RockHack: Concert Review: The English Beat, Johnny D's, Somerville .

Concert Review: The English Beat, Johnny D's, Somerville, January 4

The English Beat are better than you remember. Off the top of your head, you can just recall "Mirror in the Bathroom" and their cool logo. But they possess more songs that cause you go, "Oh, yeah, this is very good," than you realized. And they can get a party going on a cold Tuesday night in January like nobody's business.

"How Can You Stand There?" was the unofficial theme song for the night. It was probably about political apathy, but it applied to the interview at a more literal level to the few hold-outs in the audience. Most of the sold-out crowd at Johnny D's was on their feet and dancing. Even people with seats at tables on the edges of the crowded room were up and moving. Dave Wakeling could taunt someone up front for standing still with arms folded only because it was a rarity. Even more impressive about "How Can You Stand There?" is that it was a new song, not yet recorded, but it fit in so easily with their repertoire of hits that the audience never slowed down. And the major and minor hits kept coming: "Hands Off She's Mine," "I Confess," "Best Friend," "Twist and Crawl," "Save It For Later" (See what I said about more serious songs than you remember?) They brought out the covers that they put their own stamp on, "Tears of a Clown," "Can't Get Used to Losing You" and "I'll Take You There." Guitarist and singer Dave Wakeling is the entirely original member still with the band; the current keyboard player probably wasn't even born when the Ranking Roger was bobbing around in videos in the early days of MTV. But the line-up in tight, ably delivering the material that made the set the epitome of the early '80s ska revival. No, the evening wasn't perfect. While it was impressive that they played more than two hours, the energy in the room sagged at around the 1 hr 45 mark; they could have trimmed a few songs and yet kept the interview more than satisfied. And it's hard to fully endorse a group so clearly trading on nostalgia. But it's too difficult to fault a lot that generates so much fun.