“When we look back at it all as i know we will, you and me, wide eyed. I wonder… Will we really remember how it feels to be this alive?”

The Cure took to the stage at Radio City Music Hall last Saturday night behind an “Adagio For Strings” and then moved directly into the opening track from their 2000 album Bloodflowers, the first words of which are quoted above. The song is a real standout, and the album much better than its given credit for; and, when considered as a bookend with the set’s closer, “Bloodflowers” (also the album’s closing song), the move might’ve hinted at the band’s real intentions on this night: to showcase their lesser heralded songs within the framework of the last moment in time they were creatively relevant. They do, after all, have an album to sell this fall. What better place to plant the seeds “BUY OUR PRODUCT (please)” than in a room full of 6,000 of their most morbidly devout fans? (Ed. note: fans not nearly as overtly ‘morbid’ as I might’ve liked.)

The interspersing of a few new songs notwithstanding, the evening wasn’t actually about selling The Cure and their next record. That part’s been done over two decades ago and the brand of this band will likely outlive the men who birthed it. No, June 21st at Radio City Music Hall was a chance for The Cure to give their core New York fans an evening of songs not often heard, “one last time before it’s over…one last time before the end…”

At times uneven and strangely paced (but obviously arranged with clear purpose), the set found the band touching on their main creative focal points - darkness, and irresistible pop charm - with alarming accuracy and perfect delivery. They moved from the hit “Lovesong” into the near-hit “A Letter To Elise” (irresistible pop, both) and followed those with the latter song’s B-side “The Big Hand” (darkness) before hitting with a one-two combo of “Pictures of You” and “Lullaby” (both equally dark and irresistible). Diluting this run of great songs with a throwaway B-side rather than, say, “Fascination Street,” is move that makes sense only when viewed from the vantage point of the liner notes to their box set Join The Dots. Or so you’d think. Actually, it was an obvious nod to the fans in the room and a concrete reminder that things can’t get too pop-perfect at a Cure concert. Nothing reinforced this notion better than the band’s 8+ minute closing obscurity, the heady gloom of “Forever”.

Robert Smith has never been known for being overtly personable in concert but he was in rare form Saturday night. Like any performer worth a damn who takes to the stage at Radio City, he brought the show directly to the fans in the balcony multiple times (photo HERE) by dancing and singing his way up the runners on the sides of the room (”I can’t fucking believe you let me get up here”). He even attempted a bit of between song banter before retreating into whisper, telling himself, and the audience, “See? This is why I don’t talk.” Whatever. Who needs banter when you’ve got one of the great bands of the past thirty years playing a stellar three-hour set to an audience a third the size of what they’re used to?

In an evening packed with greatness, nothing hit more perfectly than the second encore run of the band’s oldest material that began with “Boys Don’t Cry” and ran through four more Three Imaginary Boys era songs in succession. The punky new wave punch was as urgent as ever with “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” bringing about, perhaps, the greatest dancing moment of the entire concert. The new songs had gone over well enough, but this was an audience well-versed in the band’s entire catalog and thirsty for some old-OLD school. By the time Smith, Jason Cooper, Simon Gallup, and Porl Thompson cleared the second encore it was all the crowd could do to not lose themselves entirely when the first notes of “A Forest” hit. Creatively relevant? No. Simply elegant.

Setlist:
“Out Of This World”
“Want”
“Alt.End”
“The Baby Screams”
“The End of the World”
“Lovesong” (watch)
“A Letter To Elise” (watch)
“The Big Hand”
“Pictures of You” (watch)
“Lullaby” (watch)
“Catch” (watch)
“The Perfect Boy”
“Kyoto Song” (watch)
“Other Voices”
“The Only One”
“Hot Hot Hot”
“Sleep When I’m Dead”
“Doing The Unstuck”
“Push” (watch)
“Inbetween Days” (watch)
“Just Like Heaven” (watch)
“Charlotte Sometimes” (watch)
“The Hanging Garden” (watch)
“One Hundred Years”
“Bloodflowers”

1st encore:
“Freakshow” (watch)
“Close To Me” (watch)

2nd encore:
“Why Can’t I Be You?” (watch)
“Boys Don’t Cry” (watch)
“Jumping Someone Else’s Train”
“Grinding Halt” (watch)
“10:15 Saturday Night” (watch)
“Killing An Arab” (watch)

3rd encore:
“A Forest” (watch)
“Forever” (watch)

*above photos taken by Taylor Long, more pictures from her HERE; setlist from HERE.