Concert Review: Tears For Fears / Cold War Kids @ SPAC, 07/02/2023

According to their 1985 Billboard # 1 hit single, Tears For Fears informed us that “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”

I don’t know about that, but the veteran British band certainly ruled Saratoga Springs on a warm summer night this past Sunday.

TFF was unavoidable in the eighties, releasing three albums of top-quality pop with cast-iron hooks and thoughtful lyrics. The core duo of Roland Orzabal (vocals, guitar) and Curt Smith (vocals, bass) fell out in 1991 but reconvened in 2000. They are now back touring a new album, 2022’s “The Tipping Point,” and sounding better than ever. A colossal lighting rig of concentric circles centered by a large screen added visual splendor to the impeccable mix.

Their set at SPAC contained no less than six of the ten tracks from that latest effort, plus a generous selection of their many earworm hits and deep album cuts.

One of TFF’s greatest strengths is their wide variety of material. Indeed, those three eighties albums could almost be the work of 3 different bands. There’s the debut “The Hurting,” – songs dealing with trauma, abuse, and depression, in some ways “emo” before the term became popular. Despite the dark subject matter, it scored hits like “Mad World” and “Change.”

Then there’s “Songs from the Big Chair” – eighties synth pop writ large – the widescreen production of “Everybody…”, “Shout,” and “Head Over Heels” proving irresistible to the MTV generation.

And completing the trilogy, “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” the joyous psychedelia of the title track is surely the best Beatles song the Beatles never wrote! That album also contained a dizzying gumbo of jazz, prog, and gospel influences, much to the dismay of their record label, who were looking forward to promoting and selling a kind of hits-laden “Songs from the Big Chair part 2”. Orzabal wryly refers to this period when introducing 2 of those jazzier tunes:

“I had to fight with the label to get this song (“Woman in Chains”) to be the first track on the album. Maybe they were right! And then this next one (“Badman’s Song”) didn’t sound ANYTHING like” Big Chair.”

He chuckles, and the band slams into the challenging pieces, absolutely nailing them.

TFF never stood still. They still don’t. Smith introduces the band members before the encore – Lauren Evans on vocals, Charlton Pettus on guitar, Doug Petty on keyboards, and Jamie Wollam on drums, all top-notch – then turns casually to his partner as the crowd roars its approval:

“That’s Roland, and I’m Curt,” he pauses and gives a confident smile, “…and we ARE Tears For Fears.”

Yes, they ARE. Still.

Support band Cold War Kids kicked off proceedings with a solid 50-minute set of their punchy alternative pop. Led by the strong vocals of Nathan Willett, they got a warm reception from an attentive audience. The band is rounded out by Matt Maust on bass, Joe Plummer on drums, Matthew Schwartz on keys, and David Quon on guitar. 

Set List. Cold War Kids:

• Love is Mystical
• Complainer
• What You Say
• Can We Hang On?
• Miracle Mile
• Audience of One
• Hang Me Up to Dry
• Restless
• Hospital Beds
• You Already Know
• So Tied Up
• Double Life
• All This Could be Yours
• First

Set List. Tears For Fears:

• No Small Thing
• The Tipping Point
• Everybody Wants to Rule the World
• Secret World
• Sowing the Seeds of Love
• Long, Long, Long Time
• Break the Man
• My Demons
• Rivers of Mercy
• Mad World
• Suffer the Children
• Woman in Chains
• Badman’s Song
• Pale Shelter
• Break it Down Again
• Head Over Heels / Broken

Encores:

• Change 
• Shout

Photo Gallery by Dakota Gilbert