The Cure played Agganis Arena – 6/16

U.K. gothic/post-punk legends The Cure returned to Boston earlier this month for a sold-out show at Agganis – their first in town since 2008.

For an in-depth recap of the night, Steve Smith’s take at the Globe is the one to read. I’ll simply summarize. Frontman Robert Smith sounded ageless as he and the band traversed their nearly 40-year history, and even after three hours, they hadn’t approached exhausting that catalog. The tour’s had a wildly variable setlist, and for this night we were treated to more cuts from 1992’s Wish than any of the surrounding dates got (six out of its 12 tracks). On those songs and plenty of newer and older ones, Smith and co. made it all look easy while reinforcing just how rich with highlights their back catalog is. By some miracle of the goth gods, even the acoustics at the notoriously godawful-sounding hockey arena that is Agganis played nice for the evening. I left the slightest bit disappointed that they didn’t play “One Hundred Years,” but we can only ask for so much. Truly an outstanding show – one of 2016’s best so far.

I’d be remiss in not also mentioning openers The Twilight Sad, a longtime favorite of mine who deftly execute a wonderfully miserable blend of shoegaze, post-punk and Scottish brogue. I’ve been following them since high school and they were the first band I ever reviewed for this blog in college. I’ve seen them headline Great Scott more than once, so it was a thrill to see them sharing a massive stage with The Cure. I was only able to catch the three songs I shot because I still had to sort out my ticket, but in that time I gathered that they had no trouble commanding the space. Perpetually underrated band. Please go listen to Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters if you have not already welcomed it into your heart.

Full photo galleries for both sets below.