In their first concerts of the year, the Cure played a pair of identically sequenced 3+ hr sets at Royal Albert Hall this weekend to benefit Teenage Cancer Trust. Among the 45 songs they performed were rarities like “Harold And Joe,” a “Never Enough” b-side not played since ’91, and “2 Late,” a Disintegration-era b-side they’d never played live before. Watch Friday night’s live debut of “2 Late,” and check out the career-spanning setlist, below.

SETLIST (via setlist.fm)
“Plainsong”
“Prayers For Rain”
“A Strange Day”
“A Night Like This”
“Stop Dead”
“Push”
“In Between Days”
“2 Late” (live Debut)
“Jupiter Crash” (first time since 2004)
“The End Of The World”
“Lovesong”
“Mint Car”
“Friday I’m In Love”
“Doing The Unstuck”
“Trust”
“Pictures Of You”
“Lullaby”
“High”
“Harold And Joe” (first time since 1991)
“The Caterpillar”
“The Walk”
“Sleep When I’m Dead”
“Just Like Heaven”
“From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea”
“Want”
“The Hungry Ghost”
“Wrong Number”
“One Hundred Years”
“Disintegration”

Encore 1:
“If Only Tonight We Could Sleep”
“Shake Dog Shake”
“Fascination Street”
“Bananafishbones”
“Play For Today”
“A Forest”

Encore 2:
“Catch”
“The Lovecats”
“Hot Hot Hot!!!”
“Let’s Go To Bed”
“Freakshow” (first time since 2008)
“Close To Me”
“Why Can’t I Be You?”

Encore 3:
“Boys Don’t Cry”
“10:15 Saturday Night”
“Killing An Arab”

The Cure’s next album (tentatively titled 4:14 Scream) is expected this year, but Robert Smith tells XFM he’s not convinced it needs to be released:

“We’re in a weird kind of predicament,” Smith told XFM’s John Kennedy after coming offstage at the Albert Hall last night. “I’ve finished singing and mixing an album that was made by a band that no longer exists. So I’m trying to be convinced that I should release what is the second half of an album that effectively came out in 2008. It’s a bit of a sore point, to be honest.

“It’s not really new, I just never sang it. I couldn’t be bothered. I didn’t think the words were good enough, but I’ve re-written it. We’re playing in May in American and then I don’t think we’ll play again until late September. So it’ll probably come out in that summer ‘dead air’ period for albums.”

Robert revealed that the album was likely to be released on the Fiction label – which was the original home to The Cure between 1978 and 2000. “It seems like a nice way of squaring the circle. It’s an album that is really different to anything else we’ve done. People who want to hear it will hear it and those that don’t, don’t. They’ll just keep dancing to ‘Close To Me’ and ‘Love Cats.'”

[Photo via Yui Mok/PA Wire PA.]