Joe Jackson Setlist

Is She Really Going Out With Him?
It’s Different for Girls
Welcome to Burning-by-Sea
I’m Not Sorry
Another World
Fabulous People
Fool
Sunday Papers
The Face
Strange Land
Be My Number Two
Real Men
End of the Pier
Target
Steppin’ Out

— Encore —
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

David Bowie cover
You Can’t Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)
Home Town

Tour Dates

27 May Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
28 May Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
30 May San Francisco, CA – Curran Theatre
31 May San Diego, CA – Balboa Theatre
02 Jun Los Angeles, CA – Orpheum Theatre
03 Jun Tucson, AZ – Fox Tucson Theatre
05 Jun Albuquerque, NM – KiMo Theatre
06 Jun Denver, CO – Denver Paramount
09 Jun Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater
10 Jun St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
12 Jun Omaha, NE – Admiral
14 Jun Austin, TX – The Paramount Theatre
16 Jun Houston, TX – The Heights Theater
17 Jun Dallas, TX – Majestic Theatre
19 Jun San Antonio, TX – Empire Theatre
21 Jun New Orleans, LA – The Joy Theatre
24 Jun Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
26 Jun Atlanta, GA – Center Stage Theater
27 Jun Charlotte, NC – Knight Theatre
29 Jun Orlando, FL – Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center
01 Jul Ft. Lauderdale, FL – The Parker
02 Jul Clearwater, FL – Capitol Theatre
07 Jul Washington, DC – Lincoln Theatre
08 Jul New Brunswick, NJ – State Theatre New Jersey
10 Jul Providence, RI – Uptown Theater
11 Jul Portland, ME – State Theatre
14 Jul Medford, MA – Chevalier Theatre
15 Jul Stamford, CT – Palace Theatre
17 Jul Lansdowne, PA – The Lansdowne Theater
18 Jul New York, NY – Beacon Theatre

I got a tattoo last week, and the shop was playing big-four thrash metal. We talked music, of course, but I felt pressure to bring the conversation back to metal-adjacent topics (a category where I’m admittedly under-informed). Finally, my tattoo guy said “oh, I really want to go to Joe Jackson on Saturday”. Which, in my heart, settles it: Joe Jackson is for everyone.

The Joe Jackson Band is a show for everyone, but it’s a show. Jackson took the stage alone for “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” Then, bassist Graham Maby appeared for “It’s Different for Girls”. Maby, Jackson’s “bass player for life”, was set at center-stage — which tells you something about how central the bass is to Jackson’s compositional DNA. The solo piano opening of “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” was striking for what it was missing. (The stripped-down dynamic was accompanied, of course, by the entire audience yelling “where?” after “look over there”.)

Three more (Teddy Kumpel on guitar, Doug Yowell on drums, and Felipe Fournier on yet more drums) hit the stage for “Welcome to Burning‐by‐Sea”, and the band was complete. And looked fabulous (buttons and collars all around, highlighted by Kumpel’s purple suit and teal fedora, matching his teal Fender). And sounded even better: Joe Jackson (at 71) hits all the same notes, even if he reaches for a cup of tea after each song. (“That post-show cocktail is going to taste wonderful,” he mused.) Stagnaro’s Latin percussion got several star turns, from 2026’s “The Face” (from Hope and Fury) to Night and Day‘s “Target”.

The evening did offer a healthy dose of new songs — Joe Jackson kept dismissing his timeless classics as “more 80’s stuff” (though he remarked “I personally had a better time in the 90’s”). The newest material shows that he hasn’t lost a step. His voice is still there, as are his songwriting trademarks (those octave leaps, his habit of resolving phrases in quiet-but-jazzy ways), and his sneering, cocksure attitude. Even as he got a little into “Sunday Papers”, taking his eye off his lyrics and swapping some choruses around, he laughed it off: with one of the most challenging and wide-ranging catalogs over the past 50 years, you’re bound to get tripped up in that lyrical density.

Jackson introduced two songs from Night and Day as “sides of the same coin”: tributes to the vitality and contradictions of New York City in the early 80’s. On the album, these songs blend into each other, cross-fading from the sunny streets of “Target” into the throbbing, electronic cool of “Steppin’ Out”. But, with two percussionists, Joe Jackson and his band perform the fade in a truly jaw-dropping feat of dynamics.

“Steppin’ Out” faded away, too, with each member putting down their instrument and waving good night, part by part. (Another brilliant choice of arrangement.) The band returned for a cover of Bowie’s “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)”, then “You Can’t Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)”, leaving the stage again for Jackson to perform “Home Town” (taken from his 1986 live album) alone.

Joe Jackson is for everyone: those super-fans yelling “where?”, the fancy section of the audience that took the advice to Look Sharp! very literally, and the dads-with-kids (of which I saw a couple). If my thrash-metal tattoo guy didn’t make it, he missed out.