CoS vote The Cure top rock act of 2019

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Celebrating your 40th birthday at a music festival isn’t unheard of; if it were, Riot Fest would blink out of existence. However, if you’d told Cure fans in 1979 that the authors of the “Boys Don’t Cry” 7-inch they’d just purchased would, four decades hence, curate a celebratory birthday music festival in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl on the hottest weekend of the year, they would’ve laughed in your face before turning into bats and flying to their roosts beneath the eaves of Rough Trade. And yet, there was Robert Smith, hair still defying gravity even at 60, shaking off the triple-digit heat to run through hits from his band’s catalog that’s always, somehow, hit deeper than you remember. As our Scott Sterling put it in his live review:

From “Shake Dog Shake” to “The Walk” to “The Caterpillar” to “Burn”, Smith revisited their post-punk building blocks as much as he indulged in their psychedelic pop. Just looking at the setlist is like gazing over a greatest hits box set, and it certainly felt like that, only Smith was wise enough to toss out surprise trinkets, such as the first-ever US performance of the song “Just One Kiss”.

The Cure’s American swing (in addition to their own Pasadena Daydream festival, they also headed to Texas for both weekends of Austin City Limits) came at the end of an active year, which saw the band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before they reasserted rock’s viability as festival headliners at major stops throughout Europe and Japan. The year also featured another fitting anniversary tribute to the band’s best-loved album: The Cure staged five nights in honor of Disintegration at the Sydney Opera House, where crowds were treated to what The Sydney Morning Herald’s Kate Morrissey described as “perfect album and its correspondingly perfect show.”

At the end of a decade that’s seen The Cure’s brand of swirling gothic popcraft refracted into genres from witch house to emo rap to whatever it is we’re calling Billie Eilish’s whole thing, it was a fitting victory lap and a reminder that Smith and company remain a more vital draw than most of their peers. With new music on the way in 2020, let’s hope they keep it up. –Tyler Clark