"It was a beautiful way to end the festival"

From Alison Fensterstock's wonderful review of The Cure at Voodoo: "Speaking of Trent Reznor, who stood on the Voodoo mainstage Saturday night, there is, of course, a great overlap between the armies of darkness who ally themselves with Nine Inch Nails and with the Cure. (“If you had told me, in 1996, that I’d get to see Nine Inch Nails and the Cure in the same 48-hour period, I’d have flipped out,” one of those elusive goths of days gone by said to me at the festival.)

But where NIN can be hard and cold, the Cure’s misery – even at its darkest depths – is a sweet, soft one. When Trent makes you hurt, it’s with the bite of cold, industrial jaws; Robert Smith's hurt is exquisite. There is no love left in Nine Inch Nails’ world, but for Smith, love is all there is – even if all that’s left of it is delicious pain. Part of it was lights and fog, but the mainstage Sunday night also swirled with aching passion. It was a beautiful way to end the festival, and even Smith seemed overwrought: after a final encore of “Boys Don’t Cry,” he clutched his powdered cheek, blinked, and scampered off, as if he’d been caught with his heart on his sleeve."