New Wave Band Modern English Rocks Out at One Eyed Jacks

11:39 May 26, 2016
By: Steve Hatley

Being a product of the 80s, this year has been quite good for me musically.  I’ve been fortunate enough to see The Cure two times, Duran Duran, The Church, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Peter Murphy and They Might be Giants, and am looking forward to seeing Book of Love and Guns N’ Roses.  So when I saw that Modern English were touring again with their original line-up, I was beyond excited.  To top it off, the band was performing material from their 4AD years, in particular, Mesh & Lace (1981) in its entirety.  While not in chronological order, the set was in some ways a re-imagination of the album.  The post-punk pioneers could have easily come off as irrelevant and outdated, but sticking with the Mesh album was a stroke of genius.   If you went into the show expecting an “I Melt with You” pop lovefest, you would have been sorely disappointed.  While the song did end the evening, everything that preceded it was by far different and a true definition of a musical moment in history.  Modern English proved that the post-punk movement is still relevant and has a lot of promise to come. 

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