets per person.
“Please, please, please don’t buy tickets if you don’t intend going (sic) to the show,” Smith writes on Twitter.
If tickets remain to those concerts after the Verified Fan presale, a public on-sale is set for 10 a.m. local time on Saturday, April 8.
Additionally, non-transferrable tickets for the new Portland show will go on sale at 10 a.m. local time Friday, April 7, with no Verified Fan presale. See thecure.com for more details.
FOUR EXTRA SHOWS ADDED TO OUR ’SHOWS OF A LOST WORLD’ NORTH AMERICAN TOUR – THREE OF THEM ARE ‘EXTRA NIGHTS’ – 21ST MAY SAN DIEGO / 17TH JUNE MONTREAL / 28TH JUNE ATLANTA #ShowsOfALostWorld2023 1/5 pic.twitter.com/BDVMGBnNXB
— The Cure (@thecure) April 5, 2023
Smith also revealed, in a tweet on Tuesday, that The Cure is planning to play in Mexico “and seven of the 12 sovereign states of South America” — the details of which will be announced before the end of this month.
The Shows of a Lost World tour will find Smith joined by his longest-serving bandmate, bassist Simon Gallup, as well as drummer Jason Cooper, keyboardist Roger O’Donnell and guitarist Reeves Gabrels. Smith surprised fans last fall by bringing back guitarist/keyboardist Perry Bamonte, who played in the band from 1990 to 2005.
The Cure announced what initially was a 30-date North American tour on March 9, and spelled out efforts to thwart scalpers and try to keep tickets affordable — including by barring the transfer of tickets, prohibiting resale above face value and the use of the Ticketmaster Verified Fan system.
When tickets went on sale, though, sky-high demand meant many fans were shut out from even getting codes to access the presale that began March 15 — and through which it seemed most of the seats available at the 30 shows were sold. Fans also grumbled as the band’s attempts to keep prices low were met with services fees that, in the most extreme cases, exceeded ticket prices.
By the time the general on-sale rolled around on March 17, Smith had secured partial refunds of Ticketmaster’s “unduly high” fees that he had felt “sickened” by. Still, by the Friday general on-sale, the majority of tickets already had been sold and buyers quickly snatched up most of what was left.
Smith has urged fans to use face value exchanges like twickets.live if they need to buy or sell tickets, and repeatedly has asked fans not to buy tickets to the shows in Denver, New York City and Chicago from ticket brokers, as they are in states with “laws protecting scalpers.” According to Ticketmaster, it those three states, “state law prohibits artists from restricting resale.”
Last week, Smith announced that he’d been informed that approximately 7,000 tickets to the band’s North American tour have been canceled because they were bought with “fake accounts” or listed on the secondary market. A day earlier, Smith had tweeted about how ticket scalpers were getting around The Cure’s attempt to limit the digital transfer of tickets by reselling entire Ticketmaster accounts, with tickets included — a method detailed by Vice’s Motherboard in an extensive article last month.
All tickets bought that way, Smith continued, will be canceled and the original fees won’t be refunded — instead the fees will be donated to Amnesty International, “and the tickets themselves will be resold to fans.”
The 7,000 canceled tickets were linked to 2,200 individual orders, Smith wrote on Friday. “These are tickets acquired with fake accounts/listed on secondary resale sites,” he wrote. Any fans who believe their tickets have been “wrongly canceled” should contact Ticketmaster via @TMFanSupport on Twitter, Smith added.
Below, check out The Cure’s tour dates
The Cure 2023 tour dates
May 10: New Orleans, LA — Smoothie King Center
May 12: Houston, TX — Toyota Center
May 13: Dallas, TX — Dos Equis Pavilion
May 14: Austin, TX — Moody Center
May 16: Albuquerque, NM — Isleta Amphitheater
May 18: Phoenix, AZ — Desert Diamond Arena
May 20: San Diego, CA — NICU Amphitheatre
May 21: San Diego, CA — NICU Amphitheatre *
May 23: Los Angeles, CA — Hollywood Bowl
May 24: Los Angeles, CA — Hollywood Bowl
May 25: Los Angeles, CA — Hollywood Bowl
May 27: San Francisco, CA — Shoreline Amphitheatre
May 31: Portland, OR — MODA Centre *
June 1: Seattle, WA — Climate Pledge Arena
June 2: Vancouver, BC — Rogers Arena
June 4: Salt Lake City, UT — Vivint Smart Home Arena
June 6: Denver, CO — Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre
June 8: Minneapolis St. Paul, MN — Xcel Energy Center
June 10: Chicago, IL — United Center
June 11: Cleveland, OH — Blossom Music Center
June 13: Detroit, MI — Pine Knob Music Theatre
June 14: Toronto, ON — Budweiser Stage
June 16: Montreal, QC — Bell Centre
June 17: Montreal, QC — Bell Centre *
June 18: Boston, MA — Xfinity Center
June 20: New York, NY — Madison Square Garden
June 21: New York, NY — Madison Square Garden
June 22: New York, NY — Madison Square Garden
June 24: Philadelphia, PA — Wells Fargo Center
June 25: Columbia, MD — Merriweather Post Pavilion
June 27: Atlanta, GA — State Farm Arena
June 28: Atlanta, GA — State Farm Arena *
June 29: Tampa, FL — Amalie Arena
July 1: Miami, FL — Miami-Dade Arena
* Newly added shows
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- 7,000 scalped tickets to The Cure canceled and will be resold, Robert Smith says
- The Cure’s Robert Smith says Ticketmaster will partially refund “unduly high” ticket fees
- The Cure’s Robert Smith “sickened” by ticket fees, says Verified Fan system “far from perfect”
- The Cure’s plan to keep tickets affordable: No dynamic pricing, face-value resale, no transfers
- The Cure announces 30-date “Shows of a Lost World” North American tour
- The Cure’s deluxe reissue of “Wish” to include 21 unreleased demos, “Lost Wishes” EP
- The Cure turns Pasadena Daydream into ‘the best day of the summer’ with scorching set
- The absolute best of The Cure: All 225 songs ranked by Slicing Up Eyeballs’ readers
