Though ostensibly billed as “Curætion-25”, a set that – for tedious contractual reasons requires this to officially be “Robert Smith and Curious Friends” – tonights climax to the 25th Meltdown Festival, curated by Robert Smith, is The Cure. The Curious Friends in his backing band are Simon Gallup, Roger O’Donnell, Jason Cooper and Reeves Gabrels - being the worst kept secret in music – and whilst some people hear clearly think it should be an evening of greatest hits, most of us know what we are expecting tonight : its been clearly announced as not a regular Cure gig, and full of “doom and gloom” for some time.

Supported by The Twilight Sad, Curætion-25 is a celebration and commiseration of the darker edges of the Cure’s catalogue. Thematically opening with a “From There To Here” and followed by a “…And Back Again” set, the band work their immense catalogue with one song from each album chronologically forward in time to the still unreleased “Scream” album, and then back again to 1979.

As The Sad – a band I love, even though some of you don’t – play a compact 30 minutes, they play their souls out. James Graham can audibly be heard from the balcony over the noise even when he’s off-microphone, lost in the moment. The band’s absence has been noticed, they have been missed, and tonight they play to a quarter full Royal Festival Hall with the same passion and energy as they do a full house at a headline gig. Half of the set is yet unreleased, with the new songs being “VTR”, “Arbor”, and the final, emotional “Keep Yourself Warm”. “VTR” is a beast that grows with power every time I hear it. “Keep Yourself Warm” is not as heartbreaking as last week in Leeds, as I’m up on the balcony ; but I am here, and I am in, which given that this is the smallest non-competition show The Cure have played in 15 years is quite something.

Finally then, comes Curætion-25 : and it is an evening of surprises. Offering a broadly similar theme to the NME gig ten years ago, the band play a set that runs, one song per album, chronologically from the opening “Three Imaginary Boys” to “It Can Never Be The Same” from the unreleased ‘Scream’ album . After a short break, the band return to play a similar reverse set – one song per album, running from “Step Into The Light”, and “The Hungry Ghost” from 2008’s 4:13 Dream to a final pop thrill of “Boy’s Don’t Cry”.

Pack your bag of deep cuts. It’s been a long time since the band represented their enormous body of work this fairly or this equally : even 1996’s career-killing “Wild Mood Swings” gets two songs.

The long promised imaginary accompanists, and the reinventions of Robert Smiths body of work are absent. The solo songs and guest vocals – such as “A Girl In The Corner”, or anything from The Glove such as “Perfect Murder” and “Mr. Alphabet Says” – aren’t played. There are no ex-Cure’s tonight. It isn’t quite as we were promised. But it’s still not enough of a Cure show to please some people.

In front of me, there’s a relatively casual fan : looking up Things To Do In Italy, how to cook Spaghetti Bolognese, and texting his girlfriend “well, that’s two hours I won’t get back, they’ve only played one good song so far”(At this point, the band are deep into their second set, and are pummelling their way through the somewhat hazy If Only Tonight We Could Sleep and thus Pictures Of You and High have been the casual fanbait hits in the set at this point). The casual disregard some of the attendees give the importance of this show is somewhat insulting to the band : for a band as loved as The Cure, and the distances some people would go for a show like this – such as flying from Germany, or America – and someone who has one of the best seats in the house to walk out because they are bored is quite unfair. It was never sold as a standard Cure greatest hits show, but as an evening exploring the further reaches of the band. Like any band, The Cure have to balance themselves between the accomplished peddlers of wonderful misery and the beautiful pop machine they are, and unlike most shows, where more than half the set is nothing but hits, tonight the world’s best Cure tribute band are beautifully miserable. It’s been a long time, if ever, since I have seen some of these songs – and even songs from 2004’s “The Cure” sell the darker reaches of the bands work as worthy of reappraisal. Certainly “alt.end” and “Us And Them” feel better now than they were at the time of release.

But The Cure are no longer a current band – having becoming a well established touring and nostalgia act – and having never fully recovered from their mid 90’s commercial slump. Every band has a 10 year peak at most of first success at the end of which most fans are 20-35. By the time people get to 30, most tend not to go to too many shows, often have kids, mortgages, and most bands have a tail off commercially in the second decade. Gig sales do slow down until the kids have grown up and the parents decide to go back to gigs again - i.e. 2009 (or thereabouts) where The Cure started to become a more prolific touring act.

Also, by 1996 they were a band that had been going 20 years, and the next few albums weren't hugely poppy, as well as a lineup change ; hits started to dry up, so they went from 4 nights in London arenas in 1992 to 1 at the end of 1996, and went from 2 nights at the NEC to a 5,000 half-sold-out show there in 1996. By 1996 they were also two big movements past (Grunge + Britpop), the fans had grown up, and they got little airplay beyond "Mint Car". They were 'put away' like childhood toys, commercially, to the point where Robert said he'd much rather play 4 sold out shows in sunny France, than a half-full shed in Sheffield.

Most people don't go back to seeing bands loads once the kids have grown up. The demographic of fans is massively overlooked. Bands fans get older, and have kids, and don't go to gigs anymore - and that's what kills off most bands. Few bands have managed to ride this crucial shift by appealing constantly cross-generationally : sure, U2 fans rang from 7 to 70, but can you say that of some other bands?

This lineup of the band has – despite existing for six years – not released one note of new music. And whilst Smith, Cooper, Gallup and O Donnell have between them, played near enough solidly for long over 20 years together (and with 124 years in the band between them), with Reeves Gabrels as an excellent second guitarist who is, to some people, a terrible choice, we have to be wary of nostalgia in this respect. Some people want other lineups of the band, but like any relationship, you wouldn’t stay with the same people you knew when you were 14, would you? Generally not, anyway. I understand the need to want the band to keep the same lineup as the day you first heard them, because that was your version of the band, and the band meant something to you then, but surely part of the joy of this is.. growing older with the band through time? On the face of tonight, given a unique setlist and a powerful, uncompromising performance that rewarded the faithful with a trainspotter setlist, The Cure have a future in front of them as well as a glorious past. But you can’t ignore the passing of time, and with some members in their sixties now, The Cure aren’t a young mans band, but clearly nearer the end than the beginning. The Cure are undoubtedly Roberts lifework. But if you have to pour your life into your work, there’s few better things that what they played tonight.

At the heart of it, it was also one of the handful of shows the band where staples such as “Lullaby”, “Lovesong”, “Friday I’m In Love”, “Just Like Heaven” are not played : that hit of hands in the air ecstasy is two weeks from now at Hyde Park . The Cure have always walked a tightrope between the miserable stadium band and joyous pop, and, at the same time, been both constantly and equally. Tonight isn’t, nor was it ever, presented as a Cure show, but an evening of oddities. The hits weren’t missed by people familiar with their work ; it showed just how good, and adept The Cure are, and were, at encompassing almost all emotions, and how they would still be one of the most important and reliable artists of their time without the pop hits.

Three Imaginary Boys
At Night
Other Voices
A Strange Day
Bananafishbones
A Night Like This
Like Cockatoos
Pictures Of You
High
Jupiter Crash
39
Us And Them
It’s Over
It Can Never Be The Same
Step Into The Light
The Hungry Ghost
Alt. End
The Last Day of Summer
Want
From The Edge
Disintegration
If Only Tonight We Can Sleep
Sinking
Shake Dog Shake
100 Years
Primary
A Forest
Boys Don’t Cry