The Cure headlines the final night of Voodoo!

Rehage Entertainment and Voodoo Experience 2013 present The Cure.

The Cure closed out the Sunday night headlining slot on the Voodoo Experience three day festival event, and the crowd was huge (albeit cold) as they waited for Robert Smith and bandmates Simon Gallup, Jason Cooper, Roger O’Donnell and guitarist Reeves Gabrels (post David Bowie) to emerge on the stage and start the show. Very ironic that the goth pop Cure would play a Halloween weekend annual event, the tongue-in-cheek of it was not missed as the fans decked out in anticipated goth attire and holiday costumes prepared the crowd. Smith didn’t disappoint, he was the same tousled-haired, heavy lidded, lipsticked hot mess from the 80’s, decked out in black (of course) and swathed in smoke and blasting light as he started out with “Shake Dog Shake”. Humor aside, to be genuine the show was very high energy in spite of the forlorn nature of the melancholy verses, and Smith couldn’t help but show some smiles in there along with the metaphoric tears.

A few motifs into the set Smith announced the band would be doing an song that had previously never made a live performance, and the Cure broke into “Burn” for the first time ever, a more obscure tune about New Orleans from The Crow Soundtrack as a surprise treat. “Stop Dead” followed which was an extra bonus, the Voodoo show was one of a few chosen shows where that also made a first ever live debut , first premiering earlier in the month at a Mexico show.

Smith made the crowd happy (as they could be under the strain of so much sweet sounding despair) with “Lovesong”, “Fascination Street”, “Friday I’m in Love”, and beseechingly tore at his clothes in angst, rolled his eyes, and pursed his hands dramatically throughout the haunting peals of “Pictures of You” and “In Between Days”. The long time fans in the festival field ate it up, Smith and crew gave 200% of what any Cure fan would expect to see, and the show went past the 2 hour mark as the band came back out for an encore that included “The Lovecats” and finally “Boys Don’t Cry” to finish out the long weekend of music and more.

The Cure at Voodoo Experience New Orleans. ©Jo Anna Jackson/Stardogphotos

The Cure Voodoo Set List:

Shake Dog Shake
Fascination Street
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
The Love of the World
Lovesong
Just Like Heaven
Burn
Pictures of You
Lullaby
High
Hot Hot Hot!
The Caterpillar
The Walk
Stop Dead
Push
In Between Days
Friday I’m in Love
Doing the Unstuck
Bananafishbones
Want
The Hungry Ghost
Wrong Number

The Cure at Voodoo Experience New Orleans. ©Jo Anna Jackson/Stardogphotos

One Hundred Years
Give Me It
Encore:
The Lovecats
Close to Me
Let’s Go To Bed
Why Can’t I be You
Boys Don’t Cry