The English Beat
Live at the Sunshine Theater in Albuquerque, NM
(hear it)

Rock shows are almost always as much about the audience in my immediate vicinity as about the band. People have poor space management skills, generally speaking.

At this show, these kids were there and they just FREAKED OUT when the band played "Mirror in the Bathroom", which is my favorite song too, by the way. How does a group of 15 year olds get that excited about a band that broke up before they were born and wasn't that popular to begin with? I mean, a Led Zeppelin or something is one thing, but when did the English Beat become so important to them? Or do they simply enjoy a good show... Very smart of their parents, too. Get the kids to jump around for two hours at a wholesome event like that.

The English Beat is one of those bands that is now just the one guy, the singer Dave Wakeling, and a bunch of younger fellows. A surprising amount of the sound of a band comes from the singer, it turns out. I wonder what happens when the other founders of the band want back in. Clearly if the guitar and bass players (who formed Fine Young Cannibals after they left, certainly a calling card of some sort) and Ranking Roger (the band's toaster and a big part of its personality) were to rejoin the band, it would be a big selling point, and have staying power like the Skatalites. But then what, do the current English Beaters just move along? I rather liked a few of them, you know...

This was one of those shows where the opening band plays and you're like, "ahh yes, music, I've heard that", and then the headliner comes out and you find out that it goes so much deeper. The way the different people interact, musically and socially, and the arrangements are completely in a different league. The guitar, for example, has to do a big-moment triplet feel thing in order for ska to really gel, and the drummer has to do the rim shots before the verse reenters after the bridge or breakdown - and then everyone else is interlocking with those elements, multiplying the effect.

bb, 17 March 08