Something was missing from the Cure’s concert Thursday night at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center — overpriced tickets.

That’s solely because lead singer Robert Smith, 64, took on Ticketmaster and won. Smith insisted that Ticketmaster not use dynamic pricing on the tour, and compelled the ticketing giant to partially refund among the company’s infamous fees. He also convinced Ticketmaster to limit any resale tickets to face value.

Robert Smith did that. Not Taylor Swift or Bruce Springsteen or Beyonce, but Robert Smith. The elderly goth with the smeared lipstick and fright wig hairdo.

Smith’s doggedness on this topic likely added to the festive mood of the near-capacity crowd, who cheered throughout the nearly three-hour concert (and doubtless nabbed some extra merch as a result of the low cost seats).

In some ways, the show was quite just like the Cure’s previous show on the X in 2016, which was the group’s first Minnesota show in 20 years. Smith and company played a set largely focused on the band’s first decade, once they went from a scruffy post-punk trio to a world-conquering arena act. Each the hits (“Pictures of You,” “Lovesong,” “A Forest”) and album tracks (“At Night,” “Shake Dog Shake,” “Push”) made the cut.

The massive difference, though, was the airing of a handful of recent songs from the band’s impending latest album “Songs of a Lost World,” which doesn’t have a release date. (Smith has been talking about it since early 2019.) Although the Cure did open the primary encore in 2016 with “I Can Never Say Goodbye,” the opposite latest ones were likely familiar only to fans who hit YouTube for tour footage.

Of the brand new ones, “And Nothing Is Endlessly” was essentially the most promising. It’s a slow and grandiose ballad that wouldn’t have sounded misplaced on 1989’s “Disintegration,” the biggest-selling album within the band’s catalog. They closed the fundamental set with one other latest one called “Endsong.” (I do know, it’s tough to consider the Cure didn’t have already got a song called “Endsong.”)

While a lot unfamiliar material is usually a drawback for a legacy act, the Cure made it work. Smith’s voice is as strong because it’s ever been, and the band’s obvious chemistry made for compelling listening, whether we knew the songs or not. Longtime bassist Simon Gallup and keyboardist Roger O’Donnell locked right in with the newer faces like former David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels who has been within the Cure now for (checks notes) 11 years. Smith also prolonged lots of the songs, especially the slower ones, and upped the moody instrumental breaks.

Back in 2016, the Cure played 15 numbers across a whopping 4 encores. This time around they kept it to an analogous length but played just two encores. The primary focused on darker stuff, just like the latest “It Can Never Be the Same,” “Plainsong” and “Disintegration.” The group packed encore No. 2 with a few of their biggest, poppiest hits with the likes of “Friday I’m in Love,” “In Between Days” and “Just Like Heaven,” leaving fans glowing and humming their way out the doors.