The Fat Angel Sings

From light and in love to a black swelling and gloomy. An extremely balanced layering that takes you to the depth. From a rather obscure start with album favorites, to hits such as ‘Friday I’m in Love’, ‘Close to Me’, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ that were completely preserved. The British new wavers from The Cure gave a mighty musical concert on the second day of Pinkpop that will be remembered for a long time.

Welcomed as conquering heroes to Geleen in 1986, with The Cure Pinkpop didn’t just get one of the biggest bands of the moment (witness the all-time classics on their set list back then: Boys Don’t Cry, A Forest, In Between Days, The Walk, Close To Me), but after two slim editions a crowd of 50,000 helped ensure that the ‘sold out’ sign was once again hung on the Pinkpop gates. The Cure saved Pinkpop was the verdict, so it’s only logical that these new wave legends should play the fiftieth anniversary. 2019 is also a special year for the band: they’ve been inaugurated into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, their debut album Three Imaginary Boys celebrates its fortieth birthday, the successful Disintegration (featuring classics Lullaby, Lovesong and Pictures Of You) turns thirty and frontman Robert Smith turned sixty in April.

Who would have thought that The Cure would draw the fiftieth Pinkpop. The band colored no less than 2.5 hours of a festival day that had yielded much predictable sentiment until then. While Rowwen Hèze culminated in a hopping party, the band Krezip, who had just reunited after ten years, had a sympathetic reunion with Pinkpop. And retro star Lenny Kravitz also swung back in time. Casually cool with sunglasses – he doesn’t seem to be getting older – he brought a routine, edifying retro show like a cozy foam rock bath.

The Cure performs “A Forest” live at the Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, 2019.

As a final act of day two, The Cure took Pinkpop into the dark. The fact that a final act would follow, the dance of Armin, hardly counted for the fans of The Cure. Their heroes, now in their sixties, with the hefty foreman Robert Smith still as a melancholy eye-catcher with the dark raised hair, black flared eyes and red lipstick, were back since 2012.

With dedicated authority, The Cure immediately faded acts such as White Lies and The Kooks . With here even a little nod or smile. When ‘Just Like Heaven’ comes out fantastic. When ‘In Between Days’ is completed brilliantly. ‘A Forest’ was an eerily strong climax in which a lot came together: the depth, the quality, the load of a song that still comes in almost forty years later.

The Cure performs Boys Don’t Cry live at the Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, 2019.