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The Cure kicked off their 2026 tour at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound on Friday night (June 5) and played a series of rarities – check out footage and the full setlist, below.
Their set came after severe weather that cancelled sets from the likes of Massive Attack and Doja Cat on Thursday (June 4), with their two-and-a-half-hour performance reviving festival-goers at the Parc Del Forum.
Robert Smith and co. opened with ‘Songs of a Lost World‘ cut ‘Alone’, and, just like they did for their 2022/2023 tour, closed their main set with ‘Endsong’. Sandwiched between both were a series of classics, including ‘Pictures of You’, ‘High’, ‘Lovesong’, ‘Fascination Street’, ‘In Between Days’, ‘Just Like Heaven’, ‘Push’, ‘A Forest’ and more.
Several of their rarer songs got an outing for Primavera, including ‘Mint Car’, marking the first time the ‘Wild Mood Swings’ track has been played in a decade, as well as ‘alt.end’, which similarly hadn’t been performed since 2018, as well as ‘2 Late’, the B-side of ‘Love Song’, live for the first time since 2019.
The nine-song encore saw them play a slew of singles, namely: ‘Lullaby’, ‘Hot Hot Hot!!!’, ‘Let’s Go To Bed’, ‘The Lovecats’, ‘Friday I’m in Love’, ‘Wrong Number’, ‘Close to Me’, ‘Why Can’t I Be You?’ and ‘Boys Don’t Cry’.
The entire set was streamed live on Amazon Prime Video – and you can check out a full setlist below.
The Cure sonaron majestuosos en Primavera Sound iniciando su gira de festivales, aunque Robert Smith: “por desgracia, todavía no sabe hablar español”Próximamente crónica del festival @Thecure #TheCure @RobertSmith #RobertSmith @Primavera_Sound pic.twitter.com/GELHhsbkmc
— Muzikalia (@Muzikalia) June 6, 2026
Cry Cry Cry !…
The CuRE – Last Day of Summer – Barcelona…pic.twitter.com/LGTOUqK57Z
— Linkeyes (@Linkeyes175168) June 5, 2026
The Cure revived “2 Late” for the first time since 2019.
The Cure played “2 Late” — the B-side of “Love Song” — live for the first time since 2019 tonight at Primavera Sound Barcelona.
A rare deep cut brought back in an unforgettable set.#TheCure #PrimaveraSound… pic.twitter.com/W5fEROQi89
— The Fanbase files (@dror_nahum) June 6, 2026
Great to see #TheCure on tour again. Kicking off in Barcelona and making their way across europe.
Looking forward to a few shows.pic.twitter.com/w0ywrqWWKq
— Martin (@MairtinIRE) June 5, 2026
The Cure at Primavera Sound 2026 played:
‘Alone’
‘Pictures of You’
‘High’
‘A Night Like This’
‘Lovesong’
‘2 Late’
‘The Last Day of Summer’
‘Burn’
‘Fascination Street’
‘alt.end’
‘The Walk’
‘Mint Car’
‘In Between Days’
‘Just Like Heaven’
‘Trust’
‘Push’
‘Play for Today’
‘A Forest’
‘From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea’
‘Endsong’
Encore:
‘Lullaby’
‘Hot Hot Hot!!!’
‘Wrong Number’
‘Let’s Go To Bed’
‘The Lovecats’
‘Friday I’m in Love’
‘Close to Me’
‘Why Can’t I Be You?’
‘Boys Don’t Cry’
Having now kicked off their 2026 summer UK and European tour, their next stop comes tomorrow night (June 7) at Porto’s North Festival. You can check out a full list of their upcoming UK and Ireland live shows below, and visit here to buy any remaining tickets.
The forthcoming run of shows will mark The Cure’s first time on stage together since their show at London’s Troxy last November. That gig was in front of just 3,000 fans – including Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong, Radiohead‘s Ed O’Brien, Boy George, Mogwai‘s Stuart Braithwaite, and Pedro Pascal in the crowd – and came in celebration of their latest album, ‘Songs Of A Lost World’.
The Cure’s 2026 UK and Ireland headline shows are:
JUNE
26 – Marlay Park, Dublin
28 – Belsonic, Belfast
AUGUST
21 – Live From Wythenshawe Park, Manchester
23 – Edinburgh Summer Sessions, Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh
Last year’s announcement of the 2026 shows also indicates that The Cure may be gearing up to share a new album.
This comes as Smith previously confirmed that the band have another new album to follow up ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ that’s “virtually finished”, as well as a third new record also on the way. He added that he wanted to have at least one of those albums finished and shared before they head out on tour, suggesting that a release could be arriving before the new tour dates start.
The singer also added that he can imagine the celebrations continuing all the way up until the band hits their 50th anniversary. “We’ll probably be playing quite regularly through until the next anniversary – the 2028 anniversary! It’s looming on the horizon,” he shared.
“The 2018 one, I started to think about in late 2016, thinking, ‘I’ve got a year and a half, it’s easy!’ And yet I still didn’t manage to get there in time. Now, I’m starting to think, ‘2028, I must get things in order’; so [that’s] the documentary film and things like that.”
While it looks certain that new music could be on the way from The Cure in 2026, nothing further has been confirmed from the band at time of writing. Seeing as the group have not announced any dates for London yet, it also seems likely that more headline shows and festival dates will be announced at a later date.
‘Songs Of A Lost World’ was given full marks by NME, in a five-star review that read: “Merciless? Yes, but there’s always enough heart in the darkness and opulence in the sound to hold you and place these songs alongside The Cure’s finest.
“The frontman suggested that another two records may be arriving at some point, but ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ feels sufficient enough for the wait we’ve endured, just for being arguably the most personal album of Smith’s career. Mortality may loom, but there’s colour in the black and flowers on the grave.”
The post The Cure air rarities and classics as they kick off 2026 European tour at Primavera Sound appeared first on NME.
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