A full house came out to see the English Beat play the Middle East downstairs a week ago Tuesday, many fondly recalling the 2-Tone, ska-rock heyday of the early 1980s, no doubt. And many probably unaware that frontman Dave Wakeling’s ex-partner, singer-songwriter Ranking Roger, is playing England with a band under the name the Beat (the band’s original UK name). Meanwhile, Wakeling, who’s lived in California for 18 years, has stuck with the English Beat, the name the group always used in this country to avoid confusion with a US power-pop band called the Beat. Got all that?
Joining Wakeling’s Beat are drummer Rhythmm Epkins, guitarist/bassist Rick Torres, keyboardist Michael Ambrose, and saxophonist Dominic Dean Breaux. Yes, there’s still a multi-racial mix, an integral component of the old Beat. And at 50, Wakeling is now the same age the English Beat’s first saxophonist, Saxa, was when he joined the band.
From the opening strains of “I Confess,” with Wakeling’s crooning admission “I admit I’ve ruined two lives,” to the closing of “Can’t Get Used To Losing You,” this Beat were as sharp as the original. They did three songs from the Wakeling/Ranking Roger post-Beat band, General Public, and three new, unrecorded tunes. There was a deep bass thrust plus sizzling rhythmic jabs and, at times, a coolness that suggested Morcheeba. Wakeling hit all the high points — “Mirror in the Bathroom,” “Twist & Crawl,” “Tears of a Clown,” “Hands Off, She’s Mine,” and “Save It for Later” — without sounding like a B-level cover band of what the Beat once were. The politics implicit in the music were still pertinent — you can sing along to “Stand Down Margaret” and think “Tony Blair.” And Wakeling’s music hasn’t stood in place: this band dropped down for soft grooves that approximated drum ’n’ bass and then exploded with speedy rave-ups. Mostly, though, it was a mid-tempo celebration of melody and rebellion, classic and timeless.
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