The Cure caps concert summer with powerful Tallinn show
Thursday 13th August 2026 on 14:15 in
Estonia
ERR reviewer Kaspar Viilup says The Cure’s Tallinn concert put a powerful full stop to a packed summer of live music, showing that the 50-year-old British band remains a creative force rather than a nostalgia act.
The band performed on August 9 at Unibet Arena Kvartal in Tallinn. While artists such as John Legend, Lenny Kravitz, Moby and Black Eyed Peas have also appeared in Estonia this summer, The Cure stands apart, Viilup writes, because its role in popular culture is no less significant today than it was at the height of its fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Evidence of the band’s continued relevance was visible before the concert. Pitchfork had selected The Cure’s remix album Mixed Up for its weekly old-gold feature, while the song “Close to Me” appeared in the Netflix film The Last House. Frontman Robert Smith also contributed to pop star Olivia Rodrigo’s latest album.
Viilup initially wondered whether the show would be a retro event attended mainly by people who had grown up with The Cure. Those doubts disappeared outside the venue, where many of the concertgoers appeared to be barely 18. Several had painted their eyes dark like Smith and were wearing clothes inspired by the band.
The audience was therefore a broad, multigenerational crowd rather than a gathering focused solely on the 1990s. Unlike the visibly overcrowded Kings of Leon concert held at the same venue in June, entry was calm and the area around the stage was filled with friendly murmuring rather than constant pushing.
The evening was cool and slightly windy, with the band initially playing beneath the last rays of sunlight. During the four-minute instrumental introduction to “Alone”, the opening song, Smith walked awkwardly around the stage, creating the impression of a vampire who had stepped into daylight.
Once Smith reached the microphone, however, Viilup felt the same jolt he had experienced at a Cure concert in Helsinki several years earlier. Smith remains one of the finest singers of his generation, he writes, with a voice that is simultaneously sweet and sharply cold, unmistakable and unique.