Concert Reviews (294)

• August 20, 2026
• Jaffer Hasan
• 45
• 0

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If you told me four British new wave legends from the 80s were getting on a plane and coming to Boston together, I’d tell you to stop playing with me. And yet here we were. Howard Jones himself curated this whole thing — hand-picking Wang Chung,The English Beat starring Dave Wakeling , and Modern English and calling it the Things Can Only Get Better Tour. All four acts performing full sets. A Wednesday night at the House of Blues. Next door, Fenway doing its thing. Only in Boston.

The house was packed early, which told you everything about the kind of crowd this was — not the fashionably late type. These were people who showed up on time because they weren’t about to miss a second of it.

Modern English

Modern English opened, and Robbie Grey came out with this odd habit of strangling himself mid-performance — not something I’d seen before, and I still don’t entirely know what to make of it, but it was his thing and he committed to it fully. After a few songs the crowd started calling for “I Melt With You,” which is fair — it’s arguably their most famous song and the one most people in that room grew up with. They got it eventually. But for me, “Hands Across the Sea” is the one. The band has been together since 1977 with their original core lineup of Robbie Grey and Michael Conroy still intact, and that kind of history shows — tight, lived-in, no wasted motion. Short set, but they did what they came to do.

The English Beat starring Dave Wakeling

Then came a delay — Boston traffic having its way with the evening, holding up part of the bill while the street outside the venue turned into a parking lot. Richard Blade stepped in to fill the gap, and honestly, good on him. The longtime SiriusXM host kept the room warm and engaged in that way that only someone who has spent decades on the radio truly knows how to do — storytelling, easy charm, making people feel like they were somewhere rather than just waiting. In a room full of phones that could have easily pulled everyone away, he held them. That’s a skill.

Eventually Dave Wakeling made it, and The English Beat took the stage with Wakeling still tuning his guitar as the first song started — threading the needle right up to the last second, getting it exactly where it needed to be by the time his first chord hit. Dave Wakeling has kept The English Beat alive and touring for nearly four decades, and you can feel it in how loose and sure he is up there — the kind of performer who has made peace with the stage and just enjoys being on it. “Tenderness” was the highlight for me, really showing off what the rest of the band was capable of, giving everyone room to breathe. The Smokey Robinson cover “Tears of a Clown” brought some warmth and soul into the set, and “Mirror in the Bathroom” closed it out — that restless, bass-heavy groove filling the House of Blues like it was built for it. Stage crew tore everything down and reset with a speed that was genuinely impressive. These are the unsung heroes of a four-act night.

Wang Chung

And then — my guys. Wang Chung. I’ll be honest, whenever I can’t decide what to put on, Wang Chung is where I end up. Jack Hues walked out in snake-skin short boots and this brown-green jacket that absolutely owned the room before he even opened his mouth, cross earrings catching the light. The man is styled by life and experience. There’s a kind of confidence that doesn’t come from caring what anyone thinks — it comes from having stopped thinking about it entirely decades ago. He had it in abundance.

The first two songs stopped the room cold. “Wait” and “To Live and Die in L.A.” — both from the acclaimed 1985 film of the same name — played in near silence, the crowd just listening. That almost never happens. I kid you not, I had watched the film two nights before without knowing I’d be standing in this room hearing these songs live. Chills. Actual chills. There’s a whole era of film soundtracks that those songs belong to — atmospheric, cinematic, a little dangerous — and it doesn’t really exist anymore. Hearing them live was a reminder of what’s been lost.

Then the gears shifted — “Let’s Go,” “Dance Hall Days,” and “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” to close, Jack Hues and Nick Feldman bringing that signature sound that somehow still sounds fresh. Everyone was up. Everyone was in it. I could have happily watched another hour. Short set, tight set, and the main act was waiting.

Howard Jones

He came out in darkness, red LED laser beams shooting from his sunglasses — six of them, cutting through the House of Blues like the Terminator had been modernized and sent back to play synthesizers. I genuinely didn’t know what I was looking at for a second. Then the music started.

Howard Jones first burst onto the scene in 1983 with his very English songwriting and pioneering synthesizer work, and he’s been a constant presence on the international touring scene for four decades since. None of that time has softened what he does. “Stand Up” opened things, then into “Like to Get to Know You Well” — the crowd singing back from the very first line. He ran a much longer set than anyone before him: “The One to Love You,” “Life in One Day,” “You Know I Love You Don’t You?”, “What Is Love” — the hits just kept coming from both Human’s Lib and Dream Into Action, his band locked in behind him, giving every song the space it deserved. The voice is still there, completely there, the kind of thing that makes you realize some people were just built for this.

And then “Things Can Only Get Better” to close. The song that reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 6 in the UK back in 1985, and still hits like it was written yesterday. The whole room sang it back to him, every word, and Howard Jones stood up there letting it happen, soaking it in, giving it right back. That song is a message — Jones himself said he built this entire tour around it as a statement of hope for a future we can create. In the House of Blues on a Wednesday night in Boston, with four British bands and a room full of people who needed exactly this, it landed exactly that way.

Long night. Great night. One of the better ones.

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Photos – Howard Jones, Wang Chung, The Beat starring Dave Wakeling, Modern English at House of Blues in Boston, MA on August 19th: