1980's new wave pop band remains relevant
Martin Fry and ABC thrill crowd at Bimbo's 365 Club
ABC is the most underrated '80s new wave pop band of all.
Yet, that certainly didn't appear to be the case on Monday night at Bimbo's 365 Club, as hundreds of fans packed the snazzy San Francisco club to capacity to energetically cheer on vocalist Martin Fry and company and joyfully relive some of the decade's very best pop songs.
“It feels like 1983 in here tonight,” Fry remarked to the crowd. “I am having a flashback “
And what a tremendous flashback it was, as Fry — the group's only remaining original member — showcased his still-pristine vocals on 16 songs during roughly 75 minutes of stage time.
Actually, this particular flashback is part of a much bigger one going on around here, as a number of the other acts that played the big SoCal '80s Cruel World festival last weekend — including
Love and Rockets, Human League, Echo and the Bunnymen, Modern English and Gary Numan — also scheduled shows in the Bay Area.
All of those acts were listed higher on the Cruel World bill than ABC, underscoring the fact that Fry's English outfit rarely gets the respect it deserves.
But it certainly got plenty of respect from fans during Monday's Bimbo's 365 show, which served as another testament to ABC's lasting greatness.
Opening with “Show Me” — one of a half-dozen songs featured during the show from 1982's seminal “The Lexicon of Love” album — ABC melded new wave, synth-pop, soul music, sophisti-pop, disco and supper club into an overall sound that remains as exciting, fresh and distinctive as ever.
The 65-year-old Fry used his time onstage to lay claim to being one of his genre's truly great frontmen, using a potent combination of charisma, charm and pizzazz to engage and entertain the crowd. And his voice was nothing short of spectacular, so closely resembling what one hears on hits originally recorded more than 40 years ago. Yet, he did some of his best work on one of the few newer songs played.
“I was channeling my best Mario Lanza on that one,” Fry remarked, referencing the great American tenor at the conclusion of “The Flames of Desire.” “Some Tony Hadley (of Spandau Ballet) as well.”
The setlist was identical to the one the group played at the same club in 2021, with the lion's share devoted to “The Lexicon of Love” — one of the finest new wave/new romantic albums ever produced — and heaping helpings for both 1985's “How to Be a … Zillionaire!” and 1987's “Alphabet City.”
Fry did a great job connecting with the crowd between songs, telling quick little anecdotes and providing interesting commentary. At one point, he remembered how wearing flamboyant attire would get him and others — notably, Philip Oakley of Human League — chased out of pubs by blokes in working-class Sheffield at the dawn of the new wave/new romantic movement.
“I keep thinking that they were wrong, and we were right,” Fry concluded. “Because we are still here. And where are those guys?”
The last three songs of the main set were some of the best of the night, beginning with arguably the finest broken-hearted love song of the '80s — “All of My Heart.”
“What's it like to have loved and to lose her touch?” Fry crooned in a way that every single person in the building could identify with. “What's it like to have loved and to lose that much?”
He followed up with the rowdy tenor sax-driven “When Smokey Sings” and then closed the main set with a tremendous version of “The Look of Love (Part One)” that had everyone screaming “hip hip hooray aye” and “yippie aiy yippee yaye.”
The band returned for a gorgeous encore of “Be Near Me” and then played one more tune that surely sounded familiar to these fans — because they had heard it earlier that night.
“Do you want to hear `Poison Arrow' one more time?” Fry asked. “This time, you have to sing along.”
They agreed. And they might still be singing along to the song as you read this.