Tears For Fears. June 1, 2022. Concord Pavilion

When one thinks of Tear for Fears, it’s probably the hits. Nothing wrong with hit songs like “Shout,” “Change,” “Mad World,” “Head Over Heels,” “Sowing The Seeds of Love,” “Break It Down Again,” and “Everybody Wants To Rule The World.” That’s plenty of material that would make anyone nostalgic for the 1980s happy to hear. However, Tear for Fears is more than their hits. In a way, they are a progressive pop/rock band; a band that changes from album to album in such a way that they don’t really get stuck in a particular style or sound. If you just take their first three albums (The Hurting, Songs From The Big Chair, and The Seeds of Love), you’ll hear a lot of stylistic changes from record to record. The first album really rode the New Wave, the second one was much more oriented toward pop for the radio hits, but dig a little deeper and you’ll hear some prog elements in “Broken” that previews the hit single “Head Over Heels,” and then slides right back into “Broken” at the end — with a crowd roar and into the meditative “Listen” with Marilyn Davis adding some soaring vocals to the mix. In the eight songs that comprise that record, the band demonstraes a diverse and complex style that’s absent from most of their ’80s contemporaries.

The Seeds of Love continued to see Tears for Fears progress with a more mature sound that branches out to a serious nod to The Beatles, jazz flourishes, more straight-ahead rockers, and the incorporation of Oleta Adams as almost a third member of the band. This album stands as probably their greatest achievement in their catalog. It’s also the album (and tour) that drove Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith apart. Indeed, the next two Tears for Fears albums (Elemental and Raoul and the Kings of Spain) were essentially Orzabal solo efforts. It wasn’t until 2004’s Everybody Loves a Happy Ending that Orzabal and Smith kind of buried the hatchet and recorded what they thought would be their last album.

However, in 2013 the band got back together for a project that proved difficult and artistically stifling to make. That album was held back by their record label in 2016. And because of the delay, the duo started to have doubts about the quality of the music on the first iteration of The Tipping Point.

In 2017, Orzabal’s wife, Caroline Johnston, died after a long battle with depression, alcoholism, cirrhosis, and dementia — exacerbated by heavy drinking while on prescription drugs. That put a lot of TFF plans on hold until 2019 when they launched a successful tour. Revisiting the music on The Tipping Point, they decided to jettison some songs, rework others, and write new ones. A smart decision because the end result is an album that is more than a collection of songs. It is, as Smith and Orzabal said during their wonderful performance at the Concord Pavilion, designed to be listened to from beginning to end. In this day and age, many artists put out full-length records, but few put out real albums. And by album, I mean an artistic statement that’s meant to be listened to as a complete work. So proud are Tear for Fears of The Tipping Point that they featured seven songs live and one recorded track that was played before the band took the stage (and that song was “Stay”). For those who bought the album when it came out (like me), it was a real treat to hear these songs performed live. Roland Orzabal’s voice was in a stellar form that night. He was singing with the same power and range as he did in the 1980s. However, Curt Smith’s voice was a bit croaky early on. He kind of struggled with “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” but later explained that he was dealing with some throat issues and was sipping tea that night. However, that tea lubricated his vocal cords enough that when he sang “Long, Long, Long Time” and “Break The Man,” whatever difficulties he had at the beginning of the evening were pretty much a distant memory for the audience.

The band, and especially backing vocalist Carina Round, was something to behold. Pitch perfect performances that demonstrate Orzabal and Smith chose their touring band wisely. Round’s vocal prowess was quite the crowd-pleaser with lead vocals on “Suffer The Children” from The Hurting and co-vocals on “Woman In Chains” from The Seeds of Love.

Overall, Tears for Fears did not disappoint their fans (casual and super fans). They were clearly enjoying their time on the stage, featuring a mix of new and old songs, and even complimenting Concord, California — with Orzabal saying that he loved the weather (and it was pretty nice that day). Also, he noted: “I would move here…if I could afford it.” That got a big laugh, but also underscored that, yes, even in Concord, the price of a modest house is pretty expensive.

Opening for Tears for Fears was Garbage — the ’90s era pop/grungy darlings. Shirley Manson, like Curt Smith, was a bit off toward the beginning of the set, but her voice really smoothed out and exhibited a lot of power from the middle to the end of their performance. She didn’t seem too thrilled to be in Concord. And truth be told, who wants to be an opening band when the sun hasn’t set, and people are still funneling into the venue. Still, the band was pretty locked in and delivered a good performance that warmed up the audience for Tears for Fears.

Setlist

Stay (Album version)

No Small Thing
The Tipping Point
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Secret World
(Snippet of Wings’ “Let ‘Em In”)
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

Encore
End of Night
Change
Shout