The first words Robert Smith sang were, ironically, “This is the end.” From there, he mused about the “hopes and dreams” that “are gone.” “Where did it go?” he sang repeatedly at the conclusion of the song. Given my feelings about those previous two albums, I had managed expectations for the new material. The Cure (2004) was uneven and 4:13 Dream (2008) has never done much for me beyond the immaculate “Underneath the Stars.” Looking at the tour stats, other than four plays of “The Hungry Ghost” from 4:13 Dream, neither record has received any attention on the tour. The last studio album by The Cure that I really enjoyed is Bloodflowers (2000). The Cure opened with “Alone,” the first of five tracks from their upcoming studio release Songs of a Lost World. Check out “There’s a Girl in the Corner” if you are unfamiliar with them. I describe them as a cross between The Cure and The Smiths with pinches of noise thrown in here and there. Prior to our show, I didn’t know a thing about them but their name. We missed some of opener The Twilight Sad’s set but at least we heard everything clearly from the line. The second pass gave me the shirt I wanted.
I found everything for everyone except the one thing I wanted, so we went through the line of another merchandise stand. I built in some extra time to get through the merch line since I was fulfilling multiple t-shirt requests. Other items were similarly in line: hoodies were $50 and cloth bags with the tour dates were $15. Advance scouting also revealed that t-shirts would be $25 when bands routinely sell tour shirts for $40-$50 or more. Although night one was already sold out and the second night was close to sold out when I started looking for tickets, tickets were still selling and reselling for their original price due to a request by Robert Smith to keep them at face value (Our seats were in the lower level, 110 DD 3 and 4).
First, praise to The Cure for keeping concert costs reasonable, especially in the age of dynamic pricing, platinum seating, and nebulous service fees that often equal or exceed the cost of the ticket.
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