Watch The Cure kick off their first tour of North America

The Cure have finally begun their tour of North America – their first in seven years – with a career-spanning setlist that features several rarities, new tunes and fan favourites.

The first show of the tour, which took place on Wednesday (May 10) in New Orleans, saw Robert Smith and co. perform a whopping 29 songs, complete with not one but two encore sets.

The Cure’s expansive setlist featured two rarities – ‘A Thousand Hours’ and ‘Six Different Ways’, both of which were last performed in 1987. Other hits the band performed throughout the night include ‘Just Like Heaven’, ‘A Forest’, ‘Friday I’m In Love’ and ‘Lullaby’ and ‘Boys Don’t Cry’.

Watch fan-shot footage from the show below.

New and unreleased songs that the band have performed include ‘Alone’, ‘A Fragile Thing’, ‘And Nothing Is Forever’, ‘Endsong’ and ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’.

Check out the complete setlist from The Cure’s May 10 concert in New Orleans below.

The Cure’s May 10, 2023 setlist in New Orleans was:

‘Alone’
‘Pictures of You’
‘A Night Like This’
‘Lovesong’
‘And Nothing Is Forever’
‘The Last Day of Summer’
‘A Fragile Thing’
‘Cold’
‘Burn’
‘Fascination Street’
‘Push’
‘Play for Today’
‘Shake Dog Shake’
‘From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea’
‘Endsong’

Encore:
‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’
‘Want’
‘A Thousand Hours’ (first performance since 1987)
‘At Night’
‘A Forest’

Encore 2:
‘Lullaby
‘Six Different Ways’ (first performance since 1987)
‘The Walk’
‘Friday I’m in Love’
‘Doing the Unstuck’
‘Close to Me’
‘In Between Days’
‘Just Like Heaven’
‘Boys Don’t Cry’

Following The Cure’s New Orleans show, they will perform across North America until early July, with multiple dates in Los Angeles New York, Montreal, Atlanta and more – find remaining tickets here.

The Cure’s remaining 2023 North American tour dates are:

MAY
Friday 12 – Houston, Toyota Center
Saturday 13 – Dallas, Dos Equis Pavilion
Sunday 14 – Austin, Moody Center
Tuesday 16 – Albuquerque, Isleta Amphitheater
Thursday 18 – Phoenix, Desert Diamond Arena
Saturday 20 – San Diego, NICU Amphitheatre
Sunday 21 – San Diego, NICU Amphitheatre
Tuesday 23 – Los Angeles, Hollywood Bowl
Wednesday 24 – Los Angeles, Hollywood Bowl
Thursday 25 – Los Angeles, Hollywood Bowl
Saturday 27 – San Francisco, Shoreline Amphitheatre
Wednesday 31 – Portland, Moda Centre

JUNE
Thursday 1 – Seattle, Climate Pledge Arena
Friday 2 – Vancouver, Rogers Arena
Sunday 4 – Salt Lake City, Vivint Smart Home Arena
Tuesday 6 – Denver, Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre
Thursday 8 – Minneapolis St. Paul, Xcel Energy Center
Saturday 10 – Chicago, United Center
Sunday 11 – Cleveland, Blossom Music Center
Tuesday 13 – Detroit, Pine Knob Music Theatre
Wednesday 14 – Toronto, Budweiser Stage
Friday 16 – Montreal, Bell Centre
Saturday 17 – Montreal, Bell Centre
Sunday 18 – Boston, Xfinity Center
Tuesday 20 – New York, Madison Square Garden
Wednesday 21 – New York, Madison Square Garden
Thursday 22 – New York, Madison Square Garden
Saturday 24 – Philadelphia, Wells Fargo Center
Sunday 25 – Columbia, Merriweather Post Pavilion
Tuesday 27 – Atlanta, State Farm Arena
Wednesday 28 – Atlanta, State Farm Arena
Friday 29 – Tampa, Amalie Arena

JULY
Saturday 1 – Miami, Miami-Dade Arena

Reviewing the show in London last December, NME’s Andrew Trendell described it as “an unusual, but thrilling festive party”.

In the build to The Cure’s North American tour, frontman Robert Smith had significant issues with Ticketmaster and their handling of ticket sales for the tour. He said in March that tickets wouldn’t be transferrable to minimise “resale [prices] and keep prices at face value”, later acknowledging that Ticketmaster’s strategy was “a far from perfect system”.

Later that month, Smith declared he was “sickened” by Ticketmaster’s exorbitant fees, and pushed for the company to issue partial refunds to ticketholders as a result. His fight with the ticketing giant continued at the end of the month when he asked why tickets in its promised face-value exchange were “weird” and “over priced”, later revealing that he’s thus far had 7,000 tickets cancelled on secondary resale websites.