A curious thing happened during Curiosa Tour's stop at the Los Angeles area's Home Depot Center on Friday night (8/27): The best performances--at least the truly visceral ones--came not from the tour's headliners, but rather from the bands The Cure [ tickets ] has inspired.

And while groups like The Rapture [ tickets ], Interpol [ tickets ] and Cursive [ tickets ] laid down energized new-wave/post-punk sets, tour headliners The Cure played a lackluster set that featured lots of classic hits and shoe-gazing.

Despite the lukewarm performance, The Cure satisfied thousands of die-hards for two solid hours with a set that focused on its synthesizer-based anthems and hits. Throughout the night, the five-piece embraced melancholy with deep, meditative bass lines that rolled above languid, seamless keyboards.

Taking the stage at 9:15 p.m., The Cure opened with "Plainsong," off 1989's "Disintegration." "It's so cold, it's like the cold if you were dead," sang Robert Smith from behind his legendary veil of iconic hair. The song's slow rhythm and downtrodden lyrics were a perfect way to begin a set that featured some seriously morose music.

Hardly engaging, Smith offered the occasional "Thank you," but mostly stayed away from the microphone when he wasn't singing. When he was singing, his voice remained true to its recorded form: high, tight and vulnerable. Throughout the show, Smith switched between a black electric guitar and a black acoustic one as his band plowed through hit after hit.

It took the Cure some time to get warned up, but by the time they unveiled "Love Song," the musicians and the fans--who sang along gleefully--seemed to finally loosen up. Next, the one-two punch of "In Between Days" and "Just Like Heaven" continued putting smiles on the faces of all those melancholy kids dressed in black in the crowd. Still, those performances were not nearly as solid as the band's powerful reading of "Pictures of You" that followed.

Visually, not much happened behind the band--odd for a festival this size. Instead, random graphics veered from green-tinted sea-foam for the song "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea," to ethereal images of trees for "A Forest"--certainly, not the most creative images ever.

After nearly two hours of embracing melancholy, the band finally played "Friday I'm in Love" and "Boys Don't Cry."

Though unequivocally appreciated and loved by their fans, The Cure was nonetheless overshadowed by the bands they chose to include on the bill.

As influenced by The Cure as they are by Joy Division and Bauhaus, Interpol was darkly fascinating. The group opened with "Obstacle 1," the deep, booming track off 2002's "Turn on the Bright Lights." Dressed in black suits and red ties, Interpol was stylish and cool. Their sound was pretty cool, too, and their compelling dual-guitar attack--reminiscent of another New York band, Television--stood in stark contrast to the headliner's synthesizer-heavy set.

On the smaller second stage, fans discovered Omaha's Cursive, another act that sounds like a younger, more energetic Cure. Singer Tim Kasher, whose voice recalls Robert Smith's early days, led Cursive through a fiery performance. In the center of the torrid walls of embattled distortion was cellist Greta Cohn, who jammed along to the band's remarkable crescendos and broiling rhythms. Similarly, the UK's Cooper Temple Clause provided a gut-busting set of hard rock that made the second stage buzz with fervor.

But there was always The Cure behind the scenes waiting for their curtain to go up on the main stage. And while the shoe-gazers gawked, singing along to all those sad lyrics, the real rock could be found before 9:15p.m.--when the younger, hungrier bands proved there's nothing wrong with being melancholy--so long as you embrace the power that comes with it.

Agree? Disagree? Other thoughts? Voice your opinion on liveDaily's message board.