Talking ‘Bout My Regeneration Tour 2008 Experience

Last night… Sunday, August 24th, 2008… I went to the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan to attend the Regeneration Tour 2008 concert starring five acts from the 1980s music scene – Naked Eyes, A Flock Of Seagulls, ABC, Belinda Carlisle, and Human League.

The concert started around the 7:00pm mark with Pete Byrne from Naked Eyes, (other original member Rob Fisher died in 1999), on acoustic guitar and a keyboardist and drummer to accompany him. He began his set with “Always Something There To Remind Me”, probably the band’s most well known hit. “Promises, Promises” was also played in this brief set along with a number from Naked Eyes’ newest CD and a few other lesser known hits. This was a bare bones kind of performance and reminiscent of a typical opening act that doesn’t have quite the funds of the bigger act or acts. Good, but nothing special. Considering that there were still plenty of pavilion and lawn seats unoccupied, I thought maybe more people would come for the later acts.

Next, A Flock Of Seagulls performed and it appeared that the only original member on the stage for this set was Mike Score, the keyboardist and lead singer whom we probably all know best for his wild hairstyle from the 80s. The former hairdresser now sports a long ponytail covered by a baseball cap. Apparently the other original members are now retired from music so Mike uses three newer band members who were fine in performance, but again, the sound was not well balanced. I was disappointed that I could not hear the synthesizers well at all, which were so “key” in the band’s recordings, particularly in my favorite Flock Of Seagulls song, “Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)”. The crowd did become a little more animated when they closed their 25 minute set with “I Ran”… hands down their biggest hit. (Also played was “Space Age Love Song” – another hit of the band’s).

The stage morphed a little bit for the next act and you felt like something a little bigger and a little better planned was coming up next. ABC entered the stage next with their original singer, Martin Fry, and lit up the night with wonderful renditions of their hits, “Be Near Me”, “Poison Arrow”, and “When Smokey Sings”. I was truly impressed with Martin’s fantastic singing, his backing band and by the total sound of the performance after hearing the less than desirable (lack of) balance of the first two acts.

When Belinda Carlisle walked on stage to the sounds of Frank singing, “The Lady Is A Tramp”, you would have thought that she never aged. Belinda looked fantastic and took us on a ride down memory lane with many great songs including a lesser known favorite of mine, “Live Your Life Be Free”, as well as “I Get Weak”, “Castles In The Sand”, “Mad About You”, 3 Go-Gos songs (”Vacation”, “Our Lips Are Sealed”, and “We Got The Beat”), closing with “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”. Witnessing Belinda’s performance was particularly exciting for me as The Go-Gos were very influential in the beginning of my music making years in the early 1980s as they were one of the first big, successful all girl bands of that era. Belinda, (who just turned 50 on August 17th), still could really belt out her songs, but the one issue I noticed, (as a fellow musician), was that her singing/tone often went a little sharp. I am wondering if she could hear the other musicians well enough as I did not see her sporting the usual ear piece that many musicians wear onstage to hear the music better. Nevertheless…we got the beat and we enjoyed Belinda’s performance very much.

The stage morphed one final time. It was set up with electronic drums, a few keyboards, and some flat screens placed staggered along the backdrop. A few musicians entered the stage, then two women – a blond (Susan Ann Sulley) on the left, a brunette (Joanne Catherall) on the right, and in the center appeared lead singer, Philip Oakey sporting a bald head but looking great and sounding wonderful! There before us were the Human League.
The first few songs that were played were a little lost on me and the company that I was with (we didn’t know those songs), but they did please the crowd with, “Human” (my favorite Human League song penned by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis), “(Keep Feeling) Fascination”, and of course, “Don’t You Want Me”.

I admit to heading towards my car as the encore was being played (a number that I did not recognize), but I had a good time at an inexpensive lawn seat price, and I was able to relive a little of my younger days with some acts that sound just as (or almost as) good now as they did around 25 years ago.

The turnout of the crowd never increased much as the concert played on, but I have heard that it varies from town to town. It’s a fun, inexpensive evening out, and I recommend that you take all of your 80s music fan buddies to reconnect for a few hours with some great music from a great musical era.

Catch the beat while you can!

Sharon’s blog is www.Musical1.bustablog.com. Check it out! We will be sending her a Cant Stop Rockin “can coozie” from our guest blogger contest. If you are interested in submitting a review check out the contest rules on the Contests page.

[tags]Regeneration tour, Naked Eyes, A Flock of Seagulls, ABC, Belinda Carlisle, Human League[/tags]