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Shows of a Lost World

Tour by the Cure
North American leg poster
Location	Europe North America South America
Associated album	Songs of a Lost World
Start date	6 October 2022 (2022-10-06)
End date	10 December 2023 (2023-12-10)
Legs	3
No. of shows	88
Supporting acts	The Twilight Sad Just Mustard

Shows of a Lost World was a concert tour by British rock band the Cure.

The tour began in October 2022, with frontman Robert Smith promising that the band's new album Songs of a Lost World would come out before the tour's commencement. While the band played unreleased songs from the album, it was ultimately not released in 2022.

The North American leg of the tour attracted much media attention for Smith's public criticism of Ticketmaster, specifically its dynamic pricing mechanism and additional charged fees. It sold over 547,000 tickets and grossed $37.5 million over 35 shows, making it the highest-grossing tour of the band's career to date. The South American leg of the tour commenced in September 2023 and consists of three standalone concerts and four festival appearances.

The album was finally released on 1 November 2024, nearly a year after the conclusion of the tour.

Background

On 6 December 2021, the Cure announced a 44-date European tour in 2022, also mentioning the release of an unannounced 67-minute new album. The Twilight Sad were named as openers for all dates. In May 2022, Robert Smith said that the band's new album Songs of a Lost World was almost finished and would be released before the tour began.

The tour began on 6 October 2022 at the Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia with the album still unreleased, although the Cure debuted two songs from it live, "Alone" and "Endsong". On 10 October in Stockholm, the Cure debuted another new song, "And Nothing is Forever", and on 20 October, the band premiered a fourth new song, "I Can Never Say Goodbye", in Kraków. On 4 November in Milan, the Cure debuted a fifth new song, "A Fragile Thing".

In March 2023, the Cure announced a 30-date leg of the Shows of a Lost World tour across the United States and Canada. All shows also featured the Twilight Sad as a supporting act. On 5 April, Smith announced that second dates had been added in San Diego, Montreal, and Atlanta and a new show had been added in Portland, bringing the scheduled number of concerts to 34. On 27 April, a second show in San Francisco was announced, bringing the tour to 35 dates. On 23 May in Los Angeles, the Cure performed another new song, "Another Happy Birthday", which dated back to 1997. However, this song did not make the final album.

On 21 June 2023, the band announced that it would be headlining four Primavera Sound festivals across South America and on 23 June it announced three standalone concerts with the Twilight Sad and Just Mustard performing as support acts.

Ticket sales

Tickets for the North American leg of the tour were sold through Ticketmaster. When registration for ticket sales opened on 10 March, the band announced that tickets would be non-transferrable and that the band would not be using dynamic pricing, a process where ticketsellers alter prices given high or low demand, nor selling platinum tickets in order to keep tickets affordable for fans and to reduce the ability of resellers to resell tickets. Ticketholders would only be able to resell the tickets for face value on a ticket exchange. These choices led to tickets for the tour selling for an average of $68.57. On 15 March, Robert Smith tweeted that dynamic pricing was a "greedy scam" that artists chose to participate in. When asked for comment by Rolling Stone, StubHub, the biggest ticket reselling platform in the US, criticised the restrictions on ticket transferability, StubHub claimed they hurt consumer choice and encouraged artists to keep tickets transferrable. On 31 March, Smith said that 7,000 tickets that had been listed for resale on secondary markets had been identified and cancelled.

Ticket sales opened on 15 March. Soon after ticket sales opened, some fans posted screenshots on social media showing that the additional fees added onto the ticket prices were high relative to the price of the ticket, sometimes exceeding the price of the ticket itself. On 16 March, Smith tweeted that he was sickened by how high the additional fees were and would be asking how they were justified. The next day, Smith tweeted that after negotiations, Ticketmaster had agreed to refund a portion of the ticket fees as a gesture of goodwill. Buyers who had purchased the lowest-priced tickets would receive $10 and all other buyers would receive $5. He also said that tickets purchased after that day would incur lower fees.

Set list

This set list is representative of the show on 10 May 2023, in New Orleans. It is not representative of all concerts for the duration of the tour.

1. "Alone"
2. "Pictures of You"
3. "A Night Like This"
4. "Lovesong"
5. "And Nothing Is Forever"
6. "The Last Day of Summer"
7. "A Fragile Thing"
8. "Cold"
9. "Burn"
10. "Fascination Street"
11. "Push"
12. "Play for Today"
13. "Shake Dog Shake"
14. "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea"
15. "Endsong"

    Encore

16. "I Can Never Say Goodbye"
17. "Want"
18. "A Thousand Hours"
19. "At Night"
20. "A Forest"

    Encore 2

21. "Lullaby"
22. "Six Different Ways"
23. "The Walk"
24. "Friday I'm in Love"
25. "Doing the Unstuck"
26. "Close to Me"
27. "In Between Days"
28. "Just Like Heaven"
29. "Boys Don't Cry"

Tour dates

Notes

1. Promoted as Phoenix.
2. Promoted as San Diego
3. Promoted as San Francisco.
4. Promoted as Denver.
5. Promoted as Minneapolis–Saint Paul.
6. Promoted as Cleveland.
7. Promoted as Detroit.
8. Promoted as Boston.
9. This show was part of Riot Fest.
10. This show was part of Corona Capital.
11. This show was part of Primavera Sound.
12. This show was part of Primavera Sound.
13. This show was part of Primavera Sound.
14. This show was part of Primavera Sound.

References

1. Trendell, Andrew (19 May 2022). "The Cure give us an update on their "relentless" new album – and when to expect it". NME. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
2. Frankenberg, Eric (12 July 2023). "The Cure Doubles Its Previous Best With $37.5 Million North American Tour". Billboard.
3. Teeple, Alice (25 June 2023). "The Cure Announce Headlining and Festival Gigs in Latin America". Post-Punk.com. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
4. ^ Krol, Charlotte (6 December 2021). "The Cure announce UK and European tour for 2022". NME. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
5. Trendell, Andrew (19 May 2022). "The Cure give us an update on their "relentless" new album – and when to expect it". NME. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
6. Trendell, Andrew (6 October 2022). "The Cure debut new songs and welcome Perry Bamonte back to band as they kick off 2022 tour". NME. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
7. Skinner, Tom (11 October 2022). "Watch The Cure debut another blissed-out new song 'And Nothing Is Forever'". NME. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
8. Trendell, Andrew (20 October 2022). "Watch The Cure debut another devastating new song, 'I Can Never Say Goodbye'". NME. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
9. "Watch The Cure debut new song 'A Fragile Thing' in Italy". faroutmagazine.co.uk. 7 November 2022. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
10. Kaufman, Gil (9 March 2023). "The Cure Announce 2023 North American Tour Dates". Billboard. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
11. Robinson, Ellie (6 April 2023). "The Cure add more dates to 2023 North American tour". NME. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
12. "The Cure Official Site". The Cure. 27 April 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
13. Geraghty, Hollie (24 May 2023). "Watch The Cure debut new song 'Another Happy Birthday' on North American tour". NME. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
14. Jones, Damian (4 November 2024). "Robert Smith reveals wife Mary helped finalise The Cure's 'Songs Of A Lost World' tracklist". NME. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
15. "New South American Standalone Shows Announced". The Cure. 23 June 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
16. "South American 2023 Shows Announced". The Cure. 21 June 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
17. Millman, Ethan (10 March 2023). "The Cure Look to Limit Scalping, Platinum Prices on Upcoming Tour". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
18. Dunworth, Liberty (19 July 2023). "The Cure break touring records despite Robert Smith's push for low ticket prices". NME. Retrieved 19 August 2023. As a result of his actions, the average ticket to see The Cure for their 2023 shows fared at around 37% less than other artists, and cost an average of $68.54.
19. ^ Millman, Ethan (18 March 2023). "What the Hell Happened With the Cure's Tickets This Week?". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
20. Kaufman, Gil (3 April 2023). "Robert Smith Says The Cure Got 7,000 Secondary Market Tickets Cancelled". Billboard. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
21. Cain, Sian (17 March 2023). "The Cure's Robert Smith convinces Ticketmaster to refund 'unduly high' fees after fan anger". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
22. Harrison, Scoop (11 May 2023). "The Cure Kick Off First American Tour in 7 Years: Video + Setlist". Consequence. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
23. "Previous Shows". The Cure. Archived from the original on 19 August 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
24. "Shows". The Cure. Archived from the original on 19 August 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.

• 2023 concert tours
• The Cure