Tears For Fears: Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix, AZ 7/21/09

With a familiar banjo/synth rift leading into an engaging “welcome to your liiffe,there’s no turning baaa…ack” it felt like 1985 again as Tears For Fears opened their show with perhaps their biggest hit – “Everybody Wants To Rule The World.” 

“This is the last show of a mammoth eight -show tour,” proclaimed Roland Orzabel a couple songs into Tears For Fears’ performance “in the round” to a half-filled Celebrity Theater.

With “80’s synth-pop” being all the rage these days amongst the hipster elite, it’s surprising that Tears For Fears haven’t generated more buzz amongst the Urban Outfitter set. Instead, their show at the Celebrity Theater brought out an aging 40 something crowd to soak in the new-wave sounds of Orzabel and his musical partner – Curt Smith. But while Depeche Mode still sells out 15,000+ arenas and promoters offering millions of bucks for a possible Smiths’ reunion, Tears For Fears has been neglected as the red-headed stepchild of the new-wave circuit , with smaller venues, smaller crowds and virtually no press.

The rotating stage courtesy of the “in the round” set-up, was all the amusement for Orzabel who observed,  “everyone has the
opportunity to be back stage at a Tears For Fears show,” before digesting what he might venture forward with following this final tour date – “I don’t know what to do after this, I might go back to college.”

There are probably no new albums on the horizon for Tears For Fears, but they enjoyed running through their back catalog their during their hour and a half performance.  Orzabel, who like Colin Hay of Men At Work, possesses a golden voice that you could love alone, still has strong vocal and stage charisma, while Smith, now grey, thin and tanned, still appear as that same duo that were an MTV video mainstay in the mid 80’s in between Mr. Mister and Duran Duran.

With opener, singer-songwriter Wainwright helping out on back-up vocals for a number of the songs, Tears For Fears’ band was spotty at best, never fully gelling as a full  entity but rather a bunch of hired guns out for a night of fun.  However that didn’t deter the welcoming fans from standing through-out and soaking in the hits including the newly made popular Mad World,” which Gary Jules recently made #1 in Britain.  Included in the set was a version of Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean,” played in the same revamped style honed by Chris Cornell, alongside familiar hits: “Sowing The Seeds of Love, “ Head Over Heals,” Break  It Down Again” and “Shout.”

If Tears For Fears really wanted to, they can probably market themselves (ala Journey) and catch a wave of nostalgia that will take them to greener pastures, but in the meantime short reunion tours seem to suit Orzabel and Smith just fine.

Related Content

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter