It Must Be Love or Madness

If you ever thought your middle-aged years weren’t meant for raising hell, just say to hell with the ageists and get suited and booted for a Madness show. The North London band might have been feeling their age, too—they joked about having come to America on the Mayflower for their first tour in 1979. But the vibes at the Fox Theater were youthful and immaculate, bringing everyone to their feet for the rocksteady beats, from the middle-aged fans to those barely out of their teens.

It’s an impressive feat that the British ska revivalists that formed Madness in the late ‘70s have retained six of its original seven members, but the fanbase has remained just as devoted, not just in sound but in style. The two-tone genre (a heady blend of Jamaican ska and reggae with the punk and new wave sounds of the ‘70s and ‘80s, perfect for all-nighters on the dancefloor) brought out the nattily dressed—slim-cut suits and pencil skirts, and the ‘60s mod fashions made popular by the rude boys and rude girls of the scene that still persist in the Bay Area and beyond. Coming out to the instrumental theme song to Star Wars, the band (impeccably tailored, natch) launched straightaway into their early UK chart-topper “One Step Beyond,” a cover of Jamaican ska singer Prince Buster’s mostly instrumental song. An upbeat ska bop ladled generously with signature sax, it practically commanded everyone to get up and dance.

From there, it was a mix of old and new, a herculean task of shoehorning a bit of everything from their thirteen albums of horn-laden stompers, slow-and-steady, laid-back beats, and a few crossover pop and rock hits. Their biggest hit, 1982’s “Our House” (which was also the name of their early-aughts West End musical) with its whimsically upbeat hooks, has silly lyrics to match its party-time mood: “Our house, it has a crowd/ There’s always something happening/ And it’s usually quite loud.” They dipped into fan favorites, like the coming-of-age tune “House of Fun,” with its percolating bass and funhouse menace (“Welcome to the lion’s den/ Temptation’s on its way…”) and the whirligig, bouncy beats of “Baggy Trousers,” for mischievous kids who miss the freedom of youth (“Oh what fun we had/ But at the time it seemed so bad…”).

They also threw in tracks from last year’s C’est La Vie, which doesn’t break any new ground musically, but does offer a tuneful, bittersweet overview of present-day perils, with its insta-celebs and political upheavals, as in the title track’s lyrics, which warn of “Justice, a toothless old hag/ It’s every man now on his own/ It’s all for one, you’d better run.”

Given the crowd’s jubilant response for the band’s return to the U.S. (a tour was repeatedly postponed during the Covid years), there was an air of thoughtful gratitude from the band. As the crowd chanted for more, charismatic frontman Suggs mused aloud, “It’s not just music.” He’s right. It must be love.

The opening band, Save Ferris (a name taken from the ‘80s movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), played the hits that epitomized their third-wave ska sound, a genre which included their Orange County neighbors, No Doubt. A bit more pop-punk and SoCal in sound and style, they were best known for their ‘90s cover of Dexys Midnight Runners’ hit, “Come On Eileen,” and maybe for their cameo in the ‘90s movie, 10 Things I Hate About You. It was an airy, mindless hit of, “Oh, I remember that song,” from distracted fans mired in Madness.