I thought the Cincinnati show was excellent and certainly in comparison to Palm Beach. The band is very tight and the sound and production are
remarkable. Highlights of the show were "deep green sea," "Disintegration," "Labyrinth,"  "100 Years," "M," "Play for Today," and
"A Forest." This version of "A Forest" is the best I can recall for its intensity and for Simon's thick bass lines. It was reminiscent of Prayer
Tour renditions. What prevented this from being a remarkable show was the second encore, which, according to the set list, was to end with The
Promise and Going Nowhere.

I had a chance to take a close look at the soundboard and there is a list of songs ( small typewritten )  that is that is segmented into three categories along these lines:

"likely," "maybe," and "unlikely."  I believe that nearly all the songs on the "likely" list have been played, many on the "maybe" list have
been played and some of the "unlikely" list have been played. The "unlikely" list included the following songs:

39
Bloodflowers
Like Cockatoos
Siamese Twins
The Walk
Going Nowhere
Faith
At Night
Sinking

There were about seven other songs in this category, but I don't recall what they were. Anyway, it would be nice to hear a set heavy on the
"unlikely" list of songs to be played.

- Jay Brame
 

The cure concert last night was fucking insane! a great setlist, and some passioned playing helped make it a great night, despite the mediocre sound
mixing... i enjoyed the rapture, muse and interpol as well as auf der maur. I'd say the highlight was sitting in the pavilion, looking across the pavilion, and spotting a couple of familiar faces - roger o'donnell and jason cooper! of course I went over to speak with them, I told Roger that I loved their stuff but I missed him on the new record, he said "I'm not sure what you mean" and walked away to take in the set from muse. I never got a chance to finish explaining that I meant that I missed the usual keyboard contributions on the guitar drenched album.

And then I cought up with Cooper on the lawn, he was standing there watching Muse, and almost no-one was bothering him! I guess being one of
the least recognizable has it's benefits. Anyway, I gave him a copy of the stare CD we recorded with a cover of "mouth to mouth" on it to pass to
robert. I had burnt a CD of my current band faded sympathy's demos, but i realized on the way down that one of them had horrible problems and so
basically i would rather him not have to hear that screw-up in my production on "brand new world." He also signed my tour book, and I was quivering with excitement at finally meeting someone from the band.

We then headed down behind muse hoping to see the stage from behind, but instead we got a nice view of Robert the S taking in their set! We had high hopes he would have to come our way to get back to the backstage of the main stage, but alas there was a golfcart waiting to whisk him away. He did wave hi to us when a girl screamed out his name though, so I guess that near brush is all I will ever get.

Oh well, the set was great, with a really nice plainsong, and a strange focus on disintegration songs, 6 in all, including all 4 singles. I really missed the promise and us or them, but the nice seventeen seconds encore, with a killer version of a forest (not as good as wish-era was, but very cool that they took it all the way down to robert and simon and then brought it back up to full band again) more than made up for it.

All in all, a great evening, spent with my old buddy Dave Bush. Wonderful, can't wait for the next tour! (hopefully less than 4 years from now, LOL) 

- Gary Thrasher

The Cincinnati show was pretty tight, in my opinion. The "pop hell" segments were not that bad. The band seems to be having fun, except on songs from the current album. Robert was engaging during the final encore and although the sound was a bit heavy on the bass, overall it was not bad.
 
The first encore's rendition of A Forest may be one of my favorites and contrary to other reports, the crowd was swaying, singing and seemed to
be really in tune with the music. Arms did go in the air during "At The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea," and many people were shouting the lyrics to
"Disintegration," (although the younger audience members didn't seem to know what the song was).
 
Overall, in the three shows I've seen, it was the second best. Being a 20-year fan, it's fabulous to just see the lads play. Granted, the set list could have been stronger, but beggars can't be complainers.
 
- Jim Hines