ABC and Howard Jones put on the feel good concert of the season

Eighties hitmakers ABC and Howard Jones offered a cure for the winter blues and hope for brighter days ahead at their concert at Steelhouse Omaha on February 19.

The concert venue, not yet two years old, was also the site of an intimate Duran Duran show last May. The connection was noted by Richard Blade, the SiriusXM and KROQ DJ, who “opened“ for each band by regaling the audience with stories about the music of the decade and snippets of its famous songs. Those tracks included “Rio” and “The Reflex,” and Duran Duran were also featured on a list of 1st Wave listeners’ top six favorite bands, as detailed by Blade. 

While the DJ provided some light entertainment between sets, essentially a time used for stage setup, the crowd was there for the bands themselves, of course. And ABC was in top form, playing their biggest hits, with an emphasis on their U.K. chart-topping debut album, The Lexicon of Love. Those songs included “Show Me,” “Poison Arrow” and “Valentine’s Day.” ABC are led by original member and golden-voiced frontman Martin Fry, who struck a debonaire pose in his sparkly blazer and impossibly shiny shoes. He’s the rare vocalist who still sounds nearly as good as he did in his band’s heyday. 

ABC opened the show with their biggest U.S. hit, “When Smokey Sings,” dedicated to the legendary Smokey Robinson on his birthday. Other highlights included fellow smash singles “(How to Be a) Millionaire” and encore closer “The Look of Love.” But the real magic came when the band played the tender duo “All of My Heart” and “Be Near Me” back to back to end their main set.

ABC was hard to top, but Howard Jones immediately enthralled the audience with his keytar and colorful clothing. He and his band didn’t shy away from the ’80s references either, even bringing to mind Revenge of the Nerds and its talent show scene.

Jones and his band, which included Kajagoogoo bassist Nick Beggs, played that group’s U.K. number one single, “Too Shy” (co-produced by Nick Rhodes) in addition to his own slew of hits. It was impossible not to sing and dance along as Jones and the band offered a shot of positivity, playing everything from “New Song” and “What Is Love?” to “No One Is to Blame” and “Everlasting Love.” 

But the evening might be best summed up by its closing track, “Things Can Only Get Better,” which could very well be a theme song for these trying times. 

What’s clear is that ABC and Howard Jones easily delivered the feel good show of the winter—and possibly the entire year.

ABC photo by Karen Duran Windle. Howard Jones photos by Christopher Windle.

Top five live shows of 2024

Duran Duran

More than 35 years after Duran Duran last played Omaha, the band returned for an electrifying concert to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Steelhouse Omaha in May.

The show, from the atmospheric opening song “Night Boat” to the obligatory closer “Rio,” was indeed a celebration for everyone. This included the Duranies who had waited outside the venue for over 12 hours and the well-heeled Omahans who filled the balcony, which was closed for a private party.

“Black Moonlight,” a single from their latest album, made up the heart of the show, which included the streaming smash “Invisible” as well as “Friends of Mine” and “Careless Memories.” The Omaha show was the surprise of Duran Duran’s spring tour, according to synth guru Nick Rhodes. “Wow, what an audience. I guess we hadn’t been there for a very long time, and it just all clicked together that night,” he said.

Read more: Duran Duran at Steelhouse Omaha

X

Longtime Los Angeles punk stalwarts X brought their farewell tour to the Waiting Room in Omaha in July. 

X, with all four original members—vocalist Exene Cervenka, bassist and vocalist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer D.J. Bonebrake—played 22 songs, a feat that many much younger bands don’t even attempt, proving all the while that they're truly American treasures.

Read more: X bring farewell tour to Omaha

Crowded House

Crowded House showcased their familiar hits and familial ties at The Astro amphitheater in La Vista in September.

The Australian-New Zealand band, led by the ever-talented Neil Finn, also features fellow original member Nick Seymour on bass, longtime collaborator Mitchell Froom on keyboards and Finn’s sons, Liam and Elroy, on guitar and drums, respectively. They were still in top form, playing songs from their newest album as well as exhilarating hits like “Distant Sun” and “Don’t Dream It’s Over.”

Read more: Crowded House at The Astro

The Psychedelic Furs and The Jesus and Mary Chain 

The Psychedelic Furs brought their current tour, with its impressive lineup, to The Astro in La Vista in October. After the death of saxophone player Mars Williams, The Furs have forged ahead, with longtime collaborator Richard Fortus joining the tour to add a new dimension to their live sound. 

The Jesus and Mary Chain, a band as formidable as the headliners, actually played three more tracks than The Furs. But The Furs, with their expertly curated setlist and dynamic stage presence, enthralled the audience until the final note.

Read more: The Psychedelic Furs and The Jesus and Mary Chain

Actors

Actors, a post-punk band from Vancouver, Canada, traveled down the West Coast (and elsewhere in the U.S.) in the fall, playing Lodge Room in the Los Angeles area in November. They brought along The Discussion and the new wave-inspired electro group Male Tears for the concert. Actors' 15-song set included favorites like “Slave” and “Strangers” as well as a new single, “Object Of Desire.” They even capped their encore with one of their most intense songs, “Bury Me.”

All photos by Christopher Windle and Karen Duran Windle.

Duran Duran's top moments of 2024

It’s another year in the books for Duran Duran, a band now approaching their 45th anniversary.

Duran’s 2024 included a few new songs, an exhilarating run of concerts and an honor for singer Simon Le Bon.

Live shows

Duran Duran played select dates on a spring U.S. tour, including the Cruel World Festival in California and a show at a small venue in Nebraska. They were back in the States in the fall, in time for Halloween, on which they performed at a sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden in New York. The band members donned costumes and played much of their latest album, Danse Macabre, as well as deep cuts like Arcadia’s “Missing.” The show also aired multiple times on Sirius XM radio.

Danse De Luxe

Duran Duran dropped an expanded edition of their Halloween-themed album, which was available on some formats in time for the holiday. New songs on Danse Macabre De Luxe include a cover of ELO’s “Evil Woman”; a reimagining of their own hit, “New Moon (Dark Phase)”; and the instrumental “Masque Of The Pink Death.” An expanded vinyl box set includes four additional tracks: the Classics IV cover “Spooky,” the spoken-word “Instructions For A Seance,” and the instrumentals “Dialogues Of The Dead” and “The Visitor.”

Simon Le Bon, MBE

The singer was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to music and charity in November. Le Bon called the honor “unexpected” and said he hoped it would raise awareness for charities he has been involved with, including the conservation group Blue Marine Foundation and Centrepointe, which tackles youth homelessness.

A big year ahead?

While new music isn’t yet on the horizon for 2025, the band members have hyped a huge European tour happening next summer. In particular, bassist John Taylor said the band is going to be performing in many countries they haven’t played in a long time. And given the spontaneity behind their last studio album, more big news is surely ahead for Duran Duran.

At top: Le Bon in Omaha. (Photo by Karen Duran Windle) 

Review: The Psychedelic Furs and The Jesus and Mary Chain at The Astro

The Psychedelic Furs brought their current tour—with its impressive lineup of artists—to The Astro in La Vista, Nebraska, on a late October evening. 

The concert was The Furs’ first in the state since 2016. Much has changed since then. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the band released their first album in nearly three decades, the excellent Made of Rain, and last year, they lost their saxophone player, Mars Williams, to cancer. The Furs have forged ahead, with longtime collaborator Richard Fortus joining the tour to add a new dimension to their live sound. 

The tour is rounded out by Scottish indie rockers The Jesus and Mary Chain, a band as formidable as the headliners. Frankie Rose, formerly of acts like Dum Dum Girls, opened the show. 

The Jesus and Mary Chain. Photo by Christopher Windle

As for the JAMC, the band showcased their songs that inspired shoegaze, with lead guitarist William Reid and the rest of the players forming a literal wall of sound toward the back of the stage, in front of amps stamped with “JESUS.” Reid’s brother, vocalist Jim Reid, occupied the front of the stage, winding up his microphone cord in his hand and singing the band’s best-known singles nearly as well as he did originally. 

And the JAMC are still going strong. Those singles include the opener “Jamcod,” off their latest album, Glasgow Eyes, which the singer closed by repeatedly chanting each word in the song’s title. Then the band launched into two of their best songs, “April Skies” and “Head On.” They also brought Rose onstage to sing with Reid on “Sometimes Always” (originally performed by Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval) and “Just Like Honey” before closing the 18-song set with “I Hate Rock ‘n’ Roll.” (That’s three more tracks than The Furs played.)

The JAMC was tough to top, but The Furs made a wise move by adding another guitarist to their live show. That, along with the expertly curated setlist and the band’s dynamic stage presence, enthralled the audience until the final note.

The English band’s current incarnation includes two original members, Richard and Tim Butler, also brothers, as well as guitarist Rich Good, keyboardist Amanda Kramer (formerly of Information Society) and drummer Zachary Alford, a New Yorker who worked with David Bowie, The B-52’s and others.

The band began its incendiary set with a newer song, “The Boy That Invented Rock & Roll” off Made of Rain, and the show built in intensity from there. A big factor behind the band’s beefed-up sound is Fortus, who co-produced their last album and played guitar onstage as well as a cool-looking electric cello. Good, who has ably handled guitar duties in the band since 2009, shared the spotlight with Fortus but was no less a key presence, venturing out to the very edge of the stage at times. Meanwhile, Richard Butler prowled the stage, his ever-raspy voice still sounding much as it did during the band’s peaks years in the ’80s. Tim Butler also roamed from side to side on bass, mouthing the lyrics of many of the songs.

Photos of The Psychedelic Furs by Karen Duran

While The Furs mixed things up by playing some deeper cuts, they still kept their biggest crowd-pleasers in the setlist, including “The Ghost in You,” “Love My Way,” “Heartbreak Beat” and of course, “Pretty in Pink”—sounding much more like the version from Talk Talk Talk than the one from the John Hughes film. They also played newer songs like “Wrong Train” (also off Made of Rain) and went back to the beginning with “Pulse.” And on tour in the U.S. during an election year, the band couldn’t not play “President Gas,” which was even more powerful with the addition of Fortus’ cello. 

Although there was no encore, the end of the setlist still had the feeling of one, as The Furs followed a blistering “Forever Now” with one of their biggest songs, “Heaven.” It capped a remarkable night of music featuring two veteran bands still in top form.

Crowded House prove they haven’t lost the magic with brilliant show at The Astro

Crowded House showcased their familiar hits and familial ties at The Astro amphitheater in La Vista on Friday, providing the ideal soundtrack to a beautiful late-summer evening.

The Australian-New Zealand band, led by the ever-talented Neil Finn, also features fellow original member Nick Seymour on bass, longtime collaborator Mitchell Froom on keyboards, and Finn’s sons, Liam and Elroy, on guitar and drums, respectively—though, like their father, the two really are multi-instrumentalists. 

As the opening act, Liam Finn showed off his own talents, playing drums and guitars and singing, too. Neil Finn’s move of putting his boys in the band was a smart one, as Liam’s voice is especially similar to his dad’s and complements it quite well. Both sons also sang lead during Crowded House’s set, giving Finn a chance to rest his voice a bit.

The band, now approaching their 40th anniversary, are still in top form, as evidenced on their latest album, Gravity Stairs. They played five of that album’s 11 songs, including the wistful “Teenage Summer” and the joyful “Oh Hi.” The new songs fit seamlessly among the band’s scores of ’80s and ’90s hits.

To open the concert, they went back to the start, playing “Recurring Dream” followed by “World Where You Live,” from their classic self-titled debut. Mid-set, Finn switched from guitar to piano for a few songs, including “Message to My Girl,” one of two Split Enz covers played during the show. They followed that with “When You Come” and “Private Universe,” which featured an extended outro that added intensity to the already-stunning track. 

Elroy Finn moved out from behind the drum kit for “Thirsty,” another track off the new album, and touring percussionist Paul Taylor filled in on drums. Liam Finn also took a turn on lead vocals on “The Howl,” another new song, which was “the most played song in Omaha, Nebraska, tonight,” his father remarked. (He had played it to open the concert, too.)

The show then hit a high point—and it only built from there. Hearing Crowded House perform perhaps their finest song, “Distant Sun,” followed by their biggest hit, “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” can only be described as magical.

They closed the main set with two more hits, “Something So Strong” and “Weather With You,” prompting the crowd to sing along and then cheer for more. They opened the encore with another Split Enz cover, “I Got You,” which the audience members had voted to hear via a QR code. That was followed by “Nails in My Feet,” from the excellent Youth-produced ’90s album Together Alone. They ended the show on a low-key but no less exhilarating note with the ballad “Into Temptation,” which led into a brief version of “Better Be Home Soon.”

Crowded House—with their 23-track set list, witty and quirky between-song banter, and brilliant playing—put on a musical display that won’t soon be forgotten. Followed by a ride down the slides near the venue and a brief moonlit walk, the show made for a perfect evening.

Photos by Karen Duran Windle and Christopher Windle

Duran Duran Appreciation Day

For Duran Duran Appreciation Day, let’s take a look back at the band’s spring U.S. tour. Duran played select dates, including the Cruel World Festival in California and at venues including Steelhouse Omaha in Nebraska. Here are some additional photos from the Omaha concert and comments from Nick Rhodes about the small yet surprising show.

Rachael O’Connor strikes a pose. Above, John Taylor.
All photos by Karen Duran Windle

“I think the surprise for all of us on the whole trip was Omaha," Rhodes told “Katy’s Kafe.”

“We played a tiny little venue there and, honestly, as good as any small venue I think we’ve ever played. Just beautifully appointed. Incredible sound. They thought about everything, and wow, what an audience. I guess we hadn’t been there for a very long time, and it just all clicked together that night.”

  Rhodes and Simon Le Bon in a lighter moment.

“I think it’s true of any town … where they don’t get quite as much as everybody else,” the keyboardist continued. “Omaha, Nebraska, I guess they don’t always get everything. We certainly hadn’t been there in forever and ever. 

“I hope it’s not that long again. … 

That was really fun.”

Taylor plays the f***ing bass. 

Above, Le Bon and Anna Ross.

X go out in style during farewell tour stop in Omaha

X, longtime Los Angeles punk stalwarts, may be disbanding at the end of their current tour, but they’re far from slowing down. The band showed this and more during their concert at the Waiting Room in Omaha on Sunday night. 

X, with all four original members—vocalist Exene Cervenka, bassist and vocalist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer D.J. Bonebrake—played 22 songs, a feat that many much younger bands don’t even attempt. Through it all, the band put on a high-energy show, playing tracks from its forthcoming and final album, Smoke & Fiction, and kicking off the encore with a surprise.

Singer Jesse Ahern opened the show with his honest and earnest protest songs, connecting with the audience and even getting them to sing along at times. Then the crowd drew even closer to the stage for X, as they started the show with a trio of superb songs off Wild Gift, “Beyond and Back,” “In This House That I Call Home,” and “We’re Desperate,” before launching into the title track from their seminal debut album, Los Angeles.

X played four tracks from Smoke & Fiction, among them the title track and the aptly titled “Sweet Til the Bitter End,” which fit in seamlessly with their classic songs.

Doe, an everyman who has also dabbled in writing and acting (and could be considered a bit of a punk historian as well), introduced “The World’s a Mess: It’s My Kiss,” by saying that given the state of current events, the chorus had been stuck in his head. The song began the heart of the setlist, starting with “White Girl” and ending with “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts,” which featured not only a sax solo by Zoom but also a turn on vibraphone by Bonebrake.

Photos by Christopher Windle 

The band played two more tracks from Los Angeles, “Your Phone’s Off the Hook, but You’re Not” and “Sugarlight,” and “Motel Room in My Bed” from Under the Big Black Sun, before closing out the main setlist with their cover of The Doors’ “Soul Kitchen” (also off Los Angeles).

For the encore, Doe returned to the stage with only Cervenka to do “something that we never do” during an X show. The pair performed the stunning “See How We Are,” which was even more powerful when stripped down to the duo’s vocal harmonies and guitar.

The rest of the band then took the stage to bring the show to an energetic conclusion with “Adult Books” from Wild Gift and “Water & Wine” off 2020’s Alphabetland.

After more than 45 years, it’s understandable that X want to leave recording and touring behind. But the Omaha show proved that the band will always be American treasures—and they’ll be missed.