Today The Cure livestreamed a gig to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their seminal album ‘Disintegration’. Check it out below.
As part of their extensive 2019 tour (including a headline slot at Glastonbury), the band announced a string of shows at Australia’s VIVID LIVE where they’ll be playing the album in full outside Sydney Opera House. The performance was directed by British filmmaker and Cure collaborator Nick Wickham.
After opening with 1989-era rarities, including B-sides ‘Fear of Ghosts’, ‘Babble’ and ‘Out of Mind’ and outtakes ‘No Heart’, ‘Esten’ and ‘Delirious Night’, they then performed ‘Disintegration’ in full before an encore of early favourites.
Now, you can watch it below:
The Cure’s setlist was:
Set 1
1. ‘Delirious Night’
2. ‘Fear of Ghosts’
3. ‘No Heart’
4. ‘Esten’
5. ‘2 Late’
6. ‘Out of Mind’
7. ‘Babble’
Set 2
8. ‘Plainsong’
9. ‘Pictures of You’
10. ‘Closedown’
11. ‘Lovesong’
12. ‘Last Dance’
13. ‘Lullaby’
14. ‘Fascination Street’
15. ‘Prayers for Rain’
16. ‘The Same Deep Water As You’
17. ‘Disintegration’
18. ‘Homesick’
19. ‘Untitled’
Recommended
Encore
20. ‘Burn’
21. ‘Three Imaginary Boys’
22. ‘Pirate Ships’
“We look forward to celebrating the anniversary of this special album with you all,” said frontman Robert Smith of the event, “and remember: this album was mixed to be played loud… so turn it up!”
‘Disintegration’ features some of the band’s best-known material including ‘Lovesong’, ‘Pictures Of You’, and ‘Lullaby’. It was released 30 years ago today.
After previously revealing that the band were working on new material, Smith revealed last month that their next album was sounding “so dark” and “incredibly intense“.
We actually went into the studio where they did ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’,” he explained. “It’s a great studio in the middle of nowhere. We just played music for three weeks. And it’s great. I know everyone says that. But it really is fucking great.”
Admitting that the new album isn’t really festival friendly material, Smith revealed it could potentially be a triple disc affair.
“It’s so dark. It’s incredibly intense,” he explained. “The songs are like 10 minutes, 12 minutes long. We recorded 19 songs. So I have no idea what to do now. The others are saying, ‘triple album!’ I’m saying, no let’s not. I’ll pick six or maybe eight songs and do like a single album. But I think I will delight our hardcore fans. And probably really, really infuriate everyone else. At my age, I’m still doom and gloom.”
The new album is rumoured for an October release.
Meanwhile, details of the cinematic release of The Cure’s Hyde Park anniversary concert film were announced this week.