Robert Smith Tears Up as The Cure Headlines Oslo Festival
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- The Cure headlined Øyafestivalen in Oslo on Wednesday with a two-and-a-half-hour, 28-song set, opening with "Alone" from their 2024 album "Songs of a Lost World" and closing with that record's "Endsong"
- Robert Smith wiped tears from his eyes after "Just Like Heaven" and told the crowd, "It's strange, that song. Every now and then, that last bit…" — a marked contrast to his more anxious, mortality-focused demeanor at the 2023 Hollywood Bowl show
- The setlist mixed staples ("Lovesong," "In Between Days," "A Forest") with deeper cuts "Alt.End" and "The Last Day of Summer," then delivered a 10-track encore capped by "Boys Don't Cry"
- Smith leaned fully into physical theater — miming a spider climbing his body during "Lullaby," hissing through "The Lovecats," and dancing like a "goth fairy" on "Close to Me" — and joked before the finale that "Boys Don't Cry" was "a new song"
- Smith has previously announced the Cure will retire in 2029, timed to the band's 50th anniversary, and the review frames his Oslo demeanor as someone who has "embraced" that finite window
- The touring lineup now pairs Smith with bassist Simon Gallup, keyboardist Roger O'Connell, drummer Jason Cooper, and guitarist Reeves Gabrels, with the review calling the band "as tight as ever"
Why it matters: With Smith having publicly set a 2029 retirement tied to the band's 50th anniversary, each remaining Cure show now carries the weight of a closing chapter — and the Oslo date suggests that pressure is producing more emotional openness, not less, even as the setlist keeps tilting toward hits. Fans attending later tour stops are watching a frontman visibly savoring the runway rather than coasting through it.
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