And the Sheffield lads did impress those who saw them Saturday at the Wachovia Spectrum, just the second date of a tour that will conclude next month with a three-venue stand in New York City. (They wisely kept their late-spring schedule clear after the Cure scuttled plans to tour last fall with 65DOS.)

But offering an engaging half-hour of their Mogwai-meets-Aphex Twin danceable post-rock to early arrivals only went so far. One patron, smoking outside between acts, was heard to say, "Pretty good - might download some of their stuff, maybe."

Then the Cure hit the stage, and the band unexpectedly overwhelmed in terms of quality, quantity and evidence of a throbbing musical pulse. Through 35 songs lasting almost three hours, the streamlined English post-punk-and-on band that traces its origins to Crawley, Sussex, circa 1976, scaled highs that included material off their 13th studio album (a double), scheduled for September release. Sexy single "The Only One" - coming out tomorrow - came off well, and "The Perfect Boy" was even better.

"I really don't know what I'm doing here," began Cure centerpiece Robert Smith in the show's first track, "Open" (also 1992's Wish album-starter). But the 49-year-old vocalist-guitarist, in loose black pants and shirt and, as ever, topped by stringy black hair framing a whitened face with inexactly applied red lipstick and smudgy guyliner, was not to be taken literally. He clearly enjoyed himself, leading ace guitarist Porl Thompson (a goth-glam fashion plate in sparkling ruby platform shoes), key veteran Simon Gallup on bass, and drummer Jason Cooper back for three encore sets.

The final seven-song barrage found Smith's famously high warble as strong as ever in the band's setlist-designated "Old School Encore." He surged through tracks off the 1979 debut album Three Imaginary Boys and first single, from 1978 - the night-closing "Killing An Arab" (lyrics altered in 2006 to "Killing Another" to prevent people misinterpreting Smith's original riff on the plotline of Albert Camus' novel The Stranger). Potently poetic, pensively dark, yet cheerfully cute, Smith has known what he's doing all along.