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Rating: 1989, while Tears For Fears were releasing their third and pretentious album, I was sucking milk from my mother's breasts, and the duo's tracks were surely playing on the radio in the room while my parents were making out; never in the back of their minds would they have thought that one day their son would go to see one of their concerts. Indeed, it feels quite strange, a not yet thirty-year-old going to see a group from the ’80s when it should be the parents going instead; it would have been even less strange if I had gone to see a ’70s prog group; because yes, we know, music somehow always reaches future generations, but while progressive is a genre continuously followed and imitated and has practically experienced a second youth, the ’80s new wave, to be honest, has remained rather confined to an era and a generation, or at least it seems so; no wonder wherever I looked in the audience, people aged 45-60 predominantly prevailed.
Yet, it wasn't my parents who got me into Tears For Fears at all; it was one of my two cousins, yes, the ones who passed on the passion for Dream Theater to me. I already knew who they were and that they were a successful group from the ’80s, but I wasn't convinced to listen to their albums until in 2012, the older cousin pointed out that they are actually a great band with excellent melodies and arrangements. Indeed, he was right; today’s pop is just noise and becomes an excuse to do things all wrong; pop, however, is still a musical genre that must be played with skill and attention to detail; exactly what Tears For Fears have always done. I don't have any problems calling them “the best pop group ever”; I really think they are an example of how pop should be done. Well, in the end, if they are liked by even slightly cultured musicians, there must be a reason.
“How great it would be if they came to the Forum, just a few kilometers from home; it would be a unique and unusual experience for a young person like me to live and tell; I would get the ticket instantly”... How many times I've thought this, how many times I've expressed the wish, until one day the band’s Facebook page posts a poster with a list of new dates... among which there is also one at the Forum of Assago; almost as if it were true that sometimes if you express a wish, it comes true. Being the mysterious man that I am, I go to the nearest point of sale without telling my parents the reason, then hide the ticket in a secret folder. Excitement is, however, halted not long before the event, as the duo announces the postponement of the tour for health reasons never entirely clarified, so we have to wait another 9 months. We hoped that in the meantime, the duo would manage to complete the much-awaited new album, but nothing happened; who knows if they will actually make it one day, given there have even been rumors of new disagreements between Orzabal and Smith; some thought the tour would even remain an unrealized dream.
But here we are. On February 23, Tears For Fears are here and ready to take us on a real journey into the ’80s. It’s obviously from this period that the duo draws most of the songs to include in the setlist. As many as 5 from the debut “The Hurting”, 3 from the bestseller “Songs from the Big Chair”, and 4 from the masterpiece “The Seeds of Love”; very little space, however, for more recent production, only one track from “Elemental”, the usual “Break It Down Again”; only one excerpt from the reunion album “Everybody Loves a Happy Ending”, the brilliant “Secret World”; completely ignored is the 1995 album “Raoul and the Kings of Spain”, an album perhaps never fully appreciated and destined to remain an underrated gem of the group. In addition, there’s a Radiohead cover, “Creep”. A setlist with all the great classics that seems to please everyone, a greatest hits live as often happens, the classic setlist that doesn’t dare much, playing it safe, asking which are the most beloved hits by the audience and the band itself, and throws them in without thinking too much; the audience can only be happy; the exclamation “wow, what a setlist, with all the great classics!” is almost inevitable; however, the flip side of the coin presents that slight regret of those who love some darker and lesser-known gems and would like to hear them live. It's a debate that can be applied to countless bands; I’m considering writing an editorial about it in the future. The only gem is perhaps represented by the over 8 minutes of “Badman's Song”, probably not even known by many, but not much of a gem since it has been a staple of the band for several years now.
The audience, as already mentioned, is quite dated, people who at the time of the success were teenagers or around 20-25 years old. I wonder if anyone around me has made some remark about me, something like “who is that young guy alone coming to a concert of our generation?”, but if it were really so, I am proud in an era where youngsters blast the crap music of the moment in the car. And for an audience of slightly advanced age, it also means composed audience, no delirious faces, no frantic screams, no topless women, a mature audience wanting to enjoy a night of music without stealing the scene from the musicians. A situation already partially experienced 6 years earlier at the double date of Marillion (coincidentally they also released their first album in 1983), there perhaps the audience was a bit more lively and a bit more alternative. Let’s say I’ve experienced a bit of everything, from concerts with a hundred and something Christians to arena concerts up to vast areas (who knows if one day the stadium will come, personally, the idea of seeing musicians as small as ants doesn’t excite me), from die-hard metalheads’ audience to teenagers’ and then the older one.
The stage is set with a quite large horizontal screen and numerous vertical light lanterns, which seem particularly suitable for the typical glittered and sugary ’80s atmosphere they want to create; on the big screen, images run, sometimes frantic and sometimes calm, sometimes confused and sometimes more orderly, sometimes more human and sometimes more abstract and psychedelic; but it's the lanterns that prove to be crucial, sometimes they all light up and sometimes only a few, sometimes steadily and sometimes intermittently or alternatively, sometimes they light up only partially, sometimes they create geometric shapes, sometimes they emit psychedelic lights.
The sound quality is practically perfect; perhaps of all the concerts I've attended, this was the one with the best audio quality, the sound is clear, and if the goal was really to recreate the ’80s atmosphere, I’d say they nailed it. Truly, it felt like attending a concert from the ’80s; the band, in fact, leaves the original sounds virtually unchanged and performs the tracks to perfection, moreover at the original keys, something not always possible after thirty-five years of career, there’s just some imperfection in Orzabal's voice, but absolutely forgivable, after all, there’s the talented Carina Round to cover any lapses and add that extra touch; it’s too easy to lower the keys, in the end, the winner is the one who tries to give the maximum by performing everything at the original key, unlike Imagine Dragons who with a singer barely over thirty lower everything by several tones, you can tell the great bands this way too... Repeating, it’s truly incredible how the ’80s are perfectly reproduced, especially when you hear “Mad World” and “Shout”, you really wonder if it was a concert from 2019 or 1985; then there’s “Advice for the Young at Heart” that sounds even more eighties than the original. But like the setlist discussion, there’s also a flip side here, the choice not to dare with sounds and new arrangements can make the concert seem like a mere assignment or contractual duty to some; however, “Change” is an exception, which is reproduced with a more edgy and modernized sound, more “electro” and even more rock, an atmosphere that almost seemed suited for a rave night, a bridge performed almost with the power of heavy metal. More energetic than the original is also “Break It Down Again,” while “Suffer the Children” assumes a completely different attire, a rather intimate piano and voice version sung prominently by Carina Round. Also beautiful is the cover of Radiohead’s “Creep”, played in a softer and more elegant version, devoid of the guitar blasts in the chorus, a version that suits the style of the band without, however, altering the spirit of the original; a cover as it should be, Vasco with his pseudo-Italian version can only be ashamed and suck it…
Like the audience, the musicians behave quite composedly on stage, just some jokes from Curt Smith, while a cheerful Orzabal tries to speak Italian.
In any case, I really feel like saying it, it really felt like reliving an era I didn’t experience; maybe I was born in the wrong one?
Better not to talk about the opening act Justin Jesso, who seems like yet another pop singer with flat and banal arrangements like the countless ones found these days; already the funny name said it all, stuff like the Citterio ad with Sylvester Stallone, “what’s your name? Bubi!” the same feeling I got when Milan announced Musacchio (“who is he, a cartoon mouse?”); I watched his performance without enthusiasm, I hope he learned from Tears For Fears how decent pop music should be made.
A few small anecdotes: before purchasing the ticket, I announced only to my father the intention to go to this concert saying that “I’ll go see a group more from your time than mine, which theoretically should appeal more to you than to me”, remaining, however, very vague; he just tried to guess some names without succeeding; a few days before the concert I mentioned the group’s name to my father but nothing came to his mind (my father is someone who forgets quite quickly); upon returning from the concert, my mother asks “but do you think we know any of their songs?” and there I opened YouTube, just a few notes of “Shout”, “Mad World”, “Everybody Wants To Rule the World”, and “Change” and they remembered them very well. “And you went to see those guys? Well, look at that!”, “Then we could have gone too!” are some funny exclamations that came out of their mouths; they really didn’t know that I, among my thousand souls, had an ’80s new wave soul too; I clarified all their doubts by confessing my admiration for several bands of the period and often listening to them. Somehow, I always know how to surprise!
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