The Cure perform without sick bandmate for second time with 27-song set by Robert Smith-fronted group

The Cure has continued with their three-night residency in Berlin, Germany while also managing the sickness of one band member. Bassist Simon Gallup, who has been with the Robert Smith-fronted group since 1979, has been ill. He missed The Cure‘s first show at the Parkbühne Wuhlheide venue and was unavailable for last night’s performance (July 11) as well.

Eden Gallup was on hand to perform with the band instead, with Smith rattling through 27 songs from across the group’s decades-long career. Songs from the band’s latest album, Songs of a Lost World, were absent from the performance. The setlist was dominated by tracks from Disintegration, The Head on the Door, and Pornography. Songs from The Top and Bloodflowers also made an appearance in the show.

A full setlist for The Cure’s second of three shows at Parkbühne Wuhlheide can be found below.

• Plainsong
• Pictures of You
• High
• Lovesong
• Burn
• Fascination Street
• Never Enough
• Push
• In Between Days
• Just Like Heaven
• The Last Day of Summer
• A Strange Day
• One Hundred Years
• Cold
• A Night Like This
• Play for Today
• A Forest
• Shake Dog Shake
• From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
• Disintegration
• Lullaby
• The Walk
• The Lovecats
• Friday I’m in Love
• Close to Me
• Why Can’t I Be You?
• Boys Don’t Cry

The Cure had dedicated Lullaby to Gallup on the first night of their trio of Berlin performances. The show marked the third performance of Shake Dog Shake this year, with the band performing it at their show on July 10, and a date on June 12 at Nova Rock 2026. Boys Don’t Cry served as the show closer and Smith says the song still has a relevancy to listeners across the world.

The Cure frontman suggested “peer pressure” is what keeps the song relevant, as members of the public are still searching out alternative sounds to combat the mainstream appeal. Smith suggested a performance of the song at Glastonbury was his “moment of clarity” for why the song remained relevant to listeners decades on from release.

He said: “I was singing [‘Boys Don’t Cry’] at Glastonbury and I realised that it has a very contemporary resonance with all the rainbow stripes and stuff flying in the crowd. When I was growing up, there was peer pressure on you to conform to be a certain way.

“And as an English boy at the time, you’re encouraged not to show your emotion to any degree. And I couldn’t help but show my emotions when I was younger. I never found it awkward showing my emotions. I couldn’t really continue without showing my emotions; you’d have to be a pretty boring singer to do that. So I kind of made a big thing about it. I thought, ‘Well, it’s part of my nature to rail against being told not to do something’.”