Getting lost and finding yourself on the night of the Cure, in concert in Florence
“Cold and afraid, the ghosts of all that we’ve been / We toast with bitter dregs, to our emptiness”. Robert Smith’s words penetrate the bones, the sound of the Cure, suspended between intensity and melancholy, makes goosebumps vibrate across the bodies. The sky above the Visarno Arena prepares for darkness, but a mix of guitars, synths and drums illuminates the emotional load of Florence while the first notes of “Alone” envelop the over 40 thousand spectators. It’s the beginning of a journey in which getting lost seems inevitable. Yet, song after song, the band knows how to transform memory, restlessness and nostalgia into something shared, to rediscover themselves.
On the evening of June 14th, the one in Florence is the first Italian appointment of the Cure since 2022. The 2026 summer tour, inaugurated last week at Primavera Sound in Barcelona, marks the band’s return to festival audiences and large arenas after the only concert dedicated to “Songs of a lost world” (here our review) which was staged in 2024 in front of a limited audience at the Troxy in London (here our story from London). It is an eagerly awaited return which confirms how the group led by Robert Smith continues to occupy a place all its own in the contemporary musical landscapesuspended between past and present, memory and belonging, uniting different generations of fans.
“The gentle art of resistance”
Before The Cure takes the stage, it is Mogwai who transform Firenze Rocks into a wall of soundemotion and atmosphere. Over thirty years into their career, the Scottish post-rock pioneers continue to demonstrate why they remain one of the most ambitious bands of their generation. From the most delicate ambient passages to the most overwhelming sonic explosions, their performance at the Visarno Arena is a reminder that music doesn’t need many words to say something profound.
After over an hour, the weather changes consistency. Around 9.15pm, it’s the sound of rain, thunder, lightning and electronic sounds broadcast over the loudspeakers to announce the approaching Cure concert. The audience then naturally gathers towards the stage, while the screen in the background lights up and many small stars begin to light up. Waiting becomes a collective rituala suspension crossed by atmospheric noises and minimal flashes, until the band introduces itself to the public, right on time at 9.30pm sharp. The six musicians enter the stage together.
There are Simon Gallupan essential presence in the Cure’s sonic identity since the 1980s, Jason Cooper on the battery, Roger O’Donnell on keyboards, Reeves Gabrels on guitar ed Eden Gallupson of Simon, who on this tour takes the place vacated by Perry Bamonte, who passed away last December at the age of 65 after a brief illness. Bamonte had gone on stage with the band the last time at the Troxy in London, and also for this reason the new image of the Cure brings with it a discreet form of memory, as if every return also contained an absence. Robert Smith immediately appears as a figure out of time. His messy hair creates a dark crown around his face, his strong make-up makes his gaze even more enigmatic, his black shirt and his slow pace convey the image of an artist who doesn’t need to impose himself to occupy the scene. Before reaching the center, he walks from one side of the stage to the other and contemplates the audience, as if he wanted to measure the distance between himself and that human expanse and then cancel it through the music.
The long intro of “Alone” allows the Cure to slowly take over the Visarno Arena. “Thank you so much. Here we are again”, is the quick greeting that the frontman addresses to the fans on behalf of the group, trying to speak in Italianbefore starting to play again without hesitation and pauses. It’s coming right away.”Pictures of you“, which here arises from the complicity between Smith’s guitar and Simon Gallup’s bass. It is one of the moments in which the emotion becomes almost physical, especially when Smith embraces his instrument while singing: “Remembering you, fallen into my arms”. The song is not just memory, but a form of obstinate presence, the attempt to retain what time takes away and to give it back an image, a voice and a breath. Immediately after, on “High“we try to raise our gaze beyond the clouds that flow on the big screens. While it is now dark, the time has come to shout to the sky “A night like these”, before one of the most beautiful love dedications ever with “Lovesong“.
Simon Galluphunched over his bass in a black Iron Maiden tank top, is still one of the most recognizable images of the band live. His posture, almost a trademark, accompanies every beat of the concert. The writing “Bad Wolf” also remains on the amplifiers, a tribute to the science fiction series “Doctor Who” wanted by the bassist and co-founder of the band.
“A refuge against time”
The central part of the show confirms this The Cure’s repertoire is more open today than ever. There are rarities like “Secrets”, that before the concert at the Troxy in London the band had not played since 1987, and “Treasure“, already brought back to the setlist in Portugal. Among these outcroppings from the past, the audience lights up with the chants of “Just like heaven”, which brings a luminous lightness to the Florentine night without breaking the emotional tension built up to that moment.
After the song taken from “Wild mood swings” from 1996, Jason Cooper’s drums become drier and the hits become increasingly harder, until they anticipate Robert Smith’s prolonged scream. The guitars thicken, distort, seek a rougher material. On “Want” the sound is not among the cleanest liveand something similar happens shortly after with “alt.end”. But at a concert carried out with mastery we also forgive the moments in which an open-air arena like that of Florence fails to convey every nuance in its best form. The strength of the concert remains intact.
The Cure also gave the public in Florence a song from their latest album which they hadn’t yet played on this summer tour. With a red rose appearing on the giant central screen, “A fragile thing” thus enters the setlist as a precious surprise, one of the most powerful singles of “Songs of a lost world”, capable of bringing into the present that same dark and vulnerable matter that runs through the album. It is an important signal, also because the future of the group seems already written in new music. Robert Smith said he had enough material for three albumswith a next work already ready and even darker than the 2024 album, while a third project should show a more pop face, at least according to the entirely personal idea that the frontman has of the genre in the dimension of his band. The concert in Florence thus does not only look back, becoming a refuge against time, but not a museum.
“Burn”, written and recorded in 1994 for the soundtrack of the film “The Crow”, comes introduced by the flute played by Robert Smith and brings the concert back to a more cinematic dimensionnocturnal and sharp. Then the audience launches into clapping and chanting “Push” And “In between days“, prolonging the final “oh oh” as if he wanted to hold the moment for a few more seconds. Smith then introduces “Play for today” and the atmospheres of “Seventeen Seconds” continue with “A forest“, one of the technical and emotional peaks of the entire evening. The hands of those present rise and follow the rhythm of Gallup’s bass, while the band builds a precise, hypnotic, essential crescendo. When it seems that the shadow of the forest could remain suspended for much longer, Smith takes the acoustic guitar and starts “Trust”.
On “From the edge of the deep green sea” instead, Reeves Gabrels’s electric song takes center stage, with a phrasing that cuts through the piece and pushes it towards a more restless depth. The large pink moon that lights up on the screen accompanies the arrival of “Endsong”, the song that more than others can announce the approach of the end, with its long introductory instrumental.
“Get lost to find yourself”
After a very short break, it’s time for the encore. It’s already been two hours since the start, but the Cure still have a lot to give. Robert Smith and Simon Gallup return embracingwhile the rest of the band returns to their seats. The frontman tries to joke with the audience again in Italian, “Unfortunately I still can’t speak Italian,” smiles Smith, before adding in English that that joke will never get old. Meanwhile, the unmistakable spider web forms on the screens, and “Lullaby” opens the final parenthesis of the show with his oblique and seductive step.
From here on the concert changes skin without betraying what it has been up to that moment. “The walk”, “Let’s go to bed” and “Mint car” lighten the tension and bring the most mobile, dancing and colorful side of the Cure to the stage. It is Smith who directly indicates to the audience how to go through the encores of a concert by the band, shaking off the weight of the night and starting to dance. The inevitable “Friday I’m in love” And “The lovecats” explode the audience’s response, while the high notes of the keyboards of “Close to Me“they bring the Visarno Arena back to a lighter and more immediate dimension.”Why can’t I be you?” becomes the last impulse before the most classic closure, that of “Boys don’t cryAfter two hours and twenty minutes of concert, the end comes without rhetoric, but with a song that everyone knows, sings and recognizes as a part of themselves. Robert Smith is the last to leave the stage, and waves to the audience on each side of the stagehe takes the time to look again at that crowd that followed him and his band into the darkness for an evening and came out with something brighter on them. You get lost in the night of the Cure because their songs open interior rooms, bring back ghosts, loves, absences and desires that have remained suspended. And in the end we meet againbecause that same darkness, in a collective moment, stops being isolation and becomes belonging. The enchantment of the Cure is still this, capable of transforming nostalgia into empathy and a concert into a place where one can recognize oneself again.
Ladder:
Halo
Pictures of You
High
A Night Like This
Lovesong
Secrets
Just Like Heaven
Treasure
Want
A Fragile Thing
Burn
Fascination Street
alt.end
Push
In Between Days
Play for Today
In Forest
Trust
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
Endsong
BIS
Lullaby
The Walk
Let’s Go to Bed
Mint Car
Friday I’m in Love
The Lovecats
Close to Me
Why Can’t I Be You?
Boys Don’t Cry
