Shows of a Lost World


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"
  16. ;Encore
  17. "I Can Never Say Goodbye"
  18. "Want"
  19. "A Thousand Hours"
  20. "At Night"
  21. "A Forest"
  22. ;Encore 2
  23. "Lullaby"
  24. "Six Different Ways"
  25. "The Walk"
  26. "Friday I'm in Love"
  27. "Doing the Unstuck"
  28. "Close to Me"
  29. "In Between Days"
  30. "Just Like Heaven"
  31. "Boys Don't Cry"

    Tour dates

DateCityCountryVenueOpening actsAttendanceRevenue
10 May 2023New OrleansUnited StatesSmoothie King CenterThe Twilight Sad——
12 May 2023HoustonUnited StatesToyota CenterThe Twilight Sad
13 May 2023DallasUnited StatesDos Equis PavilionThe Twilight Sad
14 May 2023AustinUnited StatesMoody CenterThe Twilight Sad
16 May 2023AlbuquerqueUnited StatesIsleta AmphitheaterThe Twilight Sad
18 May 2023GlendaleUnited StatesDesert Diamond ArenaThe Twilight Sad
20 May 2023Chula VistaUnited StatesNorth Island Credit Union AmphitheatreThe Twilight Sad
21 May 2023Chula VistaUnited StatesNorth Island Credit Union AmphitheatreThe Twilight Sad
23 May 2023Los AngelesUnited StatesHollywood BowlThe Twilight Sad
24 May 2023Los AngelesUnited StatesHollywood BowlThe Twilight Sad
25 May 2023Los AngelesUnited StatesHollywood BowlThe Twilight Sad
27 May 2023Mountain ViewUnited StatesShoreline AmphitheatreThe Twilight Sad
29 May 2023Mountain ViewUnited StatesShoreline AmphitheatreThe Twilight Sad
31 May 2023PortlandUnited StatesModa CenterThe Twilight Sad
1 June 2023SeattleUnited StatesClimate Pledge ArenaThe Twilight Sad
2 June 2023VancouverCanadaRogers ArenaThe Twilight Sad
4 June 2023Salt Lake CityUnited StatesVivint Smart Home ArenaThe Twilight Sad
6 June 2023Greenwood VillageUnited StatesFiddler's Green AmphitheatreThe Twilight Sad
8 June 2023St. PaulUnited StatesXcel Energy CenterThe Twilight Sad
10 June 2023ChicagoUnited StatesUnited CenterThe Twilight Sad
11 June 2023Cuyahoga FallsUnited StatesBlossom Music CenterThe Twilight Sad
13 June 2023ClarkstonUnited StatesPine Knob Music TheatreThe Twilight Sad
14 June 2023TorontoCanadaBudweiser StageThe Twilight Sad
16 June 2023MontrealCanadaBell CentreThe Twilight Sad
17 June 2023MontrealCanadaBell CentreThe Twilight Sad
18 June 2023MansfieldUnited StatesXfinity CenterThe Twilight Sad
20 June 2023New York CityUnited StatesMadison Square GardenThe Twilight Sad
21 June 2023New York CityUnited StatesMadison Square GardenThe Twilight Sad
22 June 2023New York CityUnited StatesMadison Square GardenThe Twilight Sad
24 June 2023PhiladelphiaUnited StatesWells Fargo CenterThe Twilight Sad
25 June 2023ColumbiaUnited StatesMerriweather Post PavilionThe Twilight Sad
27 June 2023AtlantaUnited StatesState Farm ArenaThe Twilight Sad
28 June 2023AtlantaUnited StatesState Farm ArenaThe Twilight Sad
29 June 2023TampaUnited StatesAmalie ArenaThe Twilight Sad
1 July 2023MiamiUnited StatesKaseya CenterThe Twilight Sad
17 September 2023ChicagoUnited StatesDouglass Park