If there's something to take away from The Cure's sold out gig at the Austin Music Hall, it is that Robert Smith has no intention of coasting. Given that The Cure have existed for nearly 32 years, the gig could have easily gone the way of pat nostalgia. But when your die-hard fans line up ten hours prior to show time, one had best be prepared to deliver the goods. Sunday night, The Cure appeared full of energy and purpose during a 36-song, three hour marathon that featured both loads of singles and a host of deep cuts from three selected Cure albums. The 2008 Cure tour is primarily playing arenas, so the relatively small (4,400) confines of the Music Hall essentially gave Smith permission to jettison some greatest hits (among them "Close To Me", "Hot Hot Hot", and "The Lovecats") to spend much of the set focusing on songs from Wish, Pornography, and Seventeen Seconds. The large number of out-of-towners in the crowd justified Smith's song selections: in our immediate circle, we met fans from Dallas, Houston, Nebraska, and Chicago.

The current version of The Cure is a paired-down quartet featuring longtime members Porl Thompson and Simon Gallup along with drummer Jason Cooper. The band played with admirable volume and enthusiasm, but occasional passages felt a bit too bombastic for Smith's sad but graceful music. Perhaps this is continued fallout from working with nu-metal producer Ross Robinson on 2004's The Cure, or it could be a byproduct of playing to 15,000 a night and aiming for the cheap seats. Regardless, it was surprising to see the band fail to fully embrace the acoustics of a smaller venue, especially given the setlist. The other frustration was felt more by Smith than the audience: he tried repeatedly to banter with the crowd, but the AMH's odd acoustics made it nearly impossible to decipher what he was asking. Smith simply gave up after a while and settled for some waves to the audience and pulled an occasional awkward smile for the cameraphones.

These minor quibbles were negated by Smith's obvious love of the music and his audience. Throughout the set, he looked determined, and seemed pleased to have the occasion to play an unusual set of material. His trademark yowls and brooding lyrics were in fine form, and one must commend him for working diligently to include every Cure era except the late '90s in the set. We especially enjoyed new single "The Only One," which is hugely catchy and seems destined to join "Friday I'm In Love" as an upbeat catalog classic. The audience and band connected most directly during a passage featuring material from the 1989 classic Disintegration: the music was familiar to everyone, but has aged gracefully and is considered by many to be the band's best work. For good measure, the band worked another song from the era ("Catch") into the fray, and it only added to the good feelings in the crowd. While everyone swooned over a later one-two of "Just Live Heaven" and "In Between Days," the crowd didn't explode again until late in the first encore when "A Forest" was played in a noisy and radiant climax. This frenzy continued in the crowd-pleasing second encore, which essentially threw out seven '70s-era singles and album cuts without so much as a pause in between.

One really felt that Smith would have played for another hour if the venue and crowd could have managed it, but just past midnight, he waved, bowed, and called it a night. It was pleasing to see an artist so proud of his work and so enthused to be sharing it as he approaches 50. We left with some real hope that The Cure's upcoming fall album could be something special, and were glad to catch Smith and his band during a period where they really seem to be playing at their full potential.

Setlist: open, fascination street, alt.end, torture, the end of the world, lovesong, the big hand, pictures of you, lullaby, catch, the perfect boy, from the edge of the deep green sea, the figurehead, a strange day, sleep when i'm dead, push, doing the unstuck, inbetween days, just like heaven, primary, the only one, signal to noise, the hanging garden, one hundred years, end, 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, 10:15 saturday night, killing an arab. (Source: Chainofflowers.com)