The Cure at the Vivint Arena

Last night I was at the Vivint Arena once again to celebrate my birthday with The Cure. I have seen them twice before but it has been a while so I was really excited for the show.  It had a completely different vibe than the Duran Duran concert did the night before but it was equally amazing.  The Cure played for almost three hours, with a main set, an encore, and a second longer encore, featuring a career-spanning mix of their biggest hits, deeper tracks, and even a few new songs (including "Alone," which opened the show, "I Can Never Say Goodbye," about the death of Smith's brother, and "And Nothing Is Forever").  My favorites were "Pictures of You," "Lovesong," "Plainsong," "Disintegration," "Lullaby," "Let's Go to Bed," "Friday I'm in Love," "Close to Me," "In Between Days," "Just Like Heaven," and "Boys Don't Cry."  All of these crowd favorites, except for "Pictures of You" and "Lovesong," were performed during the encores so the audience got more and more frenzied just as the concert concluded!  Another noteworthy moment came during "Burn" in the main set because drummer Jason Cooper gave an unbelievable performance that was featured on the screen behind him.  Robert Smith was in his usual black (although he did have a bit of red on his shirt) with wild hair, red lipstick, and eyeliner but, compared to other times that I've seen The Cure, he was positively ebullient!  He interacted with the crowd quite a bit, often walking over to the corners of the stage to make eye contact with people in the upper bowl, and he was even dancing at one point (the last time I saw The Cure at USANA he didn't move away from the microphone and didn't talk to the crowd at all).  He also sounded great with the same expressive voice that he is known for. The stage was very stripped down with just a riser for the drum kit and rows of amplifiers and guitar racks.  However, it was bathed in a wall of lights that looked really cool changing from one color to another and there was a large screen which alternated between a live feed of the band and curated images (my favorite was a large spider web during "Lullaby").  Like most of the capacity crowd, I was wearing the requisite eyeliner and Doc Martens and I had an absolute blast.  It was a great way to spend my birthday!