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NME Festival Guide
2009

The Cure break curfew to close Coachella Festival

Robert Smith and co go for broke and finish set unplugged

The Cure played a marathon set to close out the final night of the 2009 Coachella Festival (April 19), breaking the midnight curfew and ignoring requests from organisers to wrap up their show.

The band kicked off their headlining slot on the main stage with several songs from their most recent album '4:13 Dream'.

Peeking out from underneath his trademark bird's nest of black hair, Smith put his band through the paces and his energy never seemed to wane.

The band kept the mood fairly dark and heavy during the beginning of the set, saving more upbeat numbers including 'In Between Days' and 'Just Like Heaven' for later.

At the end of the night, the plug was literally pulled on the band during 'Boys Don't Cry' and the field lights were turned up, but this didn't stop Smith and company from soldiering on.

"They say we can only play one more song - are we fuck," Smith said when the band got the signal to wrap up. They kept right on playing and several of the remaining audience members rushed toward the stage to hear them play the final notes of their nearly three-hour set unplugged.

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The Cure played:

'Underneath The Stars'
'Prayers For Rain'
'A Strange Day'
'alt.end'
'The End of the World'
'Lovesong'
'To Wish Impossible Things'
'Pictures of You'
'Lullaby'
'From the Edge Of The Deep Green Sea'
'The Perfect Boy'
'Wrong Number'
'Push'
'In Between Days'
'Just Like Heaven'
'Primary'
'Shake Dog Shake'
'The Hungry Ghost'
'Disintegration'
'One Hundred Years'
'It’s Over'
'If Only Tonight We Could Sleep'
'The Kiss'
'At Night'
'M'
'Play For Today'
'A Forest'
'Three Imaginary Boys'
'Fire In Cairo'
'Boys Don’t Cry'
'Jumping Someone Else’s Train'
'Grinding Halt'


--By our Los Angeles staff.
Find out more about NME.


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Comments (5)

Add a comment

Zippit 

Apr 21, 2009

Thats Rock N Roll for Ya!!!

Moz_1983 

Apr 21, 2009

Now that, ladies and gents, is how you pull off a great festival headlining slot. 32 songs? Value.

thelosthighway 

Apr 21, 2009

Still amazing. You always get value with a Cure show.

A_Dis 

Apr 21, 2009

Not quite up there with 'Fuck Robert Palmer! Fuck Rock n' Roll!' when they overran a festival slot in the early 80s, but a good effort none-the-less.

ed2005 

Apr 21, 2009

The Cure are phenomenal live, I've seen them five times. This sounds like another great gig. Now could we PLEASE have a proper UK tour, taking in Scotland?

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Pic: Guy Eppel

Pic: Guy Eppel

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