The Cure
Blossom Music Center
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
June 11, 2023
Michelle Waters
On Sunday, June 11th, musical icons The Cure played an impressive show to a sold out crowd at Blossom Music Center, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Known as a “goth” band, it’s actually hard to fully describe The Cure’s musical genre if you look beyond lead singer Robert Smith’s dark makeup vibe. A mix of pop, rock, post-punk, and new wave, the sound The Cure has created is just as
diverse as their fanbase.
The weather may have offered a rough start with torrential downpours and even lightning (causing the lawn area to be cleared for a bit) in-between acts. But this didn’t stop Robert Smith and his band from playing a full show. Smith playfully shared that Blossom was letting them play a little later since they started a little late. The crowd was thrilled with the band’s commitment to
their fans.
At the beginning and end of the expansive 29 song set, Smith walked around like a child at Christmas, stopping at different places on the stage to just take in the crowd. Everyone would cheer and his eyes would just get wider and his smile, bigger, as if he’d never seen anyone appreciate him and his art.
Before The Cure took the stage, The Twilight Sad opened the night with an energetic set. The Twilight Sad toured with The Cure on the last tour I got to attend, so they have almost become an extension of The Cure, to me. Lead singer James Graham’s performance is always so dramatic and captivating, as if he’s summoning energy from the concertgoers while shaking his fists in
the air. I knew I wanted to get there in time for their set because the music is great and danceable, and the energy they help build is palpable. It’s easy to see why they’ve become a go-to opener for The Cure.
Setlist for The Twilight Sad included opener “Kill it in the Morning”, favorites “ There’s a Girl in the Corner” and “I/m Not Here [missing face]”, as well as their last song, “[10 Good Reasons for Modern Drugs]”. I was able to photograph The Cure during “Pictures of You”, which is now a core memory, for me. Having grown up listening to that song, and all of The Cures discography, hearing Pictures of You while making “Pictures of Them” was surreal and powerful. They also opened with “Alone” (a newer song that originally debuted last year) and ended their first set (before their two full encores) with another new song (and one of my new favorites), Endsong. Endsong feels like a classic, emotionally floating song that takes me back to my early days of being a “Curehead”, and I’m here for it.
After opening with “Alone”, Robert Smith (Vocals and Guitar), Jason Cooper (Drums), Reeves Gabriels (Guitar), Roger O’Donnell (Keyboards) and Simon Gallup (Bass) went on to perform the classics “Pictures of You” and “Lovesong”, before “And Nothing is Forever” (another new song). Slowpaced “If Only Tonight We Could Sleep” played right before the famous flute carried over into The Crow soundtrack’s “Burn”-one of The Cure’s heaviesthitting songs. The first set wasn’t close to ending, though. Following “Burn” was Head on the Door’s “Kyoto Song”, “A Night Like This”, AND Push, followed by Seventeen Seconds’ “At Night”, “Play for Today” and another of my personal favorites, “A Forest”. The final three songs in act one were “Shake Dog Shake” from The Top, “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea” from wish, and the aforementioned “Endsong”.
We all knew there would be an encore. How could a band with such a large discography and massive fan base not have an encore? With the first part of the night sharing a fairly large set of songs that one might not see as The Cure’s biggest hits, we all knew there was more to come. Encore #1 was worth the wait. The first song, another new and touching song, was
dedicated to Robert’s brother, called “I Can Never Say Goodbye”, followed by a song of similar name from the self-titled album, “It Can Never be the Same”. One of my favorite songs from Wild Mood Swings, “Want”, came next, followed by “Plainsong” and “Disintegration” back-to-back. Enough to make this goth kid cry. I could have been happy ending this concert there, but The
Cure still had a second encore to share with us.
Much of the crowd exploded with the second and final encore, which included 9 more songs-many of which it seemed the crowd wad holding out hope to hear: The creepy “Lullaby”, the playful “Six Different Ways”, newwave “The Walk” all built the anticipation to the final six performances of the evening. Friday I’m in Love, Close to Me, Why Can’t I Be You, In Between
Days, Just Like Heaven and a grand finale of Boys Don’t Cry sent the fans into wave after wave of recognition, screaming, dancing and giddy smiles.
The perfect end to a fantastic show, I loved watching seemingly disparate folks bonding, singing their favorite Cure songs together in passing and standing side-by-side, and leaving together under a foggy and rain-soaked landscape. What a perfect night for a Curehead.
