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The Human League Enmore Theatre, March 8 Reviewed by MICHAEL RUFFLES★★★½
The Human League didn’t so much emerge from the primordial soup of 1980s pop music as cook it up in the first place. The ingredients were all there in 1981 album Dare, the band’s creative and commercial peak, which they played in full before an appreciative crowd at the Enmore Theatre.
Frontman Philip Oakey led the time warp, aided and abetted by longstanding singers Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, along with a sharply dressed band and gleaming white instruments.
Oakey and co cycled through several hits (and jackets) early, starting strongly with Mirror Man and breaking out the keytar for Tell Me When. The upbeat (Keep Feeling) Fascination and catchy Heart Like a Wheel were a reminder the band’s knack for a hook was no fluke.
But it was Dare the crowd had come to hear, and they got it all: the good, the great and the merely OK. The album is well-structured to be played from start to finish live, as it comes out of the gate with three hit singles and climaxes with the world-conquering Don’t You Want Me.
The anthemic opener The Things That Dreams Are Made Of is an ambitious and euphoric mission statement; The Sound of the Crowd was fantastic.
The deeper cuts were more mixed. Do or Die was a fan favourite, and did pay off strongly after a bit of early meandering, while I Am the Law channelled Judge Dredd by way of David Bowie. Seconds borrowed more successfully from Gary Numan while recounting the Kennedy assassination.
Everything the Human League has done is put in the shade by the classic Don’t You Want Me. Oakey has expressed mixed feelings about the mega-hit over the years, but showed no sign of ambivalence as he and Sulley delivered the twisted duet with gusto.
The non-Dare songs saved for encore, just quietly, were better. Being Boiled was menacing and moody, providing the best booming and portentous moments of the night, while Together in Electric Dreams was a soaring, uplifting finale.
The hair and make-up has changed, but the synth-pop is just as good as ever.
Yothu Yindi City Recital Hall, March 8