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.
"Alone" "Pictures of You" "A Night Like This" "Lovesong" "And Nothing Is Forever" "The Last Day of Summer" "A Fragile Thing" "Cold" "Burn" "Fascination Street" "Push" "Play for Today" "Shake Dog Shake" "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea" "Endsong" Encore "I Can Never Say Goodbye" "Want" "A Thousand Hours" "At Night" "A Forest" Encore 2 "Lullaby" "Six Different Ways" "The Walk" "Friday I'm in Love" "Doing the Unstuck" "Close to Me" "In Between Days" "Just Like Heaven" "Boys Don't Cry"
Tour dates +European LegDateCityCountryVenueOpening actsAttendanceRevenue6 October 2022RigaLatviaArena RigaThe Twilight Sad——8 October 2022HelsinkiFinlandHelsingin jäähalli10 October 2022StockholmSwedenAvicii Arena12 October 2022OsloNorwayOslo Spektrum13 October 2022GothenburgSwedenScandinavium14 October 2022CopenhagenDenmarkRoyal Arena16 October 2022HamburgGermanyBarclaycard Arena17 October 2022LeipzigQuarterback Immobilien Arena18 October 2022BerlinMercedes-Benz Arena20 October 2022KrakówPolandTauron Arena21 October 2022ŁódźAtlas Arena23 October 2022ViennaAustriaMarx Halle24 October 2022PragueCzech RepublicO2 Arena26 October 2022BudapestHungaryBudapest Sportaréna27 October 2022ZagrebCroatiaArena Zagreb29 October 2022MunichGermanyOlympiahalle31 October 2022BolognaItalyUnipol Arena1 November 2022FlorenceNelson Mandela Forum3 November 2022PaduaKioene Arena4 November 2022MilanForum di Milano6 November 2022GenevaSwitzerlandGeneva Arena7 November 2022LyonFranceHalle Tony Garnier8 November 2022MontpellierSud de France Arena10 November 2022BarcelonaSpainPalau Sant Jordi11 November 2022MadridWiZink Center13 November 2022ToulouseFranceZénith de Lille14 November 2022BordeauxArkéa Arena15 November 2022NantesZénith de Nantes Métropole17 November 2022FrankfurtGermanyFesthalle Frankfurt18 November 2022StrasbourgFranceZénith de Strasbourg19 November 2022BaselSwitzerlandSt. Jakobshalle21 November 2022StuttgartGermanyHanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle22 November 2022CologneLanxess Arena23 November 2022AntwerpBelgiumSportpaleis25 November 2022AmsterdamNetherlandsZiggo Dome27 November 2022LiévinFranceArena Stade Couvert de Liévin28 November 2022ParisAccor Arena1 December 2022DublinIreland3Arena2 December 2022BelfastNorthern IrelandSSE Arena4 December 2022GlasgowScotlandOVO Hydro6 December 2022LeedsEnglandFirst Direct Arena7 December 2022BirminghamUtilita Arena8 December 2022CardiffWalesMotorpoint Arena11 December 2022LondonEnglandOVO Arena Wembley12 December 202213 December 2022 +North American LegDateCityCountryVenueOpening actsAttendanceRevenue10 May 2023New OrleansUnited StatesSmoothie King CenterThe Twilight Sad——12 May 2023HoustonToyota Center13 May 2023DallasDos Equis Pavilion14 May 2023AustinMoody Center16 May 2023AlbuquerqueIsleta Amphitheater18 May 2023GlendaleDesert Diamond Arena20 May 2023Chula VistaNorth Island Credit Union Amphitheatre21 May 202323 May 2023Los AngelesHollywood Bowl24 May 202325 May 202327 May 2023Mountain ViewShoreline Amphitheatre29 May 202331 May 2023PortlandModa Center1 June 2023SeattleClimate Pledge Arena2 June 2023VancouverCanadaRogers Arena4 June 2023Salt Lake CityUnited StatesVivint Smart Home Arena6 June 2023Greenwood VillageFiddler's Green Amphitheatre8 June 2023St. PaulXcel Energy Center10 June 2023ChicagoUnited Center11 June 2023Cuyahoga FallsBlossom Music Center13 June 2023ClarkstonPine Knob Music Theatre14 June 2023TorontoCanadaBudweiser Stage16 June 2023MontrealBell Centre17 June 202318 June 2023MansfieldUnited StatesXfinity Center20 June 2023New York CityMadison Square Garden21 June 202322 June 202324 June 2023PhiladelphiaWells Fargo Center25 June 2023ColumbiaMerriweather Post Pavilion27 June 2023AtlantaState Farm Arena28 June 202329 June 2023TampaAmalie Arena1 July 2023MiamiKaseya Center17 September 2023ChicagoDouglass Park +South American LegDateCityCountryVenueOpening actsAttendanceRevenue19 November 2023Mexico CityMexicoAutodromo Hermanos Rodriguez——22 November 2023LimaPeruEstadio Universidad San MarcosThe Twilight Sad Just Mustard25 November 2023Buenos AiresArgentinaSarmiento Park27 November 2023MontevideoUruguayAntel ArenaJust Mustard30 November 2023SantiagoChileEstadio Monumental David ArellanoJust Mustard FrioLento The Cruel Visions3 December 2023São PauloBrazilInterlagos Circuit7 December 2023AsunciónParaguayParque Olímpico10 December 2023BogotáColombiaMovistar Arena
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