Listen to The Cure’s First American Concert

Music journalist Van Gosse was hired by Melody Maker to follow The Cure on their first American tour in 1980. Not only did he write up the concerts, but he also recorded them, including the band’s very first American concert, which took place on April 10, 1980 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

You can listen to the entire set below thanks to Slicing Up Eyeballs.

Here’s the complete setlist:

1. “Seventeen Seconds”
2. “Play For Today”
3. “Three Imaginary Boys”
4. “Fire In Cairo”
5. “Grinding Halt”
6. “In Your House”
7. “Subway Song”
8. “M”
9. “10:15 Saturday Night”
10. “Accuracy”
11. “At Night”
12. “Boys Don’t Cry”
13. “Jumping Someone Else’s Train”
14. “Another Journey By Train”
15. “A Forest”
16. “Secrets”
17. “Killing An Arab”

As you can see, the set consists primarily of material from Seventeen Seconds and Three Imaginary Boys, and the recording sounds pretty good considering the source (a 32-year-old cassette). You can also download the set and Gosse’s (unpublished) tour articles from his website.