Tears for Fears w/ Cold War Kids at Starlight Theatre, Kansas City MO (2023-07-14)

“No more rain! No more rain!” – Tears for Fears “Break the Man”

About at the midway point of their The Tipping Point II Tour, UK duo Tears for Fears finally returned to Kansas City, for a slightly weather-shortened but jubilant evening outdoors at Starlight Theatre, bringing along openers Cold War Kids.

Talk about the Weather– just hours before, triple-digit mph winds and driving rain hit the metro, ultimately resulting in tree limbs down everywhere, 200,000 homes without electricity, and flash-flooded streets. The concert going off at all, seemed highly in doubt, but the decision was made to open the venue gates and begin later at 8:20pm, which ended up being the wise decision, as skies had mostly cleared just beforehand.

Long Beach five-piece Cold War Kids opened the show, with a rain-shortened set, cutting three songs, but still made the most of their forty minutes by playing their handful of alternate radio hits, and even working in a brand-new song, pleasing existing fans while gaining new ones, and even were able to use some stage lights and the screen, normally reserved only for headliners.

Singer Nathan Willett was animated the entire time, playing some guitar and piano as well as singing, and the band opened strong with “Love is Mystical” and 2017’s “Can We Hang On?” was especially noteworthy for its soulful and gospel-tinged live rendition. A few were still making their way in at the midpoint song of the set- “Hang Me Out to Dry,” which was fitting as wet seats were being toweled off by the volunteer staff and people were wringing out rain gear.

The band’s last records were the 2019-2021 trilogy of New Age Norms 1, 2 and 3 but newer music is not far behind, as they played the new single, “Double Life” live as well, and dedicated it to any mothers in the crowd. Just out last month, Willett painted a lyrical picture of dual identities, singing “Sing my songs, bang my head, rush me home, back to bed” and the band saved their biggest radio hit, “First” …for last.

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Despite the weather delay, Tears for Fears was determined to play their entire 1hr 45min set for their loyal fans, even if that meant going past the usual curfew time, as they had not played a metro area venue in some time. The focal point of the staging was the enormous circular video screen behind the band (perhaps borrowed from the Gilmour-led / Momentary Lapse-era Pink Floyd) and the outer two spirals of lights surrounding it.

The duo were both in good spirits and have been playing their biggest hit, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” very early on in their set, with Roland Orzabal commenting after, “Kansas City, it’s been a Long, Long, Long Time” (both to make his point, and tease an upcoming song) also mentioning the earlier weather, saying “it had all turned a little English.”

“Kansas City is an extremely important location in the history of Tears for Fears”, he continued, relating the famous story of them coming upon Oleta Adams and her band playing in the Peppercorn Duck Club, following a 1985 Memorial Hall show, and eventually recruiting her for three songs on their “Seeds of Love” album (…which sounded like the perfect intro for Adams to actually appear and sing, but she must have been out of town).

The mid-section of newest album. The Tipping Point (on Concord Records) was played live in sequence and soon followed by a trio of songs (including a very different-sounding “Pale Shelter”) featuring vocalist Carina Round- a solo star in her own right, as well as previous member of Puscifer, Black Light Burns, and others.

With the crowd singing along, “Head over Heels / Broken” (why they don’t play the beginning portion of “Broken,” I don’t know) would end the main set, only to be goaded back quickly by loud applause and maybe that looming curfew time. Orzabal introduced the band (remaining- [a mostly quiet for the evening] Curt Smith and several of his/their longtime collaborators; Charlton Pettus- guitar; Jamie Wollam- drums and Doug Petty– keyboards).

Their authentic and somewhat slowed cover of Radiohead “Creep” began the two-song encore and was followed of course, by “Shout” to close out the evening, with Orzabal even serenading the sign language interpreters during the first verse, then he walked towards the other stage end, to the gleeful rows of fans waiting at stage right.

Not even the punishing summer weather could keep loyal Kansas City fans from seeing Tears for Fears returning to Kansas City after a too-long absence: “The wind and the rain, hand in hand we'll do and die, listening to the band that made us cry” the duo sang on 1989’s “Famous Last Words” and that may have encapsulated the exact feeling of so many longtime fans that had been awaiting their anticipated return to town.

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