the cure tour robert smith

Tuesday was gray, but for Cure fans, it was all love at the Hollywood Bowl

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

Robert Smith stood onstage Tuesday evening and let the final notes of the Cure’s “A Night Like This” — in which the 64-year-old goth-rock icon promises, “I want to change” — ring out over the capacity crowd at the Hollywood Bowl.

“The last time we played that,” Smith told the audience, “I thought to myself: Do I really want to change?”

It’s hard to see why he would: Nearly half a century after the release of the British band’s debut single, the Cure is enjoying a moment right now, the kind coveted by pop stars one-third Smith’s age. Tuesday’s gig under cloudy skies was the first of three sold-out dates at the Bowl on a tour for which the Cure sought to keep ticket prices relatively low; Smith’s willingness to publicly criticize Ticketmaster — he even got the company to refund fans for a portion of its much-hated handling fees — has given him something of a folk-hero vibe on social media even as he gets accustomed to being a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted the Cure in 2019.

The tour is building anticipation for a long-promised studio album, the Cure’s first in 15 years; here the band played a handful of impressive new songs, including one Smith said it had never performed before. With its generous blend of hits and deep cuts spread over nearly three hours, though, the Cure’s current live show also feels like expertly designed fan service — this summer’s black-mascara counterpart to Taylor Swift’s splashy and bedazzled Eras tour .

Unexpectedly, two nights of classic goth and post-punk at Cruel World festival

After Saturday’s festival was cut short due to a threatening storm, Siouxsie and Iggy Pop returned on Sunday to perform for multiple generations of SoCal goths.

May 22, 2023

The Cure isn’t the only celebrated survivor from its generation of U.K. post-punk and new wave acts. Depeche Mode is on the road in very fine form behind its strongest LP in years, and just this past weekend Siouxsie (who once counted Smith as a member of her Banshees) made a celebrated return to the American stage at Pasadena’s Cruel World festival. In November, Kate Bush will follow the Cure and Depeche Mode into the Rock Hall thanks in part to last year’s discovery of her old song “Running Up That Hill” by young viewers of Netflix’s “Stranger Things.”

Why exactly this stuff seems to be in the air comes down to some extent to fortuitous exposure like that and like HBO’s recent use of Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again” in “The Last of Us.” But there’s also something about this luxuriously gloomy music — the way in which it honors the exuberance of misery — that means it’s always drawing new fans. Of course the idea of goth would continue to reverberate in an era when teenagers just have to pick up their phones to find a reason to be depressed.

Headlining the Bowl almost seven years to the day since the Cure’s previous visit — and wearing a black T-shirt advertising the defunct Hollywood Star Lanes bowling alley — Smith found as much feeling as he ever has in oldies like “Pictures of You” and “Lovesong” as he floated his lovelorn yelp over dreamy overlapping guitar lines. (Though Smith is the band’s sole remaining original member, the Cure’s live lineup — with guitarists Perry Bamonte and Reeves Gabrels, bassist Simon Gallup, keyboardist Roger O’Donnell and drummer Jason Cooper — is long on musicians he’s played with for decades.)

“Charlotte Sometimes” and “Push” were surging rockers riding muscular rhythm-section grooves; “Shake Dog Shake” showed off Smith’s childhood fascination with Jimi Hendrix. At times you could think of the Cure as a sort of emo-psych jam band, stretching out the likes of “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea” to find untapped reserves of luscious melancholy.

The Kinks’ Ray Davies on the song he wants played at his funeral

Davies leads a guided tour through his band’s catalogue of classic hits, near-hits and the songs that makes him think about his mum and dad.

May 24, 2023

The Cure’s new songs were both the stormiest and the most sentimental of the night, with florid keyboard licks against synthesized strings that called to mind Aerosmith’s late-’90s power-ballad phase; indeed, the seeds of the grandly emotional “Another Happy Birthday,” which Smith said the Cure was playing for the first time Tuesday, are thought by the group’s most devoted to date back to 1997.

As the clock ticked toward the Bowl’s 11 p.m curfew, Smith and his mates wham-bammed through their biggest hits — “Friday I’m in Love,” delirious with agony; “In Between Days,” shuffling and funky; “Just Like Heaven,” a mad, passionate tumble — before closing with “Boys Don’t Cry,” where the pride Smith still takes in a sense of vulnerability could bring a tear to your eye.

When it was over, the frontman stuck around onstage for a few minutes, soaking up the crowd’s adoration — a renewable resource, it turns out, but not one he sees fit to squander.

More to Read

Aerosmith farewell tour is back on with new L.A. date, months after Steven Tyler injury

April 10, 2024

Joni Mitchell Announces Joni Jam Concert at the Hollywood Bowl in October

Jan. 30, 2024

Actor Kate Micucci says she’s cancer-free: ‘I don’t need to do any other treatment’

Dec. 19, 2023

The biggest entertainment stories

Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Mikael Wood is pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Entertainment & Arts

Jeezy wants more than Jeannie Mai divorce: primary custody over 2-year-old daughter

April 12, 2024

Wynonna Judd’s daughter, Grace Kelley, charged with soliciting prostitution and indecent exposure

Drake removed from lawsuit over Astroworld crowd crush that left 10 fans dead

Why the search for the next Gustavo Dudamel is full of hope — and hazards

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Credit card rates
• Balance transfer credit cards
• Business credit cards
• Cash back credit cards
• Rewards credit cards
• Travel credit cards
• Checking accounts
• Online checking accounts
• High-yield savings accounts
• Money market accounts
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Car insurance
• Home buying
• Options pit
• Investment ideas
• Research reports
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

The Cure's Robert Smith, 64, grapples with mortality, plays 6 dark new songs during cathartic Hollywood Bowl residency: 'It's really hard to keep hold of your younger self'

"it’s like a diary when you write songs, and you sort of think, 'f*** me, was i that sad when i was that young' i had no idea," smith told an adoring audience that has grown up — and grown older — listening to his confessionals over the past four decades..

“It’s really hard to keep hold of your younger self. When you’ve written about it, it’s like a diary when you write songs, and you sort of think, ‘F*** me, was I that sad when I was that young?’ I had no idea.”

So uttered the Robert Smith on the first night of the Cure’s sold-out, three-show run at Los Angeles’s 17,500-capacity Hollywood Bowl, speaking to an adoring generation that has grown up — and grown older — listening to his anguished, angsty confessionals over the past four decades. During each evening’s nearly three-hour set, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-inducted post-punk band’s gloomier selections (especially “A Thousand Hours,” with its opening gut-punch, “For how much longer can I howl into this wind?/For how much longer can I cry like this?”) certainly hit different in 2023. But it was the six unreleased songs from the Cure’s long-delayed and much-anticipated 14th studio album, Songs of a Lost World (which will be their first LP release since 2008’s 4:13 Dream ), that were especially dark — even by Cure standards — as Smith, now age 64, grappled with his mortality in a way he simply couldn’t in his twenties and thirties.

“I’ve experienced more of life’s darker side, for real. Before I used to write about stuff that I thought I understood. Now I know I understand it. The lyrics I’ve been writing for this album, for me personally, are more true,” Smith told Britain’s NME in 2019, when he first teased plans for the new record. “They’re more honest. That’s probably why the album itself is a little bit more doom-and-gloom. I feel I want to do something that expresses the darker side of what I’ve experienced over the last few years — but in a way that will engage people.” That same year, Smith told the Los Angeles Times that Songs of a Lost World would be “very much on the darker side of the spectrum. I lost my mother and my father and my brother recently, and obviously it had an effect on me. … It’ll be worth the wait. I think it’s the best thing we’ve done, but then I would say that. A lot of the songs are difficult to sing, and that’s why it’s taken me a while.”

Smith, one of the most iconic and instantly identifiable voices in rock, actually sounded flawless as he dug deep into the Songs of a Lost World material. Debuting one new album   track, “Another (Happy) Birthday,” he wailed: “And your birthday is the worst day/I'm singing to a ghost/’Happy birthday’… I forget how it goes...” Though that song’s origins can be traced all the way back to 1997 , Smith could have been singing it for his recently departed musician parents, or for his late brother, Richard. Richard, who was affectionately known as “The Guru” and was 13 years Robert’s senior, was hugely influential on the Cure's formation, teaching Robert how to play basic guitar and introducing Robert to his expansive record collection in the early ‘70s.

“I Can Never Say Goodbye” was introduced each night as being specifically about Richard, and included the heartbreaking chorus: “Something wicked this way comes/From out the cruel and treacherous night/Something wicked this way comes/To steal away my brother's life.” Each Bowl night’s other Songs of a Lost World previews were “Alone,” “A Fragile Thing,” “And Nothing Is Forever,” and the fittingly titled pre-encore closer “Endsong,” in which Robert sang: “And I'm outside in the dark/Staring at the blood-red moon/Remembering the hopes and dreams I had/All I had to do/And wondering what became of that boy/And the world he called his own/And I'm outside in the dark/Wondering how I got so old.”

The Cure’s music is in fact ageless, and their Shows of a Lost World Tour wasn’t all death and despair. As one of the most shape-shifting bands of all time, their nightly, slightly varied setlists veered from the spartan punk-pop of Three Imaginary Boys , to the effervescent Eurodisco of “Let’s Go to Bed” and “The Walk,” to the bad-acid-trip psychedelia of The Top ’s “Shake Dog Shake,” to blissful 120 Minutes -era classics from The Head on the Door and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me … and then back to the funereal dirges of the two albums that seem to have the most in common with the forthcoming Songs of a Lost World , 1982’s Pornography and the 1989’s Disintegration .

Smith has been crying wolf and claiming every album will be the Cure’s last since the release of Disintegration , which many fans ( including the South Park kids !) and critics consider to be the band’s career high point. (Ironically, Smith wrote that claustrophobically depressing record with the intention of it being “commercial suicide,” as he once explained to Yahoo Entertainment , but it ended up being the Cure’s biggest release. It sold 3 million copies and yielded a hit single, “Lovesong,” that went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was later covered by 311, Adele, and at least two American Idol contestants.) However, it seems like Songs of a Lost World might truly be Smith’s final, defining statement.

In 2020, keyboardist Roger O'Donnell told Classic Pop that he’d advised Smith, “‘We have to make one more record. It has to be the most intense, saddest, most dramatic, and most emotional record we've ever made, and then we can just walk away from it.' He agreed. Listening to the demos, it is that record.” A year later, Smith himself told the U.K.’s Sunday Times , “The new [album] is very emotional. It’s 10 years of life distilled into a couple of hours of intense stuff. I can’t think we’ll ever do anything else. I definitely can’t do this again.”

There's still no confirmed release date for Songs of a Lost World , but regardless of what the future holds for the Cure, the lyrics of the new song “And Nothing Is Forever” resonated deeply this week with the band’s loyal L.A. fans, many of whom had attended all three nights of the Cure’s Hollywood Bowl run. “My world has grown old/But it really doesn't matter/If you say we'll be together,” Smith pleaded. “Promise you'll be with me in the end… You will remember me tonight.”

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

The Cure at 40: How Robert Smith became an enduring, unlikely rock star

'Love' story: The Cure's 'Disintegration' and Robert Smith's romance, 30 years later

An imaginary boy, reimagined: Lol Tolhurst reflects on his life in the Cure

After Andy Fletcher's death, Depeche Mode makes emotional live return to L.A., the city that's 'been there for us from day one'

Follow Lyndsey on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , Amazon

Recommended Stories

'sasquatch sunset' is so relentlessly gross that people are walking out of screenings. star jesse eisenberg says the film was a ‘labor of love.’.

“There are so many movies made for people who like typical things. This is not that," the film's star told Yahoo Entertainment.

76ers' statue for Allen Iverson draws jokes, outrage due to misunderstanding: 'That was disrespectful'

Iverson didn't get a life-size statue. Charles Barkley and Wilt Chamberlain didn't either.

Travis Kelce receives his University of Cincinnati diploma, chugs a beer on stage

Nobody is going to change the Kelce brothers.

Scott Boras loses Jordan Montgomery as client after super-agent's disaster offseason

Boras reportedly demanded at least $170 million for Montgomery. The pitcher ended up getting $25 million.

O.J. Simpson dead at 76 after battle with cancer, family announces

O.J. Simpson, one of the most infamous figures in U.S. history, had been battling cancer.

Influencer fatigue finds its next victim: Coachella 2024

“We built a full city in the desert, and now, it’s a little too big," an event ticketing expert told Yahoo Entertainment about Coachella.

2025 Toyota 4Runner (finally!) revealed, and the new Trailhunter is extremely cool

The 2025 Toyota 4Runner is finally arriving this fall with a full lineup including returning TRD Pro and new Trailhunter. Hybrid power now available.

Republicans (?!?) are killing a tax cut

In a flip of the usual priorities, Senate Republicans seem likely to kill a set of tax cuts that have already passed the House and are broadly popular. Here's why.

2024 NBA Awards: Official picks for MVP, Rookie of the Year and every individual honor

With the 2023-24 NBA season coming to an end, here's one voter's award ballot, breaking down the top candidates — and declaring the winners.

2024 NBA Awards: All-NBA, All-Defensive and All-Rookie selections

Here's one voter's awards ballot with All-NBA, All-Defensive and All-Rookie selections.

Find anything you save across the site in your account

The Cure Announce 2023 North American Tour

By Evan Minsker and Jazz Monroe

The Cure have announced a 2023 tour of North America. Find their Shows of a Lost World dates below. The schedule comes with three dates apiece at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl and New York’s Madison Square Garden. Support on all dates comes from their longtime tourmates the Twilight Sad .

In recent years, Robert Smith has been teasing a Cure album, giving regular progress reports. In 2019, after being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ( by Trent Reznor ), Smith said , “If I’m optimistic it will be finished before the start of this summer.” The album still hasn’t materialized.

The band’s last studio album was 2008’s 4:13 Dream . In recent years, Smith has collaborated with Gorillaz and remixed Chvrches , Deftones , and, just this week, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds . Last year, the band reissued 1992’s Wish . See where the Cure landed on Pitchfork’s list of “ The 250 Best Songs of the 1990s .”

All products featured on Pitchfork are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

05-10 New Orleans, LA - Smoothie King Center 05-12 Houston, TX - Toyota Center 05-13 Dallas, TX - Dos Equis Pavilion 05-14 Austin, TX - Moody Center 05-16 Albuquerque, NM - Isleta Amphitheater 05-18 Phoenix, AZ - Desert Diamond Arena 05-20 San Diego, CA - NICU Amphitheatre 05-23 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl 05-24 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl 05-25 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl 05-27 San Francisco, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre 06-01 Seattle, WA - Climate Pledge Arena 06-02 Vancouver, British Columbia - Rogers Arena 06-04 Salt Lake City, UT - Vivint Smart Home Arena 06-06 Greenwood Village, CO - Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre 06-08 Saint Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center 06-10 Chicago, IL - United Center 06-11 Cleveland, OH - Blossom Music Center 06-13 Detroit, MI - Pine Knob Music Theatre 06-14 Toronto, Ontario - Budweiser Stage 06-16 Montreal, Quebec - Bell Centre 06-18 Boston, MA - Xfinity Center 06-20 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden 06-21 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden 06-22 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden 06-24 Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center 06-25 Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion 06-27 Atlanta, GA - State Farm Arena 06-29 Tampa, FL - Amalie Arena 07-01 Miami, FL - Miami-Dade Arena

By signing up you agree to our User Agreement (including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions ), our Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement and to receive marketing and account-related emails from Pitchfork. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Nina Corcoran

By Matthew Strauss

By Jazz Monroe

• Manage Account

The Cure Announce 2023 North American Tour Dates

The outing marks the goth rock icons' first extensive U.S. dates since 2019.

By Gil Kaufman

Gil Kaufman

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Pinit
• + additional share options added
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Email
• Print this article
• Share this article on Comment
• Share this article on Tumblr

The Cure announced their first run of North American dates in more than four years on Thursday (March 9). The Robert Smith-led band’s Shows of a Lost World Tour is slated to kick off on May 10 at the Smoothie Center in New Orleans and take the goth rock icons through Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal and Atlanta before wrapping up at Miami-Dade Arena in Miami, FL on July 1.

The Cure’s ‘Wish’ Set for 30th-Anniversary Set Featuring 24 Unreleased Tracks

Trending on billboard.

Tickets for all 30 dates will go on sale via Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program beginning March 15; pre-registration is required and registration will close on March 13 at 10 a.m. PT. In the wake of ticket sale snafus affecting Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny onsales, in a message to fans, the Cure wrote, “we have priced tickets to benefit fans and our efforts to block scalpers and limited inflated resale prices are being supported by our ticketing partners.”

At press time there was no information about new music from the band, though Smith has been promising a follow-up to 2008’s 4:13 Dream for several years .

Check out the dates for The Cure’s Shows of a Lost World 2023 North American Tour below.

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about?

Get in the know on.

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Culture Expand culture menu

Media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

Honda Music Expand honda-music menu

The Cure's tour has been the surprise hit of the year. This is why it captivates.

COLUMBIA, Md. – It's the sleeper hit of the year , packing venues from Los Angeles to New York, allowing fans to channel the inner goth of their youth and dazzling with a career-spanning set list of nearly 30 songs.

Before the kickoff of their tour in May in New Orleans, The Cure hadn't rounded the U.S. since 2016. But last year’s excursion through Europe allowed idiosyncratic frontman Robert Smith, 64, and the band the opportunity to burnish their live production.

Both sleek and melancholy, the two-hour 45-minute show is ticking down to its final concerts, with a July 1 finale in Miami followed by festival spot dates this fall.

At an overflowing Merriweather Post Pavilion on Sunday, the band demonstrated why their following remains fanatical.

The Cure's new music is as solid as its classics

Fans have awaited a new album – "Songs of a Lost World," which pairs with the tour's name, Shows of a Lost World – since Smith unveiled the title in March 2022.

Despite no definitive arrival for The Cure’s first release since 2008’s “4:13 Dream,” the band has included several new tracks in all of its shows.

The main set was bookended with newbies – the Pink Floyd-like opener "Alone" and the devastating "Endsong," a bleak musing on aging ("No hopes, no dreams, no world … I don't belong here anymore") filled with guitar squiggles and crashing cymbals.

But sandwiched between the aching longing of "Lovesong" and the starry backdrop, cerulean lighting and serrated guitar riffs of "At Night" sat a definitive new Cure creation.

Smith turned his back to the adoring audience, swaying while conducting indefatigable drummer Jason Cooper, before unleashing a voice wracked with pain on "And Nothing is Forever."

Smith’s voice enveloped lyrics such as "My world has grown old, but it really doesn't matter if you say we'll be together," suggesting his heart still swells with sadness, if not darkness.

Icons unite: Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks enchant on their dual tour playing throughout the year

The Cure's set list taps into deep cuts as well as hits

An early highlight came when Smith faced off with bassist Simon Gallup – the second-longest tenured member in the band – for the chugging intro to "Pictures of You."

The ballad, from The Cure's landmark 1989 album, "Disintegration," showcases all of the hallmarks of their sound – watery guitars, evocative synths and a slow burn into an explosive soundscape that unfolded beautifully on stage.

It was also one of their few hits played before the encores, which were packed with casual-fan favorites including the jubilant "Friday I'm in Love" and equally buoyant "Just Like Heaven" (both always seem at odds with The Cure's frequently gloomy thrust).

Instead, the nucleus of the show spotlighted lesser-heard gems such as "Burn," from the 1994 soundtrack to "The Crow," complemented by crimson lights ricocheting around the stage as Cooper pounded the layered beat; the metronomic groove of "At Night" and hand-clapping of "A Forest," both from the band's second album, 1980's "Seventeen Seconds"; and "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea," from 1992's "Wish," which was anchored by relentless keyboard plinks from Roger O'Donnell until the song erupted into a thrilling rumble.

Let's also tip the hat to Reeves Gabrels and Perry Bamonte for their dancing surf-guitar licks on "Push," an album track from 1985's "The Head on the Door."

Robert Smith hasn't changed

Smith remains the focal point of The Cure – and how could he not be with his trademark heap of black hair, blur of scarlet lipstick and lacquered eye makeup? His voice, a blend of sad wail and smooth croon, endures as a distinctive, undiminished sound.

But Smith also makes his appreciation for the band's audiences known. On Sunday, as he has throughout the tour, he spent the first several minutes of the show meandering to each section of the stage, quietly greeting fans with his eyes and accepting gifts tossed at him.

His gaze was one of gratitude mixed with disbelief that after all this time, the people still show.

Apparently, the sad prince of goth pop is still the king four decades on.

Enduring influence: Cyndi Lauper talks hits – and the songs that weren't

The Cure Announce First North American Tour in Seven Years

The Cure have outlined an upcoming North American tour, dubbed Song of a Lost World, with 30 tour stops in the U.S. and Canada. The excursion is slated to begin on May 10 in New Orleans and will serve as the band’s first stateside tour in seven years. 

After kicking off their jaunt in the Big Easy, Robert Smith and his collaborators will hop over to the Lone Star State, where they are billed to take the stage in Houston, Dallas and Austin, Texas, before a one-night stand at Albuquerque, N.M.’s Isleta Amphitheater on May 16. From there, they’ll play in Phoenix prior to a series of Golden State gigs, including three nights at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl. 

Next, The Cure will jump up to Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on June 1, followed by the first Canadian stop of this tour, which will occur the following night at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia. After a quick trip to The Great White North, the band will pop down to Salt Lake City for a concert, which will be followed by shows scattered throughout the Midwest region of the U.S.

Following a June 13 performance in Motor City, The Cure will pick up a pair of Canadian tour dates, scheduled to happen in Ontario and Quebec. On June 16, the group will take a stand in Boston before a three-night run at New York’s Madison Square Garden on June 20 through 22.

From there, the English rockers will turn up at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center on June 24. After that, they’ll work their way down the Eastern Seaboard before their final North American tour date on July 1 at the Miami-Dade Arena in Miami, Fla. 

The Cure’s impending trek through North America marks their first since a 2019 festival appearance and a 2016 regional tour, which came before that.

Register for the artist’s pre-sale and learn more about the band’s upcoming tour by visiting thecure.com . Scroll down to view a complete list of tour dates. 

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Cure (@thecure)

The Cure North American Tour Dates: 

May 10 – Smoothie King Center – New Orleans

May 12 – Toyota Center – Houston 

May 13 – Dos Equis Pavilion – Dallas

May 14 – Moody Center – Austin, Texas

May 16 – Isleta Amphitheater – Albuquerque, N.M. 

May 18 – Desert Diamond Arena – Phoenix

May 20 – NICU Amphitheatre – San Diego, Calif. 

May 23 – Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles

May 24 – Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles

May 25 – Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles

May 27 – Shoreline Amphitheatre – San Francisco 

June 1 – Climate Pledge Arena – Seattle 

June 2 – Rogers Arena – Vancouver, British Columbia 

June 4 – Vivint Smart Home Arena – Salt Lake City

June 6 – Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre – Greenwood Village, Colo. 

June 8 – Xcel Energy Center – Saint Paul, Minn. 

June 10 – United Center – Chicago

June 11 – Blossom Music Center – Cleveland 

June 13 – Pine Knob Music Theatre – Detroit 

June 14 – Budweiser Stage – Toronto, Ontario 

June 16 – Bell Centre – Montreal, Quebec

June 18 – Xfinity Center – Boston

June 20 – Madison Square Garden – New York

June 21 – Madison Square Garden – New York

June 22 – Madison Square Garden – New York

June 24 – Wells Fargo Center – Philadelphia

June 25 – Merriweather Post Pavilion – Columbia, Md.

June 27 – State Farm Arena – Atlanta

June 29 – Amalie Arena – Tampa, Fla.

July 1 – Miami-Dade Arena – Miami, Fla.

Newsletters

Marketplace.

March 2024 Relix Issue

Phish "Balloon" White T-Shirt by Danny Clinch

Daniel Donato's Cosmic Country - Reflector (Exclusive 2-LP Relix Red Variant)

RetroBlakesberg Volume One: The Film Archives

Rose & Bolt Logo Pin | Silver / Sparkle

Music Pro Ear Protection Set by EARPEACE

Floating Orbs - Throwback Tie-Dye T-Shirt

Mikaela Davis & Southern Star - The Relix Session (Limited Edition 2-LP Sunflower Splatter Vinyl)

Grateful Dead Rainbow Bears Woven Cotton Blanket

Taper's Section "Stack" T-Shirt

Futurebirds - Thanks Y'all (Exclusive 3-LP Relix Clear Violet Variant)

Love Lights | Crystal String Lights | Rose Quartz

They Sound Grate Crewneck Sweatshirt

Daily 7 news.

Watch: Paul McCartney and the Eagles Perform “Let It Be” at Jimmy Buffet Tribute Concert in Los Angeles

Abigail Rosen Holmes, Phish Vegas Show and Co-Creative Director, Hints at Sphere Experience

Joan Osborne on the Group Mind Experience, the Studio as Sanctuary and Grateful Dead Boot Camp

Spotify to Unveil Remix Feature, Allowing Listeners to Speed Up, Slow Down and Mash Up Songs

Members of Talking Heads, Pavement and More Discuss Food Habits in New Book ‘Taste in Music’

Listen: Brian Wilson Offers Posthumous Duet with Glen Campbell on “Strong,” Fifth Preview Single from Glen Campbell Duets

The Soul Rebels Announce Spring 2024 Tour with Ghostface Killah, Chris Dave, Fred Wesley, Seun Kuti and More

You might also like

Watch: Paul McCartney and the Eagles Perform “Let It Be” at Jimmy Buffet Tribute Concert in Los Angeles

• Live at Relix

Shower your loved ones with  the  gift  of  music!

1 Year. 8 Issues. Only $24.95

• Consequence

The Cure Kick Off First North American Tour in 7 Years: Video + Setlist

The 29-song set included new material and the first performance of "A Thousand Hours" in 36 years

The Cure kicked off their first North American tour in seven years with a show at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on Wednesday.

The Robert Smith-led band delivered a 29-song setlist that included several new songs presumably taken from their long-teased new album, Songs of a Lost World , including “Alone,” “And Nothing Is Forever,” “A Fragile Thing,” and “I Can Never Say Goodbye.” During the encore The Cure dusted off “A Thousand Hours,” from Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss , and “Six Different Ways” from The Head on the Door (neither song had been played since 1987).

See the evening’s full 29-song setlist and fan-captured performance footage below.

The  North American leg of the “Songs of a Lost World Tour” runs through early July. The tour’s ticket on-sale has been quite the ordeal , but there are  limited quantities  still available via  Ticketmaster .

The Cure Setlist:

Alone Pictures of You A Night Like This Lovesong And Nothing Is Forever The Last Day of Summer A Fragile Thing Cold Burn Fascination Street Push Play for Today Shake Dog Shake From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea Endsong

Encore: I Can Never Say Goodbye Want A Thousand Hours (First time live since 1987) At Night A Forest

Encore #2: Lullaby Six Different Ways (first performance since 1987) The Walk Friday I’m in Love Doing the Unstuck Close to Me In Between Days Just Like Heaven Boys Don’t Cry

The Cure 2023 Tour Dates:

05/12 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center 05/13 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion 05/14 – Austin, TX @ Moody Center 05/16 – Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater 05/18 – Phoenix, AZ @ Desert Diamond Arena 05/20 – San Diego, CA @ NICU Amphitheatre 05/21 – San Diego, CA @ NICU Amphitheatre 05/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl 05/24 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl 05/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl 05/27 – San Francisco, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre 05/29 – San Francisco, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre 05/31 – Portland, OR @ Moda Center 06/01 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena 06/02 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena 06/04 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Vivint Smart Home Arena 06/06 – Denver, CO @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre 06/08 – Minneapolis St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center 06/10 – Chicago, IL @ United Center 06/11 – Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center 06/13 – Detroit, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre 06/14 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage 06/16 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre 06/17 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre 06/18 – Boston, MA @ Xfinity Center 06/20 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden 06/21 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden 06/22 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden 06/24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center 06/25 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion 06/27 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena 06/28 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena 06/29 – Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena 07/01 – Miami, FL @ Miami-Dade Arena

Personalized Stories

Around the web, latest stories.

Your Old Droog Drops Madlib-Produced New Song "DBZ" Featuring Denzel Curry & Method Man: Stream

April 12, 2024

Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson Shows Up at Box Office to Sell Tickets to Secret Solo Gigs

Jimmy Buffett Name-Dropped Brandi Carlile to Befriend "Lesbian Fisherwomen"

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ Challengers [Mixed] Might Be Their Most Fun OST -- Thanks to Boys Noize: Review

Founding Saxon Bassist Steve Dawson Gets Six Years in Prison for Child Sex Offenses

Coachella Friday Livestream: Lana Del Rey, Deftones, Justice, ATEEZ & More

John Oates Says He Has "Moved On" from Hall & Oates

Maggie Lindemann on Her New EP HEADSPLIT and Learning from Gwen Stefani's Career: Podcast

• Album Streams
• Upcoming Releases
• Film Trailers
• TV Trailers
• Pop Culture
• Album Reviews
• Concert Reviews
• Festival Coverage
• Film Reviews
• Cover Stories
• Hometowns of Consequence
• Song of the Week
• Album of the Month
• Behind the Boards
• Dustin ‘Em Off
• Track by Track
• Top 100 Songs Ever
• Crate Digging
• Best Albums of 2023
• Best Songs of 2023
• Best Films of 2023
• Best TV Shows of 2023
• Top Albums of All Time
• Festival News
• Festival Outlook
• How to Get Tickets
• Photo Galleries
• Consequence Daily
• The Story Behind the Song
• Kyle Meredith
• Stanning BTS
• In Defense of Ska
• Good for a Weekend
• Consequence UNCUT
• The Spark Parade
• Beyond the Boys Club
• Going There with Dr. Mike
• The What Podcast
• Consequence Uncut
• Behind the Boys Club
• Two for the Road
• 90 Seconds or Less
• Battle of the Badmate
• Video Essays
• News Roundup
• First Time I Heard
• Mining Metal

Theme Weeks

• Industrial Week
• Marvel Week
• Disney Week
• Foo Fighters Week
• TV Theme Song Week
• Sex in Cinema Week

Follow Consequence

• Discount Codes

The Cure give us an update on their “relentless” new album – and when to expect it

Robert Smith gives us the lowdown on 'Songs Of A Lost World', another album in the works, their upcoming tour, and his relationship with bassist Simon Gallup

The Cure have spoken to NME about progress on their long-awaited new album ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, as well as what to expect from their upcoming tour.

• READ MORE: On the cover – Robert Smith on 40 years of The Cure

Having long teased  the band’s long-awaited “merciless” new record – after telling us that two new albums were on the way back at the last NME Awards back in 2020 – Smith revealed to NME earlier this year that one of them would be “real very soon ” and would be called ‘Songs Of A Lost World’.

Then today (Thursday May 19), after he and bandmate and songwriting partner Simon Gallup picked up the Icon Award at the Ivor Novellos , Smith again gave reassurance that the album was on the way and would be out before their upcoming winter tour.

“We will be releasing a new album,” Smith told NME . “I get fed up of saying this now! We will be playing from October and the new album will be out before then. We walked on [stage at the Ivors today] to a bit of new music, actually. Hopefully no one recorded it!”

At this point, Shakira interrupted the interview to shake hands with “her favourite band of all time”, before Gallup replied: “It is a surreal day”.

Back to ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, Smith then confirmed that “it’s almost finished”.

“Reeves [Gabrels] our guitar player has come over from America for the day just to finish a couple of solos, I’ve got to finish a couple of vocals,” he revealed. “Essentially it’s a 12 track album. It’s there, it’s kind of half-mixed and half-finished. It’s a weird thing. It’s kind of evolved over the last two years. It hasn’t always been a good thing to have been left alone with it. You pick at it, like picking at seams, and everything falls apart.

Recommended

Smith continued: “It’ll be worth the wait. I think it’s the best thing we’ve done, but then I would say that. I’m not doing an Oasis when I say that, ‘IT’S THE BEST FOOKIN’ ALBUM’. A lot of the songs are difficult to sing, and that’s why it’s taken me a while.”

Discussing the themes and character of the long-awaited follow-up to 2008’s ‘ 4:13 Dream ‘, Smith said that the album “doesn’t have very much light on it” and that it sounds “more like ‘Disintegration’ than ‘Head On The Door’.”

“It’s pretty relentless, which will appeal to the hardcore of our audience, but I don’t think we’ll be getting any Number One singles off it or anything like that!” he laughed. “It’s been quite harrowing, like it has for everyone else.

“I’ve been more privileged than most, but lockdown and COVID has affected me in as much as I’ve lost an entire generation of aunts and uncles in under a year. It’s things like that which have informed the way I’ve been with the record.”

Smith added: “Essentially we recorded two albums in 2019. I’ve been trying to finish two at the same time, which is pretty much impossible. One is nearly ready to go.”

As for the mysterious second record that they’ve been working on, Smith said Cure fans would likely have to wait a little longer to hear that.

“While there are a handful of really good songs, I’ve kind of fallen out of love with others so we’re going to have to record another four or five perhaps,” he said. “If it gets finished, it’s very upbeat. It’s the flip-side to the first one.

“I can’t wait to sing it, actually. I feel quite distraught singing the same songs over and over again.”

Speaking of accepting their Ivor Icon Award with Gallup, with whom he has been part of The Cure’s line-up since 1978 and 1979 respectively, Smith explained what the prize meant and why they songwriting collaboration worked.

“It is a strange one. I was thinking about it when we were walking up to collect the award – it felt strange to be leaving the other three at the table,” he said. “We got an NME Award a couple of years back for Best Festival Headliner . That meant a lot because we don’t often get recognised for that side of what we do live, but this is completely different.

“For me, it’s really lovely that Simon is up there with me. It’s criminal really, because he’s been there all the time.”

As for how they work together when penning material, he said: “With Simon, we send demos back and forth. Because I write the words, I decide what songs are going to progress and which ones aren’t. Often it’s the case that with hindsight I pick the wrong songs.

“I’ve just finished doing the ‘Wish’ remaster, and there are so many of Simon’s demos that never got past the demo stage and remained instrumental – purely because I couldn’t think of any words for them. That’s really sad, because some of them were really great!

“They’re all coming out as instrumentals, and I think there are about 36 unreleased songs coming out on the package. That’s the same every time we do anything. There’s always loads of music, and a lot of it is Simon’s. I just run out of words!”

Fans will get the chance to hear new material live at The Cure’s upcoming 2022 UK and European tour. 

Asked if the gigs will be their legendary usual three hours plus in length, he replied: “Not if my band has anything to do with it! It will be slightly shorter than in the past, if I’m honest. It will be about two and a quarter hours, I think. That’s short!

“There will be a smattering of new stuff as we play through. Essentially the strength of the band live is the catalogue and the songs that we’ve got so it would be pretty dumb to play an hour of new music. Although some people would prefer us to do that!”

Smith added: “The size of the venues we’re playing, you need to engage everyone in the venue. You can’t just concentrate on the handful of people down the front. If it happens it’ll be great…that’s if Europe exists by the time we start…”

Last August,  Gallup announced that he had left The Cure . However, in October, he told a fan on social media that he was still a member of the band . The bassist appeared on stage with Smith at the Ivors tonight, although he did not make an acceptance speech.

Smith’s last public appearances were for the BandLab NME Awards 2022 – where he  picked up the Best Song In The UK Award for his Chvrches collaboration ‘How Not To Drown’ and after performed the track together live for the first time along with a cover of The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven ‘ – and then again for a repeat performance of the songs with Chvrches at their Brixton Academy headline gig a week later .

• Related Topics
• Robert Smith

You May Also Like

Liam gallagher and john squire on their long-awaited collaboration: “after all the dust settles, it’s 10 great songs”, ‘back to black’ review: marisa abela makes a worthy amy winehouse, kanii: “i don’t hold back when i express how i feel”, ‘fallout’ review: learn to love the bomb in this fun yet flawed adaptation, grief empowered actor abubakar salim – now he’s making a video game about it, more stories, listen to trent reznor and atticus ross’ boys noize remix of ‘challengers’ score, fans think jojo siwa’s new single is a scrapped miley cyrus demo as she responds to comparisons, ‘crow country’ taps into ‘resident evil’ and ‘silent hill’ to create a ’90s-inspired nightmare, coachella 2024 live: check out all of the action as it happens, maribou state cancel shows as chris davids issues statement on rare brain condition, amy winehouse’s ex-husband blake fielder-civil reacts to new film ‘back to black’.

The Cure announces 30-date “Shows of a Lost World” North American tour

The Cure this morning announced its first North American tour in seven years, with plans to bring its “Shows of a Lost World” trek to the U.S. and Canada for 30 dates beginning in May, with three nights apiece in New York City and Los Angeles.

The tour opens May 10 in New Orleans and runs through July 1 in Miami, with dates in between in Dallas, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Montreal, Atlanta and more, plus three-night stands at the Hollywood Bowl and Madison Square Garden. The Twilight Sad, once again, will open all shows.

See full dates below.

Tickets will be available through a Ticketmaster Verified Fan Sale beginning Wednesday, March 15, and it will require pre-registration to access. Fans will be able to register for a maximum of five different shows, and registration closes at 10 a.m. Pacific Monday, March 13. Head over here for details and to register.

In an email to fans, bandleader Robert Smith — in his trademark all-caps — makes this promise:

THE CURE HAVE AGREED ALL TICKET PRICES, AND APART FROM A FEW HOLLYWOOD BOWL CHARITY SEATS, THERE WILL BE NO ‘PLATINUM’ OR ‘DYNAMICALLY PRICED’ TICKETS ON THIS TOUR

The Cure’s touring lineup had been stable for more than a decade, with Smith joined by his longest-serving bandmate, bassist Simon Gallup, as well as drummer Jason Cooper, keyboardist Roger O’Donnell and guitarist Reeves Gabrels. Smith surprised fans last fall by bringing back guitarist/keyboardist Perry Bamonte, who played in the band from 1990 to 2005.

Smith has been teasing the completion and release of The Cure’s 14th studio album Songs of a Lost World — the group’s first since 2008’s 4.13 Dream — for more than a year, at one point suggesting it would be released before the band embarked on a lengthy European tour last fall .

That didn’t happen, although the group performed a number of new songs live, including “Alone,” “Endsong,” “And Nothing is Forever,” “I Can Never Say Goodbye” and “A Fragile Thing.”

The Cure’s European tour last year marked the group’s first live shows since before the pandemic, when The Cure followed up its Pasadena Daydream festival in Southern California in September 2019 with appearances at the Austin City Limits Festival in Texas and a one-off stadium concert in Mexico City.

The band has not toured the U.S. since 2016.

Here are The Cure’s new dates:

The Cure 2023 tour dates

May 10: New Orleans, LA — Smoothie King Center May 12: Houston, TX — Toyota Center May 13: Dallas, TX — Dos Equis Pavilion May 14: Austin, TX — Moody Center May 16: Albuquerque, NM — Isleta Amphitheater May 18: Phoenix, AZ — Desert Diamond Arena May 20: San Diego, CA — NICU Amphitheatre May 23: Los Angeles, CA — Hollywood Bowl May 24: Los Angeles, CA — Hollywood Bowl May 25: Los Angeles, CA — Hollywood Bowl May 27: San Francisco, CA — Shoreline Amphitheatre June 1: Seattle, WA — Climate Pledge Arena June 2: Vancouver, BC — Rogers Arena June 4: Salt Lake City, UT — Vivint Smart Home Arena June 6: Denver, CO — Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre June 8: Minneapolis St. Paul, MN — Xcel Energy Center June 10: Chicago, IL — United Center June 11: Cleveland, OH — Blossom Music Center June 13: Detroit, MI — Pine Knob Music Theatre June 14: Toronto, ON — Budweiser Stage June 16: Montreal, QC — Bell Centre June 18: Boston, MA — Xfinity Center June 20: New York, NY — Madison Square Garden June 21: New York, NY — Madison Square Garden June 22: New York, NY — Madison Square Garden June 24: Philadelphia, PA — Wells Fargo Center June 25: Columbia, MD — Merriweather Post Pavilion June 27: Atlanta, GA — State Farm Arena June 29: Tampa, FL — Amalie Arena July 1: Miami, FL — Miami-Dade Arena

PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS

• The Cure’s deluxe reissue of “Wish” to include 21 unreleased demos, “Lost Wishes” EP
• The Cure’s new album “Songs of a Lost World” could be out by September
• Robert Smith says “MY DESIRE TO RELEASE A NEW ALBUM IS OVERWHELMING!”
• The Cure unveils 44-date European tour in 2022, but don’t expect U.S. dates before 2023
• The Cure turns Pasadena Daydream into ‘the best day of the summer’ with scorching set
• The Cure to release 6-disc ‘40 Live: Curaetion-25 + Anniversary’ audio/video box set
• The absolute best of The Cure: All 225 songs ranked by Slicing Up Eyeballs’ readers

Leave a Comment Cancel

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Address

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Search Slicing Up Eyeballs

Slicing Up Eyeballs interviews

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

The Cure’s Robert Smith Continues His New Part-Time Job as Ticket-Price Enforcement Officer

By Jem Aswad

Executive Editor, Music

• Taylor Swift Songs Return to TikTok 1 day ago
• Blackpink’s Lisa and Her Company Lloud Co. Partner With RCA Records 2 days ago
• Babyface to Play Three Weekends at Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino in Las Vegas 2 days ago

Over the past few weeks it’s been mortifying, amusing and ultimately inspiring to witness the almost real-time reactions of the Cure’s founder/frontman Robert Smith to the hell-on-earth that is the concert-ticket purchasing process — and roll up his sleeves and do something about it.

Popular on Variety

“Everyone with a previously issued but unsuccessful Verified Fan code from any market will have first option to buy tickets – sales open fri 7th Apr @ 10am local time – limit of x4 tickets per person & all tickets non-transferrable. Vf fans will be notified on thu 6th Apr,” he wrote in one typical post.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON’T BUY TICKETS IF YOU DON’T INTEND GOING TO THE SHOW!!! IF THERE ARE STILL TICKETS LEFT THERE WILL BE A PUBLIC ONSALE FROM SATURDAY 8TH APRIL. DETAILS TO FOLLOW #ShowsOfALostWorld2023 3/5 — ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) April 5, 2023

However, he has continued his habit of speaking emotionally about the process even as he gets deep in the weeds. “FYI these are our Portland, OR ticket prices – a few of the front rows are a bit more expensive* (this helps ‘subsidise’ the cheaper tickets) $130.00 $110.00 $90.00 $70.00 $50.00 $30.00 usd… *front 14 rows go from $150.00 up to $230.00 (for row 1)… X,” adding:

“I could go on… The main point is, we decided the ticket prices, and are content that they are fair – we don’t want to price anybody out of the show. Any major artist can do the same. But we cannot control the fees that are added… Hope everyone that wants a ticket gets one.”

VIP+ Survey Results: Current Ticketing Practices Irk Consumers

More From Our Brands

Jane fonda on politicians backed by big oil: ‘vote them out’, what the watch world could learn from this year’s daring, wondrous women’s collections, splash and sportico partner for $100k masters tiers contest, be tough on dirt but gentle on your body with the best soaps for sensitive skin, tvline items: legacies’ matthew davis joins nbc pilot, lifetime’s nicole brown simpson docuseries and more, verify it's you, please log in.

Things you buy through our links may earn  Vox Media  a commission.

Ticketmaster Pissed Off the Wrong Goth

Update, April 3: Sure, boys don’t cry — but Robert Smith is giving Cure scalpers a reason to. The Cure leader revealed he has gotten around 7,000 ticket sales canceled on Ticketmaster owing to scalping suspicions — tickets either already being posted for resale or being purchased with fake accounts. (Fans whose tickets got caught in the spree can contact Ticketmaster, he added.) The Cure is only allowing tickets to be resold at face value in an attempt to combat scalping. Smith went on to offer another “weekend thought” on Twitter about the good fight he’s fighting: “This ongoing TM ‘conversation’ is not taking place in a vacuum … The system that values profit over people is really what needs to be changed.”

As of March 17, in an unprecedented act of submission, Ticketmaster is giving partial refunds to Cure ticket-holders to lessen the burden of fee costs. Smith, who tweeted out the update at the time, said the company admitted to its unscrupulous behavior. “After further conversation, Ticketmaster have agreed with us that many of the fees being charged are unduly high, and as a gesture of goodwill have offered a $10 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for the lowest ticket price transaction,” he wrote. “And a $5 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for other ticket price transactions for all Cure shows at all venues.” People who already purchased a ticket will receive an automatic refund. He’s given us one hell of an antidote, that’s for sure.

Original story published on March 15 follows.

Robert Smith is sickened; if only there were a Cure. Hours after Ticketmaster began the “verified fan” process on March 15 to distribute tickets for the band’s first American tour in years — an additional layer of security that Smith insisted upon to prevent scalpers and astronomical prices — the front man wrote an angry screed against the company for the mandatory fees they snuck in for buyers. “I am as sickened as you all are by today’s Ticketmaster ‘fees’ debacle,” he wrote in an all-caps Twitter thread. “To be very clear, the artist has no way to limit them. I have been asking how they are justified. If I get anything coherent by way of an answer I will let you all know … There are tickets available, it is just a very slow process. I will be back if I get anything serious on the TM fees.”

One particular tweet gained virality for showcasing the extent of the company’s malpractice: A fan’s reasonable ticket price of $20 was more than doubled due to processing fees and charges. Despite Smith and the band eschewing a demand-driven “dynamic pricing” payment structure for the tour, which most recently enraged Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift’s respective fanbases , as well as designating all tickets nontransferable, Smith admitted that scalpers were still able to get a fair share of tickets for the resale market. However, StubHub pulled those listings in states where there are no laws protecting the hustle. (He also called dynamic pricing a scam , which, indeed so.) This Cure saga serves as a reminder that the Biden administration is attempting to weaken the power of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which hold a substantial monopoly over the concert industry. In February, the White House proposed the Junk Fee Protection Act , aiming to “prohibit excessive fees, require the fees to be disclosed in the ticket price, and mandate disclosure of any ticket holdbacks that diminish available supply.” Whether it’s on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or that other day.

• respect the classics
• robert smith
• ticketmaster

Most Viewed Stories

• Cinematrix No. 35: April 12, 2024
• A Hidden Sexual-Assault Scandal at the New York Philharmonic
• Fallout Series-Premiere Recap: Orange Colored Sky
• No One’s Watching the Best Comedy on Netflix
• The 10 Best Movies and TV Shows to Watch This Weekend
• Summer House Recap: Say Yeesh to the Dress
• American Horror Story: Delicate Recap: Brooklyn Witches

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

• Lower case letters (a-z)
• Upper case letters (A-Z)
• Numbers (0-9)
• Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

It all started in 1976 as Easy Cure, formed by Robert Smith (vocals, guitar) along with schoolmates Michael Dempsey (bass), Lol Tolhurst (drums) and local guitar hero Porl Thompson. They began writing and demoing their own songs almost immediately, playing throughout 1977 in Southern England to an ever growing army of fans. In 1978 the 'Easy' was dropped, along with Porl, and an eager trio now known simply as The Cure were quickly signed to Chris Parry's new Fiction label.

In May 1979 their debut album Three Imaginary Boys was released to great acclaim, and as the band toured extensively around the UK, the singles “Boys Don't Cry” and “Jumping Someone Else's Train” were released.

Michael left the band at the end of the year, and Simon Gallup (bass) and Matthieu Hartley (keyboards) joined. In early 1980 the Cure quartet embarked on an exploration of the darker side of Robert's song writing, and emerged with the minimalist classic album Seventeen Seconds, along with their first bona-fide 'hit single' “A Forest.”

After an intense world tour Matthieu left the group, and in early 1981 the trio recorded an album of mournful atmospheric soundscapes entitled Faith, which included another successful single in “Primary.” The band then set out on a second global trek, named 'The Picture Tour', during which they released the non-album single “Charlotte Sometimes.”

In 1982 The Cure went back into the studio, and their increasingly ugly fascination with despair and decay culminated in the unrelenting sonic attack of the Pornography album. An intensely volatile tour ensued, and the single “The Hanging Garden” was released just as Simon left the band.

After pushing the limits of excess, Robert felt he had to change things, and did so by 'going pop' again. Rejuvenated, the Cure duo released their first real dance single, the cheesy “Let's Go To Bed,” and during the making of the accompanying video forged a colourful and lasting relationship with director Tim Pope.

The band continued into 1983 with the groovy electronic dance of “The Walk,” followed by the demented cartoon jazz of “The Lovecats.” All 3 singles and accompanying B-sides were then compiled and re-released as the Japanese Whispers album.

In 1984 The Top album was released, a strange hallucinogenic mix, which contained the infectiously psychedelic single “The Caterpillar.” The world Top Tour saw the band expand to a quintet, with the addition of Andy Anderson (drums) and Phil Thornalley (bass), and the return of Porl Thompson (guitar).

The new Cure sound was captured live for the album Concert. Andy and Phil left soon after the end of the tour, and were replaced by Boris Williams (drums) and further returnee Simon Gallup (bass).

This new incarnation started work on 1985's The Head On The Door album with a very real sense of 'something happening'... The vibrant hit single “Inbetween Days” was followed up by “Close To Me,” and the ensuing world tour paved the way for the massive success of the singles collection album Standing On A Beach in 1986. That summer saw the band headline the Glastonbury Festival for the first time, and a year of extensive gigs and festivals was crowned by Tim Pope's live concert cinema film The Cure In Orange.

In 1987 The Cure brought out Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, an immense double album of extreme and extraordinary stylistic range, and with the arrival of Roger O'Donnell on keyboards the Cure sextet traveled the world with 'The Kissing Tour', enjoying 4 more hit singles along the way.

The wonderfully atmospheric Disintegration album was demoed in 1988 and released in 1989, and despite being a work of powerful brooding grandeur, it too gave rise to 4 hit singles. The awesome 'Prayer Tour' that followed, with the band back down to a quintet following the departure of Lol Tolhurst, included some of The Cure's best performances to date, and was captured live for the album Entreat.

In early 1990 Roger O'Donnell left the group, and was replaced by long-time band friend Perry Bamonte, just in time for a series of headlining European festival shows that included the band's second Glastonbury. The album Mixed Up was released, supported by the re-mixed singles “Never Enough,” “Close To Me” and “A Forest,” and in 1991 The Cure at last won some long overdue 'home recognition' with a Brit Award for 'Best British Group'.

In 1992 they produced Wish, a richly diverse multi-faceted guitar driven album hailed by some as their best work to date. It spawned 3 fabulous hit singles, and the glorious 'Wish Tour' that followed was a worldwide sell-out. The sheer power of the shows inspired the release of two live works in 1993, the album and concert cinema film Show and the more fan oriented Paris album. Immediately after the tour ended, guitarist Porl Thompson left the band again (this time with a smile!), and The Cure headlined the XFM 'Great Xpectations' Show in London's Finsbury Park as a quartet. The band also contributed ”Burn” to the film ‘The Crow’ and covered “Purple Haze” for the Hendrix tribute album 'Stone Free'.

In 1994 Boris Williams decided to move on, and in early 1995 Jason Cooper took up residency behind the drum kit, with Roger O'Donnell rejoining once more on keyboards. Work on the next album was interspersed with recording “Dredd Song” for the film ‘Judge Dredd’, a cover of Bowie's “Young Americans” for an XFM album, and headlining several major European festivals, including the 25th Glastonbury. The Wild Mood Swings album was released in 1996, and went straight into almost every top ten around the world. The Cure hit the road once more with 'The Swing Tour', their longest to date, releasing 4 singles along the way.

Galore, the follow up singles and video compilation to Standing On A Beach, which included the new single "Wrong Number", a full on dance epic made in collaboration with Bowie's guitarist Reeves Gabrels, was released in 1997, after which work took place in 1998 on a variety of projects, including “More than This” for the ‘X Files’ album, and a memorable appearance by Robert in the TV cartoon show ‘South Park’! In 1999 the band completed the recording and mixing of what many regarded as their best studio album so far, the ‘Grammy Nominated’ Bloodflowers.

With it's release in 2000 the band set off on the massive world-wide 'Dream Tour' - playing to more than a million people in 9 months.

2001 saw the long awaited release of the Cure's Greatest Hits album, which featured all the band's biggest selling singles along with 2 new songs, the elegiac “Cut Here” and the ebullient “Just Say Yes,” a duet with Saffron. This year also saw the end of the group's relationship with Fiction Records, the label they had been instrumental in starting 23 years before.

In 2003 another chapter of The Cure story opened, the band signing a global album deal with the Geffen label. 2004 saw the Fiction release of Join the Dots, a 4cd Box set compiled by Robert of all the B-sides and Rarities, followed by the widely acclaimed new album The Cure, co-produced with the renowned Ross Robinson. 3 singles, “The End Of The World”, “alt.end” and “Taking Off” all hit big, and another hugely successful world tour ensued, with the 23 date North American 'Curiosa Festival' leg especially notable for seeing the band supported by a number of hand picked younger bands including Interpol, Mogwai, The Rapture and Muse.

The year ended with an MTV Icon Award presented at a special televised London show.

In 2005 Perry Bamonte and Roger O’Donnell left the band and Porl Thompson joined for a third time. The quartet’s debut show was headlining Live 8 Paris, followed by a number of other summer European Festivals. The first four Cure albums (Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography) were re-released, with Robert providing 'rarities' for Deluxe Edition extras CD's, as part of an ongoing campaign to re-master and re-issue all the Cure albums. Immediately after closing a week of Teenage Cancer Trust Shows at the Royal Albert Hall in April 2006, the band started recording their 13th studio album, breaking off in June to allow Robert to work on a live DVD. In August the second set of re-releases (The Top, The Head On The Door, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, along with 1983’s Glove album Blue Sunshine) was released, each album a 2CD Deluxe Edition. In November Festival 2005, a 155 minute 5.1 DVD comprising a 30 song selection of live performances captured the previous summer by a mix of fans, crew and ‘on-the-night-big-screen cameras’, was put out.

Spring 2007 saw The Cure headline the Miami Ultra Music Festival before heading back into the studio to continue work on new songs. The 11 show Australasian leg of 'The 4Tour' kicked off in July with a headline slot at the Fuji Rock Festival (the band’s first performance in Japan since 1984!), before moving on through Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. In October the band headlined the San Francisco Download Festival, before playing 3 wild nights in Mexico City at the Palacio de los Deportes, followed by an outstanding performance at the MTV Latin America Awards.

In October, 2 weeks prior to release, the new album 4:13 Dream was performed in its 13 song entirety at a live broadcast MTV event in the Piazza San Giovanni in Rome before an estimated crowd of 75,000 and a TV audience of 10 million!

The reaction to the event was awesome, with many critics and fans acclaiming the band's 13th studio album as a bona fide classic. The Cure finished the year in LA, playing a legendary 'Myspace Secret Show' at the Troubadour, followed by a memorable closing set at KROQ's 'Almost Acoustic Christmas'.

February 2009 saw the band celebrating their NME 'Godlike Genius' Award with two rousing shows performed at the Brixton Academy and the O2 Arena, followed in March by yet another visit to the west coast of America for an intimate performance at the Las Vegas Pearl Theatre, and a stirringly defiant broken-handed headline slot at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival! Porl Thompson left the band for the last time, and the rest of the year was taken up with a number of unusual collaborations, personal projects and work on restoring, transferring and digitizing the entire back catalogue. In May 2010 a re-mastered Disintegration was re-released, Robert once again providing 'rarities' for a Deluxe Edition extras CD, as well as new mixes of the whole album played live in London 1989, released as Entreat Plus. More unusual collaborations, personal projects and continuing work on restoring, transferring and digitizing filled the remainder of the year...

May 2011 saw the band fly to Australia to play two nights at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Vivid Festival. Initially planned to mark the 30th anniversary of the Faith album, the Reflections show did far more. First a Cure trio of Robert, Simon and Jason performed the Three Imaginary Boys album, then Roger O'Donnell rejoined the band and The Cure quartet played the Seventeen Seconds album, and finally Lol Tolhurst stepped back onstage with the band for the first time in 23 years to perform Faith and assorted B-sides and singles. Both extraordinary nights were filmed with a future DVD release in mind...

In September The Cure quartet headlined Bestival, a unique 150 minute performance filmed and broadcast live in 3D, and released as a charity CD Bestival Live 2011, and in November the band, once again abetted by Lol, played 7 more sold-out Reflections shows - 1 in the Royal Albert Hall, 3 in the Pantages Theatre LA and 3 in the Beacon Theatre NYC.

In May 2012 renowned guitarist Reeves Gabrels joined The Cure in time for 'Summercure 2012', a run of 19 major European summer festival headline spots, starting at Pinkpop and ending at Eire's Electric Picnic, including epic sets at Roskilde, Werchter, Hurricane, the bands first ever show in Russia at the Maxidrom Festival, Les Eurockeenes, Vieilles Charrues, Paleo and Reading & Leeds along the way. All the shows were filmed in various formats... "with a future DVD release in mind"!

April 2013 saw The Cure flying out to Rio de Janeiro for the first show of a stadium tour of Latin America, with debut performances in Paraguay, Chile, Peru and Colombia, a return to Buenos Aires for the first time in 26 years and a truly monumental final 50 song 257 minute Mexican concert to celebrate Robert's birthday, as a 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocked the Foro Sol around them! All 9 shows were filmed by Tim Pope... In July the band set off on a 13 day trip around the world billed as 'The Great Circle Tour', headlining South Korea's Ansan Rock, Japan's Fuji Rock, Chicago's Lollapalooza and Canada's Osheaga festivals, via another inaugural show in Honolulu, Hawaii! In October the band returned to the USA to close out two consecutive Saturday nights at the Austin City Limits festival, playing in Monterrey and El Paso in between days... In November The Cure played their final concert of the year, a stirring final appearance at New Orleans infamous Voodoo festival...

In March 2014 The Cure played two colossal nights at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust, and in May they travelled back to the USA to headline the Bottlerock Napa Valley Festival. In September they headlined the North American Riot Festivals in Toronto, Chicago and Denver, and in December the band made surprise appearances at both nights of Brian Cox and Robin Inces 'Christmas Compendium of Reason' shows at the Eventim London Apollo, before playing three magical 'Top heavy' concerts of their own in the same venue. 2015 saw another strange assortment of personal projects, unexpected collaborations and ongoing ventures...

After a year away from live performance, the band came back with a bang - 'The Cure World Tour 2016'!!! Starting in May with a couple of nights at the New Orleans Lakefront Arena, with support from The Twilight Sad the band played 87 different songs for more than a million people at 76 shows in 22 countries, never playing the same setlist twice!

Highlights included three phenomenal concerts at The Hollywood Bowl, three more at Madison Square Garden, another riotous trip ‘Down Under’, a stomping return to Bestival IOW, all crowned by a glorious grand finale: three December nights at the SSE Arena Wembley London, the band playing music for more than 9 delirious hours!

2017 was spent remixing/remastering outstanding back catalogue albums, as well as writing and demoing new songs, and 2018 continued in the same vein. In April a re-mastered Mixed Up was re-released, Robert once again providing 'rarities' for the Deluxe Edition extras CD in the form of Torn Down, a collection of 16 brand new remixes. June saw Robert Smith’s Meltdown - the 25th iteration of the world renowned Festival - a 10 day 90 band spectacular spread across 6 venues at London’s Southbank Centre, climaxing in the Royal festival Hall with a unique appearance by The Cure (as ‘CURÆTION-25’) performing ‘From There To Here And Back Again’ - a ‘concept set’ showcasing 2 tracks from every one of The Cure’s studio albums, as well as a couple of as yet unreleased songs. In July the band headlined a very special anniversary event in front of a 65,000 capacity crowd in London’s Hyde Park, celebrating almost to the day the 40th anniversary of their first ever concert as The Cure. It was an amazing experience, and generally acclaimed as one of the best shows the band had ever played. Once again the performances were filmed in various formats, with editing and mixing taking place throughout the rest of the year.

In February 2019 The Cure went into Rockfield Studios to record 13 new songs and rehearse for what was destined to be a very intense year. In March the band performed in South Africa for the very first time, followed by a trip to the Barclays Centre NYC where they were introduced by Trent Reznor and finally inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall Of Fame! May saw The Cure in Australia performing a 30th Anniversary Disintegration show over 5 nights at the Sydney Opera House, and in June the band commenced a 3 month run of 25 Festival headlines, including Pinkpop, Roskilde, Werchter, Rock en Seine and Fuji (with Simon Gallup’s son Eden on bass), as well as first time performances in Croatia, Serbia and Romania, a record equalling 4th time at Glastonbury, and a final epic show at the Cure curated Pasadena Daydream Festival. In September the band went back into Rockfield Studios to record another 7 new songs, and October saw them return to the Americas for another 2 headline appearances at the Austin City Limits Festival (the second with Eden Gallup again on bass), the shows bracketing a monumental 36 song 3 hour epic at a sold out Foro Sol in Mexico City. October also saw the 2018 concerts, ‘Curætion-25’ and ‘Anniversary’ released together as 40 Live in cinemas and various formats around the world. In recognition of the band’s amazing run of shows the previous Summer, February 2020 saw The Cure winning Best Festival Headliner at the NME awards in London, and in March… Covid! The rest of a very hot and very weird year was spent on more unusual collaborations, personal projects and continuing work on new songs, with 2021 continuing along the same lines...

In September 2022 the band reconvened for rehearsals, and set off in October for the 10 week European leg of their Shows Of A Lost World Tour, with support once again from The Twilight Sad. Returning after 17 years, Perry Bamonte rejoined The Cure on guitar and keyboards for all 46 sold out concerts, culminating in another 3 fabulous nights at SSE Arena Wembley London. In May 2023 The Cure embark on the North American leg of their Shows Of A Lost World Tour…

Thank you for signing up for updates, an email has been sent to you to confirm your address.

You can now close this window

"He was drunk out of his mind and he asked me to make out with him": Billy Corgan on how he became a fan of The Cure... and the first time he met Robert Smith

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman and Cure leader went on to become fast friends

Billy Corgan has long been a paid-up devotee of The Cure . The Smashing Pumpkins frontman enlisted Robert Smith for a collaboration on his debut solo record TheFutureEmbrace , the pair duetting on a gothy reworking of The Bee Gees’ To Love Somebody . The Pumpkins have also been known to cover their favourite Cure tunes now and then, with guitarist James Iha taking vocal duties on both their stripped-down cover of A Night Like This and a live version of Friday I’m In Love in 2018.

Speaking to this writer a few years ago, Corgan remembered the moment he became a fan. “I was dating a goth girl who was obsessed with The Cure,” he recalled. “She spoke about Robert Smith like he was her friend, which I’ve found through the years is very common with Cure fans, they see Robert as almost like their buddy.”

At the time, The Cure were in their mainstream pop era and having a big hit in In Between Days , Corgan said, so he was surprised when she stuck on their early masterpiece Pornography and he discovered a much darker band that appealed to him more. “It was a totally different vibe,” he said. “She put it on and One Hundred Years , the first thing you hear, you think, ‘this isn’t the band I thought they were, it isn’t the cute cuddly version’, it was this other side of the band. It made a big impression on me. This song is a little bit like Tomorrow Never Knows in that it doesn’t really change, it’s very hypnotic and it’s unusual that songs like that tend to work. I think The Cure is vastly under-appreciated. As idiosyncratic as they are, they have different modalities that are quite successful. Robert is an ace tunesmith, but then they’re totally able to do art-rock and do it well.”

Corgan went on to reminisce about the first time he encountered the man he would come to call a friend. “The first time I met Robert it was a pretty wild night,” he laughed. “He was drunk out of his mind and he asked me to make out with him. He ended up throwing up on my shoes. It was a memorable introduction! The next time I saw him, he just looked at me with those sleepy eyes and laughed, like, ‘That’s the way we roll in Cure world…’. When I think of The Cure, I think of a lot of alcohol being consumed. I’ve had some wild, fun nights with them.”

Get the Louder Newsletter

The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.

Niall Doherty is a writer and editor whose work can be found in Classic Rock, The Guardian, Music Week, FourFourTwo, on Apple Music and more. Formerly the Deputy Editor of Q magazine, he co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former Q colleagues Ted Kessler and Chris Catchpole. He is also Reviews Editor at Record Collector. Over the years, he's interviewed some of the world's biggest stars, including Elton John, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Robert Plant and more. Radiohead was only for eight minutes but he still counts it.

Evergrey detail brand new album Theories Of Emptiness

"You have no idea the personal battles I was going through." Ash Costello reveals deeply personal reasons New Years Day pulled out of festivals in 2023, fires back at fans who criticised them

"I want to keep the attention on Ukraine." Watch the moving new video for Within Temptation's latest single A Fool's Parade, filmed in Kyiv

Most Popular

By Dave Everley 11 April 2024

By Fraser Lewry 10 April 2024

By Liz Scarlett 10 April 2024

By Paul Brannigan 10 April 2024

By Simon Young 10 April 2024

By Paul Travers 10 April 2024

By Chris Roberts 10 April 2024

By Polly Glass 10 April 2024

By Rob Hughes 10 April 2024

By Perran Helyes 9 April 2024

By Matt Mills 9 April 2024

• EUR (€)
• GBP (£)
•   Contact us

• Currency : 
• US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Russian Ruble Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Danish Krone Japanese Yen Norwegian Krone Swedish Krona
• Toll Free 0800 011 2023
• US and Canada United Kingdom Australia Brazil Netherlands Russia Sweden
• Tours by Region Moscow Saint Petersburg Golden Ring Lake Baikal Murmansk Siberia & Far East Sochi & Southern Russia Amsterdam Berlin Copenhagen Gdansk Georgia Helsinki Kaliningrad Kamchatka Karelia Kazan Klaipeda Nizhny Novgorod Northern Europe Oslo Perm Riga Ryazan Stockholm Tallinn Ulan-Ude Veliky Novgorod Vilnius Vladivostok Volgograd Yakutia Yekaterinburg
• Why Choose our Day Tours
• One Day Tours Two Days Tours Three Day Tours
• About Russian tours Private vs Group Tours
• Tours by Region Moscow & St.Peterburg Moscow Saint Petersburg Golden Ring Lake Baikal Trans-Siberian Siberia & Far East Altai Kaliningrad Kamchatka Karelia Kazan Perm Veliky Novgorod Yakutia Yekaterinburg
• Tour Types Small Group Tours Private Tour Theme Tour
• Moscow events St. Petersburg events Events archive
• Events by type Ballet Opera Concert Show All types
• Top theaters Bolshoi theatre - Historic Stage Bolshoi theatre - Small Stage Mariinsky Theater Mariinsky Theatre - Mariinsky II Mikhailovsky Theater
• Direction Moscow - St.Petersburg St. Petersburg - Moscow
• Ships MS Rostropovich MS Volga Dream MS Anton Chekhov MS General Lavrinenkov MS Georgy Chicherin MS Ivan Bunin MS Konstantin Fedin MS Konstantin Korotkov MS Kronshtadt MS Maxim Gorky MS Nikolay Chernyshevsky MS Nizhny Novgorod MS Rachmaninoff MS River Victoria MS Scenic Tsar MS Tikhy Don (MS Alexander Borodin) MS Vasiliy Kandinsky MS Zosima Shashkov Mustai Karim
• Russian Visa Invitation
• Moscow The Kremlin Red Square Golden Ring Tverskaya Street Grand Kremlin Palace (The Kremlin) Christ the Savior Novodevichiy Convent Moscow Subway The Bolshoi Theater Armoury Chamber (The Kremlin) St. Basil's Cathedral The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts Yury Gagarin Cosmonauts training center
• Saint Petersburg Hermitage Museum Peterhof Catherine's Palace (Tsarskoe Selo) Pavlovsk St. Isaac Cathedral Peter and Paul Fortress Nevsky Prospect Yusupov Palace Savior on Blood Amber room Bronze Horseman (Senate square) Hermitage Theatre Kazansky Cathedral Kronstadt Palace Square Spit of the Vasilievsky Island
• 1/7th of the World Volga River Siberia Baikal Kazan Sochi Smolensk Nizhny Novgorod Kaliningrad Ulyanovsk Verkhoturova Island
• uVisitRussia Why travel with UVisitRussia Customers' Testimonials Contact details Cancellations & Changes
• Russian Travel News
• Russian travel advice Advices while packing Advices while travelling

Tour of famous Moscow Metro. Explore the Underground World! (2 hours)

• Add to wishlist

On this tour you take in some of Moscow's most important and highly decorated stations. Carrying up to 7 million passengers a day and covering almost the entire city, the Moscow Metro is one of the most extensive mass transit systems in the world. It's famous for the fine examples of social-realism which decorate many of its stations.

Visit some of the most important stations and get the chance to admire spectacular baroque-style ceilings, marble statues, busts of Communist heroes, stained glass windows, and ceiling mosaics depicting the bright Soviet future. Visit the most remarkable stations like Komsomolskaya, Kurskaya, Kievskaya and others, with the experienced guide who will bring you a full insight into their fascinating history.

• Tour of Moscow's Metro system visiting beautifully decorated key stations on the network.
• System that carries more than 7 million passengers per day
• Views of the most opulently designed tunnels & platforms
• Significance to the country—known as the “People's Palace”
• History & stories relayed by an expert local guide

If you wonder why the Moscow metro is considered one the most beautiful in the world, this tour is made for you!

Important info

Ask a travel expert.

• Professional English-speaking guide assistance. Other languages upon request (additional charge may apply)
• Hotel pick-up and drop-off
• Personal expenses
• Gratuities (optional)
• Food and drinks
• Confirmation will be received at time of booking
• Children must be accompanied by an adult

Departure and return point: nearest metro station to your central Moscow hotel  

Departure time:  flexible

Sights included in program

Thanks ! We will reply you in less than 24 hours (usually within 1-2 hours) .

Our flexible payment options allow you to pay 20% of a deposit first and the remaining 80% in 14 days prior to your tour date - payment can be done both online or over the phone. This gives you the peace of mind knowing your spaces are booked on the tours and that you do not miss out on making the most of your time in Russia.

Also you get the best, top-rated and most experienced and knowledgeable hand-picked tour guide appointed on a priority basis. In our experience, exceptional travel experiences are almost always delivered by exceptional people. With that in mind, we utilize a comprehensive approach to select and employ the best tour guides only. Multilingual and well travelled, each possesses deep insight into the diverse attractions and cultural patterns throughout the region. With us guides undergo a rigorous selection process, achieving outstanding knowledge of local culture and language. Rest assured that the best tour guides only will be working on the tours to give you excellent opportunity to explore the best of the sights during both short and long-term stay in Russia.

Once you complete your reservation, we will send you a booking confirmation email. As the day of the tour approaches, our logistics team will provide you with all relevant information for your tour.

Speak  to an expert Call us now

+1 (888) 845-8877

• Shore excursions
• The Best of Two Capitals Private
• The Best of Two Capitals Small Group
• The Best of Two Capitals Gold
• Russia's Ancient Kingdoms
• Cradle of Russia
• Explore Moscow
• Explore St. Petersburg
• Read Customer Testimonials
• Advantages of Traveling with Us

US office 3422 Old Capitol Trail Suite 1252 , Wilmington DE, 19808 USA. US toll-free: 1-888-845-8877 Russian office Ligovsky pr. 57, Office 19, 191040, St. Petersburg, Russia

tel: +7-812-309-5339

© 2001 – 2024 by Northern Crown, Ltd. uVisitRussia  and uVisitRussia.com are registered trademarks .   Terms & Conditions   Privacy Policy

Sign in with your social account

Sign in to our website using your Facebook or Google+ account.

Why Do You Need Our Travel Expert

Contact our experts, and they will help you to plan your best trip to Russia, with attention to every detail!

Our Experts have been in the travel industry for many years, guarantee to offer first class customer service, excellent value for money and unbiased advice. They are standing by to find and build your dream holiday to one of the world's most fascinating destinations - Russia. Your personal Travel Expert will guide you through each stage of the travel process, from choosing a program that fits you best to support during your trip.

Just tell us your e-mail, and we'll take care of everything!

Leave your phone number

Your tour request has been received. Thank you ! We have sent you the confirmation message to  [email]

Please make sure that you receive this message (sometimes e-mail messages may go to the spam/junk mail). If you did not get this message, it means you will not get message with the tours' selection as well. If you use a Yahoo!, Gmail, AOL or Hotmail, we recommend to add  [email protected]   to your address book.

We recommend to leave your phone number. If we will not heard back that you received the e-mail with the tours' selection, we will contact you by phone. And you will not miss the best tour for you.

Thank you ! Your request for Travel Expert assistance has been sent. We will e-mail you within 1 hour.

Sorry, some changes needed

There was a problem with your request.

Moscow Metro Tour - With Ratings

• Moscow Tours
• Sightseeing Tours

Moscow Metro Tour

• See more images

Tour Information

Key Details

• Free Cancellation
• Duration: 1 Hr 30 Mins
• Language: English
• Departure Details : Get to the Biblioteka imeni Lenina (Lenin's Library, Red Line) or Alexandrovsky Sad (Alexander Garden, Light Blue Line) metro station. Use any exit. Find the Kutafia Tower of the Kremlin. The guide .. read more

The Moscow Metro has a long history to it. Also, the city has an extremely beautiful subway. It is very well maintained and is also extremely decorated. Each station and spot has a different artistic aspect to it. On this tour, experience the efficiency of Moscow Metro.

• Roam around the Revolution Square, with magnificent sculptures of the Soviet people
• Visit the Kurskaya Station Lobby, the Hall of Fame of the WWII
• Be awestruck at the Komsomolskaya , with impressive mural mosaics of Russian glorious victories
• See the artistic side of Novoslobodskaya , with the stained glass, although under the ground.

Know More about this tour

Take our Moscow Metro Tour and discover why our subway is recognized as the most beautiful in the world!

"They used to have palaces for kings, we are going to build palaces for the people!" said one of the main architects of the Soviet subway.

With us you will see the most beautiful metro stations in Moscow built under Stalin: Komsomolskaya, Revolution square, Novoslobodskaya, Mayakovskaya. Our guide will tell fascinating stories and secrets hidden underground, urban legends and funny stories.

How many babies were born on the Moscow metro? Where is the secret Metro 2? How deep is the Moscow metro? And where did Stalin give his speech in November 1941? Join out Metro tour and find out!

• Metro ticket

Cancellation Policy

• If you cancel between 0 hrs To 24 hrs before scheduled tour departure, the cancellation charge will be 100%
• If you cancel between 1 days To 180 days before scheduled tour departure, the cancellation charge will be 0%
• Please note that in case of No show, the cancellation charge will be 100% of the listed tour fare.
• Please note tours booked using discount coupon codes will be non refundable.
• Culture & Theme Based Tours
• Food & Nightlife Tours
• Outdoor & Nature Tours
• Aerial Tours
• Adventure & Sports
• Tickets & Passes
• Transfers & Transportation
• Holiday & Seasonal Tours
• Luxury & Special Occasions Tours
• Shore Excursions
• Weddings & Honeymoons Tours
• Day Trips & Excursions
• Multi Day & Extended Tours
• Private & Custom Tours
• Shopping & Fashion
• Walking & Biking Tours
• What to do in Moscow
• Best time of year to visit Moscow
• How to reach Moscow
• Restaurants in Moscow
• City Map of Moscow
• Moscow Itineraries
• Moscow Hotels
• Itinerary Planner

Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock on Making ‘Float On,’ Loving the Cure, and Much More

By Brian Hiatt

Brian Hiatt

“I say all sorts of shit,” says Modest Mouse ‘s Isaac Brock , and thankfully, he’s not wrong. He recently sat down for a refreshingly candid, hilarious, and deep interview with our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast on the tumultuous creation of his band’s 2004 major-label breakthrough, Good News for People Who Love Bad News , which just marked its 20th anniversary with a deluxe edition on streaming now. (To hear the full interview, go  here  for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on  Apple Podcasts  or  Spotify , or just press play below.)

Editor’s picks

The 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term.

You needed to reassemble everyone. And you thought you could get everyone in Portland and kind of live together like the Band. We weren’t trying to be the Monkees or make a concept of it. It boiled down to being fair, which was they lived in Seattle and I lived about three hours south of Portland. So Portland was the nearest place that we each had about the same drive to meet when we got together to write and stuff, which would be like these 10-day runs or whatever. It just so happened that at that time, [late drummer] Jeremiah Green was given some weird fucking medicine for depression. There were side effects out the door. And it spiraled into some sort of not-his-fault, pharmaceutical fucking meltdown. We went in to record a few songs at this place and Jeremy literally lost his mind and he didn’t show up for the first couple of days and then when he did, it was pretty weird.

I tried building a studio. The first one I ever really tried building, and I didn’t look at any books or anything about what sounds good. I just made fucking bad assumptions and made it out of this awful chipboard material that smells like shit, like actual feces. All the time. Painted over it, primed over it, but that didn’t help. Anyways, it was just a square box in the middle of a large garage. And we’d go in there to write. No windows, no nothing, as dark as can be. Go in there to write and Jeremy would start running these samplers, just, like, loops he’d make, and then he’d leave for eight, 12 hours, maybe all day. And we’d be blasting him through the speaker. We knew he was in a state of mind where we didn’t want to have him feel anything other than greatly appreciated. 

We’d started a bunch of this stuff while Jeremy was still around, but he kind of just wasn’t around at the time. So when we decided to continue on, we had a friend who was the drummer for the Shins at the time come in, and he sat in for like a week and played, and then we [also] knew Benjamin Weikel, and Benjamin Weikel was more suited to knocking it out of the park.

What If Beyoncé Already Made Her Rock Album?

Modest mouse plot 'good news' tour, new album, modest mouse collect new remixes for 'good news for people who love bad news' anniversary reissue.

When people talk about your influences or your presumed influences, they tend to leave out the Cure and Robert Smith. Well played . 

There’s something about when the Cure does a happy song — my ultimate example is “Friday I’m in Love” — where it has much more power, because you know how much the creator triumphed over to get there. And I feel some of that in some of the more upbeat moments of this particular album. Yeah, it’s easy to sound angry or fucking agitated or flippant, but owning feelings without sounding super-sappy — or even being sappy without sounding too saccharine and crappy — is a real fucking trick and shit. I’m always really happy when it works out. 

What do Robert Smith and the Cure mean to you, or what did they mean to you? They’re one of the best fucking bands ever. You can emulate all sorts of bands, but good fucking luck there, buddy. The patience. It can take them four minutes to get to the best part of a song. Their music helps me justify, like, a good song doesn’t have to be fucking everyone’s favorite or some toe-tapping event.

Is it true that “Float On” began as a variation of “The World at Large”? [Guitarist] Dann Galucci said, “We were playing that and it had sort of a melancholy feel. And so as a joke, we did a funny dance-oriented version of it. After a while, Isaac had written lyrics and a cool guitar melody, and it just became this whole other thing.”  It might be true, but I don’t remember that. I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time that happened. I think that checks out. Like, like I don’t have a perfect memory. That sounds about right to me. Dann doesn’t have a bad memory and stuff. So that sounds about right.  “Float On” wasn’t really written until the last couple of days of tracking. Once it got done, I was like, “Yeah, this is fun.” I mean, lyrically, I kind of felt like maybe it was a bit too goofy, and shit. Like, “This is fun, but is it silly?” When you have to do the vocals for something like “Bury Me With It,” it sounds like you’re worked up into a real state. What was your trick? I’m not going to say that alcohol doesn’t play a small role. Before tracking, it’s nice to have a couple of drinks, so that you don’t know yourself quite as well for a second.

I thought you had quit drinking halfway through this album, though. When Jeremy parted ways, I quit drinking for about two and a half months. And during tracking for vocals, I actually considered murdering Dennis Herring and I was like, “I’ll be back in a minute.” I was going to turn myself into the police station across the street. I stood there and I stared at it and I thought about what my day would be like. And then I looked up the street and I saw a bar and I was like, “Or that.” So I just fucking wandered up to the bar.

On “Ocean Breathes Salty,” you sing, “Maybe we’ll get lucky and we’ll both grow old.” That song always seemed like a strikingly sincere moment on the album. Yeah. And that song still sometimes makes me uncomfortable because I feel like it’s too earnest and shit. I do love the song but sometimes I feel weird playing it. But I know when Jeremiah’s father passed away, it was the song he wanted to play because for some reason it meant a lot to him. And so now that song means a little more to me because I know that it was special to Jeremiah. 

If there’s a theme on the album of life and death and maybe even deciding whether to live or die, it’s kind of most explicit on that song. Right. Well, you know that there’s a — I don’t know if I should even fucking say this.  Sometimes I listen to it and I’m like, “Oh my God, is this a Christian rock song?” Like in that sort of Amy Grant sort of way and shit? I know it’s not, but it could be. Like, did you end up there somehow, Mr. Brock? And it’s fine if I did. 

Well, the way I see it is like, I don’t like sports, but I like sports movies. And I’m not very spiritual, but I love spiritual rock songs. It’s the best parallel I could draw. That’s better than anything I could have said.

A lot of people who were writing songs like this and performing with the intensity that you were at that time ended up dying young. Did you assume you’d die young back then? I know there were different periods of time where that would have been most people’s assumption and shit. I think that was one of the reasons Dan says that he ended up leaving the band. He was like, “I just couldn’t watch you die.” I think he said that to me before. And I didn’t really feel like it was getting there, but I didn’t have an outside fucking perspective. In hindsight, I’m like, “Oh yeah, you were hitting it pretty hard.” All of it. Now I’m convinced I can’t die or whatnot. Cause I’m young, which is great. And I have a plan too. I’m like, let’s just unleash AI, fucking unmuzzle the thing. It’s gonna get fucking weird. But let’s get to the point where we can upload our entire fucking beings into these things and we’ll just have a digital existence for the rest of our lives.

But there had to have been some kind of level of introspection and revelation that went into “The Good Times Are Killing Me.” Absolutely. You had been forced to go to AA before that, but as you just said, you hadn’t really quit drinking. So what level of realization did you have at that point? Not enough to do me any good, but enough to make a song about it. It was almost like I was giving myself a fucking pat on the back for having done the work I hadn’t done yet. But, like, this is how I feel about it. Let’s see if we can live that way. And at times I do and at times I don’t.

Future and Metro Boomin Tap J. Cole for 'We Still Don't Trust You' Despite Apparent Diss

Norm macdonald was the hater o.j. simpson could never outrun, the battle over classic rock band the guess who just went nuclear, jellyroll vs. jelly roll: pennsylvania band sues country star for trademark infringement.

I mean, that’s life, I guess. It’s a work in progress until we run out of time. Except for the AI. Yeah. I’m not sure how much I believe what I said about wanting to do that. I say all sorts of shit.

Dua Lipa, Future, Metro Boomin', Girl in Red, and All the Songs You Need to Know This Week

• By Rolling Stone

Solar Eclipse Skyrockets 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' Streams by 480%

• Solar Flare
• By Ethan Millman

'I Can't Blame Myself:' Tini Finds Peace After Grappling With Mental Health and Child Stardom

• By Tomás Mier

Inside Jimmy Buffett's Tribute Concert: McCartney, Margaritas, and One Hell of a Parrothead Party

• Back to the Island
• By John Lonsdale

Sabrina Carpenter Gets Sun-Kissed and Pampered With a Pretty Boy's Gold Card in 'Espresso' Video

• Is It That Sweet?
• By Larisha Paul

Most Popular

Jodie foster pulled robert downey jr. aside on their 1995 film set and told him: 'i’m scared of what happens to you next' because of addiction, where to stream 'quiet on set: the dark side of kids tv' online, sources claim john travolta is ‘totally smitten’ with this co-star, angel reese signs multiyear agreement with panini america, you might also like, shelby lynne on celebrating the 25th anniversary of landmark ‘i am…’ record, and plotting a new album with karen fairchild: ‘it’s coming full circle’, esprit restructuring globally, layoffs hit n.y headquarters, the best running water bottles according to marathoners, eleanor coppola, ‘hearts of darkness’ documentarian and francis ford coppola’s longtime wife, dead at 87, splash and sportico partner for $100k masters tiers contest.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

• Bahasa Indonesia
• Slovenščina
• Science & Tech
• Russian Kitchen

Why were so many metro stations in Moscow renamed?

Okhotny Ryad station in Soviet times and today.

The Moscow metro system has 275 stations, and 28 of them have been renamed at some point or other—and several times in some cases. Most of these are the oldest stations, which opened in 1935.

The politics of place names

The first station to change its name was Ulitsa Kominterna (Comintern Street). The Comintern was an international communist organization that ceased to exist in 1943, and after the war Moscow authorities decided to call the street named after it something else. In 1946, the station was renamed Kalininskaya. Then for several days in 1990, the station was called Vozdvizhenka, before eventually settling on Aleksandrovsky Sad, which is what it is called today.

The banner on the entraince reads: "Kalininskaya station." Now it's Alexandrovsky Sad.

Until 1957, Kropotkinskaya station was called Dvorets Sovetov ( Palace of Soviets ). There were plans to build a monumental Stalinist high-rise on the site of the nearby Cathedral of Christ the Saviour , which had been demolished. However, the project never got off the ground, and after Stalin's death the station was named after Kropotkinskaya Street, which passes above it.

Dvorets Sovetov station, 1935. Letters on the entrance: "Metro after Kaganovich."

Of course, politics was the main reason for changing station names. Initially, the Moscow Metro itself was named after Lazar Kaganovich, Joseph Stalin’s right-hand man. Kaganovich supervised the construction of the first metro line and was in charge of drawing up a master plan for reconstructing Moscow as the "capital of the proletariat."

In 1955, under Nikita Khrushchev's rule and during the denunciation of Stalin's personality cult, the Moscow Metro was named in honor of Vladimir Lenin.

Kropotkinskaya station, our days. Letters on the entrance: "Metropolitan after Lenin."

New Metro stations that have been opened since the collapse of the Soviet Union simply say "Moscow Metro," although the metro's affiliation with Vladimir Lenin has never officially been dropped.

Zyablikovo station. On the entrance, there are no more signs that the metro is named after Lenin.

Stations that bore the names of Stalin's associates were also renamed under Khrushchev. Additionally, some stations were named after a neighborhood or street and if these underwent name changes, the stations themselves had to be renamed as well.

Until 1961 the Moscow Metro had a Stalinskaya station that was adorned by a five-meter statue of the supreme leader. It is now called Semyonovskaya station.

Left: Stalinskaya station. Right: Now it's Semyonovskaya.

The biggest wholesale renaming of stations took place in 1990, when Moscow’s government decided to get rid of Soviet names. Overnight, 11 metro stations named after revolutionaries were given new names. Shcherbakovskaya became Alekseyevskaya, Gorkovskaya became Tverskaya, Ploshchad Nogina became Kitay-Gorod and Kirovskaya turned into Chistye Prudy. This seriously confused passengers, to put it mildly, and some older Muscovites still call Lubyanka station Dzerzhinskaya for old times' sake.

At the same time, certain stations have held onto their Soviet names. Marksistskaya and Kropotkinskaya, for instance, although there were plans to rename them too at one point.

"I still sometimes mix up Teatralnaya and Tverskaya stations,” one Moscow resident recalls .

 “Both have been renamed and both start with a ‘T.’ Vykhino still grates on the ear and, when in 1991 on the last day of my final year at school, we went to Kitay-Gorod to go on the river cruise boats, my classmates couldn’t believe that a station with that name existed."

The city government submitted a station name change for public discussion for the first time in 2015. The station in question was Voykovskaya, whose name derives from the revolutionary figure Pyotr Voykov. In the end, city residents voted against the name change, evidently not out of any affection for Voykov personally, but mainly because that was the name they were used to.

What stations changed their name most frequently?

Some stations have changed names three times. Apart from the above-mentioned Aleksandrovsky Sad (Ulitsa Kominterna->Kalininskaya->Vozdvizhenka->Aleksandrovsky Sad), a similar fate befell Partizanskaya station in the east of Moscow. Opened in 1944, it initially bore the ridiculously long name Izmaylovsky PKiO im. Stalina (Izmaylovsky Park of Culture and Rest Named After Stalin). In 1947, the station was renamed and simplified for convenience to Izmaylovskaya. Then in 1963 it was renamed yet again—this time to Izmaylovsky Park, having "donated" its previous name to the next station on the line. And in 2005 it was rechristened Partizanskaya to mark the 60th anniversary of victory in World War II. 

Partizanskaya metro station, nowadays.

Another interesting story involves Alekseyevskaya metro station. This name was originally proposed for the station, which opened in 1958, since a village with this name had been located here. It was then decided to call the station Shcherbakovskaya in honor of Aleksandr Shcherbakov, a politician who had been an associate of Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev had strained relations with Shcherbakov, however, and when he got word of it literally a few days before the station opening the builders had to hastily change all the signs. It ended up with the concise and politically correct name of Mir (Peace).

The name Shcherbakovskaya was restored in 1966 after Khrushchev's fall from power. It then became Alekseyevskaya in 1990.

Alekseyevskaya metro station.

But the station that holds the record for the most name changes is Okhotny Ryad, which opened in 1935 on the site of a cluster of market shops. When the metro system was renamed in honor of Lenin in 1955, this station was renamed after Kaganovich by way of compensation. The name lasted just two years though because in 1957 Kaganovich fell out of favor with Khrushchev, and the previous name was returned. But in 1961 it was rechristened yet again, this time in honor of Prospekt Marksa, which had just been built nearby.

Okhotny Ryad station in 1954 and Prospekt Marksa in 1986.

In 1990, two historical street names—Teatralny Proyezd and Mokhovaya Street—were revived to replace Prospekt Marksa, and the station once again became Okhotny Ryad.

Okhotny Ryad in 2020.

If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material.

to our newsletter!

Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox

• 7 things that the USSR unexpectedly put on WHEELS
• Why did the USSR build subway stations inside residential buildings? (PHOTOS)
• How Russian trains deal with winter

This website uses cookies. Click here to find out more.

• Preplanned tours
• Daytrips out of Moscow
• Themed tours
• Customized tours
• St. Petersburg

Moscow Metro 2019

Will it be easy to find my way in the Moscow Metro? It is a question many visitors ask themselves before hitting the streets of the Russian capital. As metro is the main means of transport in Moscow – fast, reliable and safe – having some skills in using it will help make your visit more successful and smooth. On top of this, it is the most beautiful metro in the world !

. There are over 220 stations and 15 lines in the Moscow Metro. It is open from 6 am to 1 am. Trains come very frequently: during the rush hour you won't wait for more than 90 seconds! Distances between stations are quite long – 1,5 to 2 or even 3 kilometers. Metro runs inside the city borders only. To get to the airport you will need to take an onground train - Aeroexpress.

RATES AND TICKETS

Paper ticket A fee is fixed and does not depend on how far you go. There are tickets for a number of trips: 1, 2 or 60 trips; or for a number of days: 1, 3 days or a month. Your trips are recorded on a paper ticket. Ifyou buy a ticket for several trips you can share it with your traveling partner passing it from one to the other at the turnstile.

On every station there is cashier and machines (you can switch it to English). Cards and cash are accepted. 1 trip - 55 RUB 2 trips - 110 RUB

Tickets for 60 trips and day passes are available only at the cashier's.

60 rides - 1900 RUB

1 day - 230 RUB 3 days - 438 RUB 30 days - 2170 RUB.

The cheapest way to travel is buying Troyka card . It is a plastic card you can top up for any amount at the machine or at the ticket office. With it every trip costs 38 RUB in the metro and 21 RUB in a bus. You can get the card in any ticket office. Be prepared to leave a deposit of 50 RUB. You can get it back returning the card to the cashier.

SamsungPay, ApplePay and PayPass cards.

One turnstile at every station accept PayPass and payments with phones. It has a sticker with the logos and located next to the security's cabin.

GETTING ORIENTED

At the platfrom you will see one of these signs.

It indicates the line you are at now (line 6), shows the direction train run and the final stations. Numbers below there are of those lines you can change from this line.

In trains, stations are announced in Russian and English. In newer trains there are also visual indication of there you are on the line.

To change lines look for these signs. This one shows the way to line 2.

There are also signs on the platfrom. They will help you to havigate yourself. (To the lines 3 and 5 in this case).