The Cure conquers Toronto with a four-star show

Twenty-nine songs over two hours and 40 minutes.

That’s how, after a seven-year absence, British goth rock stalwarts the Cure became reacquainted with a sellout Toronto audience at Budweiser Stage on Wednesday night.

Robert Smith, 64, and his five accompanying musicians — original bass player Simon Gallup, ex-Tin Machine guitarist Reeves Gabrels, drumming powerhouse Jason Cooper, and flanking keyboardists Roger O’Donnell and Perry Bamonte — enchanted the 16,000-strong crowd with a mix of popular and obscure favourites. It’s a catalogue that now (shockingly) dates back 45 years and includes 13 studio albums.

The introductory number “Alone” — one of five new tunes the Cure has been road-testing since its world tour started last year — set the tone for the show. Opaque, impenetrable textures of guitars and drums built a gloomy soundscape for a full two minutes before Smith placed his lipsticked mouth in front of the microphone to warble, “This is the end of every song we sing.”

Then it was time for “Pictures of You” — the first aural glimpse into the band’s past earmarked by another long introductory instrumental jam of dense sonics — before segueing into “A Fragile Thing.”

If the unfamiliarity of songs like “And Nothing Is Forever” and “I Can Never Say Goodbye” were a tad frustrating for those hoping for a few more favourites, the band offered such powerful and disciplined musicianship that the new stuff felt right at home.

“Endsong,” another newbie, was a concert highlight. It began with a wordless wash of guitars and keys, occasionally accented by Smith’s distinct rubbery six-string style. Then the arrangement bubbled and boiled into a thing of beauty for a full five minutes before the singer, adorned head-to-toe in black, uttered a word.

Throughout the show, the sum was more than its parts: propulsive stickhandling by Cooper, the animated presence of Gallup and the electric wailing of Gabrels added an aural and visual dimension to such Cure classics as “A Forest” and the hypnotic “Lovesong” that they practically justified the live experience on their own.

Of course, it’s Smith who is at the centre of it all and he certainly didn’t mail it in. Already a hero to the crowd for successfully demanding that Ticketmaster refund a portion of their possibly unwarranted service charges, Smith charmed the crowd with his every move.

While expressive with his arms when he’s behind the mic, he’s not a guy who moves around a lot. So when he attempted an awkward shuffle during “Six Different Ways” — part of a nine-song second encore that delivered a strong portion of the band’s better known compositions — he sent the audience into a bit of a frenzy.

Known for his yearning vocals and often sober songwriting themes that convey loneliness, isolation, doom and heartbreak, Smith is largely unheralded for the unabashed romanticism that sometimes manifests itself in whimsy.

He waited until almost the end of the show to display that aspect of his musical personality with the gleeful “Friday I’m In Love,” singing the song with a different syncopation as animated hearts with eyeballs bounced around the screen behind the band. He followed it up with “Doing the Unstuck” and, later, the infectious “Just Like Heaven,” which unleashed the dancing gene in a crowd that had stood since the beginning of the Cure’s marathon performance.

By the time the concert ended with “Boys Don’t Cry,” the audience was energized to the point where they could have stuck around another hour or two and been none the worse for wear.

But perhaps the most revealing moment of the show occurred during the opening notes of “Alone,” as Smith took the time to drink in the moment, acknowledging each section of the crowd with a smile.

It was an appreciative gesture from a man who looked grateful for the turnout and the loyalty. One hopes that Smith will reprise the feeling when he tours a rumoured new Cure album — the first since 2008 — in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

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