On May 30, 2025, the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, transformed into a vibrant time capsule as the “Alive & Kicking Tour” brought together Simple Minds, Soft Cell, and Modern English for a night steeped in synth-pop nostalgia and post-punk reverie. https://instagram.com/softcellhq
Modern English: A Melancholic Prelude
Opening the evening with understated elegance, Modern English delivered a brief yet resonant set that quietly drew the early crowd into their atmospheric world. Launching with the brooding “Gathering Dust,” the band immediately anchored the mood in post-punk introspection, its angular guitars and shadowy textures a reminder of their early 4AD-era bite.
Tracks like “Long in the Tooth” and “Someone’s Calling” followed, revealing a band still connected to the emotional gravity that marked their early output, equal parts romantic and raw. “Swans on Glass,” with its glacial beauty, brought a surreal shimmer to the set, and frontman Robbie Grey’s vocals struck a balance between weary and wistful, aging gracefully with the songs themselves.
But it was the closer, “I Melt With You,” that drew the most electric reaction. What began as a post-punk sleeper slowly cemented itself as one of the decade’s most beloved tracks. Originally released in 1982, it became an unexpected U.S. hit despite modest success at home in the UK. With its dreamy optimism and new wave sheen, the song has appeared in everything from Valley Girl to the Stranger Things soundtrack, yet somehow still feels sincere. As the chorus rang out, the Moody Center lit up, phones raised, voices joined, and for a few fleeting minutes, time folded in on itself. It was less a nostalgia trip than a reminder: some songs don’t age; they simply endure.
Soft Cell: Synth-Pop Theatrics
As the lights dipped into crimson and pulse-like strobes rippled across the crowd, Soft Cell emerged in full sleaze-pop splendor. Marc Almond, ever the dramatic conduit between synth-pop sensuality and cabaret subversion, commanded the stage with a mix of camp, charisma, and control. Kicking off with “Memorabilia,” he wove in nods to Madonna’s “Holiday,” “Into the Groove,” and “Like a Virgin,” creating a cheeky pastiche that felt less like a mashup and more like a séance of ’80s excess. The crowd was immediately under their spell, part dancefloor, part fever dream. Almond’s voice, both vulnerable and vampish, slid across Dave Ball’s icy electronics with theatrical precision.
The set was as emotionally charged as it was musically textured. “Torch” burned with longing, “Monoculture” pulsed with detached irony, and “Nostalgia Machine” served as a self-aware wink at their enduring relevance. But the climax, as expected, came with “Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go”, their once-underground reimagining of a Northern Soul classic that became a global juggernaut in 1981. Originally recorded in a single day, Soft Cell’s version stripped away the upbeat sheen of the Gloria Jones original and replaced it with minimalist synths and emotional ache, forever altering the shape of the genre. Decades later, it remains a cultural touchstone, and in this moment, it was undeniable, the crowd swelled, lost in rhythm, united by memory.
Simple Minds: A Triumphant Return
Simple Minds opened their set with the quiet authority of a band that has spent decades commanding arenas and shaping soundtracks. Fittingly, the week marked the anniversary of their 1987 live album Live in the City of Light—a testament to the band’s stadium-sized ambition and momentum during the Once Upon a Time tour. Nearly four decades later, they’re back on the road celebrating that very era, not with nostalgia but with vitality. They opened with the thunderous “Waterfront,” ushering in a sound that was sweeping in scope and locked into the moment. Jim Kerr, still magnetic in motion and voice, led the charge through “Speed Your Love to Me” and “Come a Long Way,” each song delivered with the cinematic sweep that defines their catalog. “Promised You a Miracle” glowed with urgency, its synth textures undiminished by time.
All roads led to a transcendent climax with “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” the hit they nearly passed on, now arguably one of the defining songs of the 1980s. Immortalized by John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club and forever linked to that iconic freeze-frame ending, the song has taken on a life far beyond its chart success. On this night, stretched into an extended, call-and-response crescendo, it became something more than a nostalgic centerpiece, it was a shared moment of collective memory. Kerr stepped back, arms raised, letting the crowd carry the refrain like a generation who never quite left detention. For a few minutes, time didn’t just rewind, it stood still.
The encore elevated things further. Sarah Brown’s searing vocals on “Book of Brilliant Things” gave the song new spiritual depth, while “Sanctify Yourself” brought the evening to a euphoric close. This wasn’t a retrospective, it was a reaffirmation. The Alive & Kicking Tour isn’t simply about revisiting the past; it’s about reclaiming it with clarity and conviction. In Simple Minds’ hands, those old songs still sound like the future.
Ultimately, the Alive & Kicking Tour may be rooted in an anniversary, but it never felt like a museum piece. Each act brought not just legacy, but life, proof that songs born in the margins of post-punk, synth-pop, and new wave still have the power to fill a modern arena with meaning. For one night, past and present blurred into a single, pulsing thread of sound and memory. And as the final notes faded, it was clear: this wasn’t just a celebration of what was, but a reminder of how deeply it still resonates.
Simple Minds’ “Alive & Kicking” North American tour, featuring Soft Cell and Modern English, continues throughout June. See remaining dates below:
Tour Dates:
- Jun 04 – Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP
- Jun 05 – St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino AMP
- Jun 07 – Atlanta, GA – Cadence Bank AMP, Chastain Park
- Jun 10 – Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
- Jun 11 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
- Jun 13 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell at Jones Beach Theater
- Jun 14 – Philadelphia, PA – The Mann Center
- Jun 15 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center
- Jun 17 – Montreal, QC – Centre Bell
- Jun 18 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
- Jun 20 – Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
- Jun 21 – Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre
- Jun 22 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center
Simple Minds will also play a series of UK and Ireland summer shows performing their 1985 album Once Upon A Time, along with a selection of greatest hits. Special guests will include Future Islands, KT Tunstall and Hamish Hawk.
- 27 June at Bellahouston, Glasgow
- 28 June at Lincoln Castle
- 29 June at Southampton Summer Sessions
- 01 July at Trinity Summer Series, Dublin
- 03 July at Bedford Summer Sessions
- 06 July at Lytham Festival, Lytham St. Annes *Already on sale
- 07 July at Live At Piece Hall, Halifax
- 08 July at Derby Summer Sessions
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