Basic setlist : Want, Club America, A Night Like This (or Fascination Street), Push, Pictures Of You, Lullaby, Jupiter Crash, Mint Car, Round and Round and Round, This is a Lie, Just Like Heaven, Lovesong, Strange Attraction, Friday I'm In Love, Return, Treasure, (Charlotte Sometimes), Trap, Prayers For Rain, In Between Days, From The Edge of The Deep Green Sea, Bare, Disintegration + "pop singles" encore + "1979/80 songs" encore

02nd
Worcester, Centrum
The first night of the tour was the opportunity to rehearse some more during the soundcheck (for over two hours !). Most of Wild Mood Swings along with M, Close To Me, Push, Prayers For Rain, Dressing Up were played. During the show, some songs sounded a little slow. The band was probably a bit jet-lagged still. Strange Attraction, M, Play For Today and A Forest had some improvised lyrics. A Forest's intro was even extended due to Simon's impulse. The song didn't include extra lyrics at the end.

04th
Montréal, Molson Centre
A couple of songs were introduced the songs in French. The band sounded good on this second show. Disintegration's intro was a bit messed up though. There were a few improvised lyrics on it, as well on WCIBY ?. That last song being slightly extended (to 5 minutes), shorter than later versions on this tour.

08th
East Rutherford, Continental Airlines
The band tried Lovesong despite the lack of rehearsals for the song. Very spontaneous. Robert Smith declared : "I'm assured we haven't played this since Roger left, but I can't remember. So it'll probably go wrong...". Actually the song was very regularly part of the set on the Wish Tour. The most remarkable thing of the night was the unusual version of A Forest : started by Simon on bass. It didn't include extra lyrics but the end of the song was quite different as well with just some guitar notes and Robert whispering in the microphone.

09th
Uniondale, Nassau Coliseum
Weird intro on Lullaby as Robert made a mistake with the bass VI and tried to cover it up by playing some different tune. Clever. Tonight's rare tracks were Piggy In The Mirror and Primary. The concert was supposed to end with Killing An Arab and the usual "see you again". But a few minutes later, the band came back to perform an 11 minutes version of A Forest.

10th
Philadelphia, Spectrum
In the afternoon, the group played soccer for a charity as confessed by Robert on stage : "We played a football match this afternoon, it's the first game I've played of the year. So I'm very very unsteady at the moment. And we didn't even win. Bastards..." Treasure had an interesting explanation about the feeling of the song : "When you fall asleep and a few pages go past and you missed a bit. You don't realize you reached the end of the book and you haven't got a clue...".

12th
Clarington, Mosport Festival
Shortest concert of the tour. It consisted in the "main set" (about 95 minutes) as they were limited by the time (festival schedule).

13th
Auburn Hills, Palace
A bit of weird show with a few unusual things... The very end of Fascination Street was extended with different guitar chords and a couple of improvised lines : '"I wanna take a walk...". Robert also complained during the encore : ("Could someone get me a cup of tea !"). Lovesong didn't sound tight and maybe that's why there were a few different lyrics. Killing An Arab's intro included wrong notes repeated over and over before playing the right ones. One of the guitar solos was also approximative. Bizarre. As reflected by A Forest's extra lyrics : "like I'm trapped, like a furry animal."

16th
Cleveland, Gund Arena
The WCIBY extended part had a few lyrics from The Lovecats but the rest of the group didn't play the tune yet. That would happen on the following night. A Forest ended with guitar chords and Simon Gallup who stopped playing in the meantime, closed the song with one last bass note.

17th
Pittsburgh, Civic Arena
A good atmosphere on stage despite a poor attendance. A Forest's extra lyrics refered to "hideous kinky"(later to be used on A Sign From God lyrics). Catch was played despite flagrant lack of rehearsals. Great to try things like that ! The band also played Primary. Robert was very talkative that night :

"The next song is a song we don't do that often, cause it reminds me too much of what I am like inside, this is called Piggy In The Mirror."

"In a weird way this song takes me home, but not a home I've ever known." (Jupiter Crash)

18th
Columbus, Polaris Amphitheatre
The group stayed in a hotel of the Cleveland area because of the three shows in a row (Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Columbus). And therefore, the trips, adding to the tiredness, were responsible for a slightly shorter concert tonight. Robert Smith also declared "this is the most surreal concert we played so far this year. If not, for the last 10 years." Like Cockatoos and Three Imaginary Boys appeared for the first time of the tour on the setlist. Also, Why Can't I Be You ? was performed in its regular 3-minute version.

20th
Rosemont, Horizon
Sold out show (13,200 people). Playing Jupiter Crash was compared to playing "English Rose" (a song by The Jam, Robert would do alone during soundchecks in 1987). Let's Go To Bed and Killing An Arab had some different lyrics (the good ones were probably forgotten). To please the "fucking brilliant audience", Robert also managed to include "Chicago" on the extended part of WCIBY. A Forest had the particularity of including improvised guitar solos during the intro and the song didn't end the usual way too.

22th
Milwaukee, Bradley Center
Primary was confessed being a favorite of Simon. They played Catch again ("This is a request and I can't remember who it's for but he obviously will know".) And Robert admitted after playing it : "That puts really nice pictures in my head, this song. We should do it more often." Robert also explained how they decide the songs for the encores : "We have this whole hat of songs that we're throwing in the air and each of us catches one." Hot Hot Hot was played for the first time of the tour.

23rd
Minneapolis, Target Center
Another slightly crazy night on stage. That remained professional but in between songs, Robert would play some tunes on guitar like Girl From Ipanema (Roger playing keyboards as well on that one), a short blues song with some lyrics after A Night Like This or Fire In Cairo before 10:15 Saturday Night. A Forest didn't include extra lyrics that night -a rare occurance- and was shortened to 8 minutes.

About the slightly different singing on some songs, he warned "I wish my voice would do what my mind tells it to. That's what swimming in the morning does to your brain."

"I'm just just exactly like everyone of you, I feel fucking mental today and doing this it's like... I'm too emotional to be on stage... so this has been designed by my friends to cheer me up" (Friday I'm In Love)

27th
Denver, Mc Nichols Arena
Faith was played for the first time on this tour. Like often, it was introduced as it hadn't been played in "ten years" (Robert, strangely, being backed up by Roger on this one that night). The song didn't have the usual extra lyrics, they were kept for the end of A Forest.

30th
Eugene, Hult Center
The first show in a series of theatre gigs. The sound was adjusted during the first songs as it was confessed the band only got there an hour before. Just Like Heaven wasn't played that night. The end of the show saw Simon not ending A Forest but starting Forever instead ! So the band followed and the result was a two-minute instrumental version.

31st
Portland, Schnitzer Hall
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, Numb and One Hundred Years were played for the first time. That last track didn't include a drum machine (contrary to the following tours) and was dedicated to a certain Maggie. Disintegration had Robert Smith playing on the Bass VI (when usually he would try it on guitar). Much better sounding. The weird stuff of the night occured on the improvised lyrics : "a machine to wash my jeans" (on WCIBY) and the urge to "buy an ice-cream" (on A Forest) !


GO TO THE SWING TOUR AUGUST 1996