Something Happens and I'm Head Over Heels

I finally got to hear one of my favorite songs performed by the band live. Last night, I went to a double-header concert of Tears for Fears and Hall & Oates. It was an awesome show, though there were a few technical difficulties and I have a couple things I was hoping to have happen that didn't. Everyone seems to have taken great care of their voices, because they sound exactly the same, and John Oates can still rock out on the guitar. He's also growing a mustache again - keep it up, John! Everyone loves the mustache.

The show was at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont. Tears for Fears had a lot of fun joking with the crowd about Rosemont versus Chicago. "Is everyone here from Rosemont? Or Chicago? Or is the same thing?" They did some witty banter throughout.

Hall & Oates, on the other hand, mostly stuck to making music, with Daryl being the only one really talking to the crowd - mostly to tell us how awesome we are and how much they enjoy performing for us, the usual script for a concert performance. Tears for Fears was much more likely to go off book.

Musically, it was about the opposite. Tears for Fears did faithful versions of their music, as well as a cover of "Creep" (that had the sweet older couple next to us Googling Radiohead during the break between acts). They closed out their set with one of my favorite songs ever, Head Over Heels, then encored with Shout.

• Everybody Wants To Rule The World 
• Secret World 
• Sowing The Seeds Of Love 
• Advice For The Young At Heart 
• Everybody Loves A Happy Ending 
• Change 
• Mad World 
• Memories Fade 
• Creep 
• Pale Shelter 
• Break It Down Again 
• Head Over Heels 
• Shout

Hall & Oates, on the other hand, did a lot of riffing, improvisation, and extended solos for guitar and especially saxophone (played by Charles DeChant, who's been with the group a long time). A few of these extended solos went on a little long for my taste, especially close to the end of the night, when Hall & Oates had gone way over their set time. I still very much enjoyed their part of the show.

There were a few sound issues, and even Daryl seemed to be a bit annoyed by them. Our seats were pretty close to the stage, so we could see Darryl turn to the sound guy mixing for the stage monitors and making gestures. And at one point, he also had a couple choice words for the sound guys mixing for the hall itself. In fact, during Maneater, DeChant's sax line got completely lost when guitar came in. Pretty sad, considering that, rather than having the sound of 2 saxophones (as they do in the original, with the line echoing back), they had a duet between saxophone and Oates's guitar. This was a cool effect, for the parts I could hear, and I would have liked to have heard more. They seemed to fix the saxophone sound issues after that, though, because he was clear for the rest of the night.

As with Tears for Fears, Hall & Oates also stuck to their hits:

• Adult Education  
• Maneater 
• Out Of Touch 
• Say It Isn't So 
• You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 
• One on One 
• Possession Obsession 
• She's Gone 
• Sara Smile 
• Wait For Me 
• Is It A Star 
• Method of Modern Love 
• I Can't Go For That 
• You Make My Dreams 
• Rich Girl 
• Kiss On My List 
• Private Eyes

Other than the sound, here are my only complaints.

1. Hall & Oates didn't perform one of my favorites of their songs:

The video is hella cheesy, but it's a great song. It might be considered one of their deep tracks, so I don't know if they really perform it, especially these days.

2. Considering that Daryl Hall has a show called Live from Daryl's House (which they had playing during the break between sets), where he performs with other artists and groups, I would have loved for Hall & Oates to play one or two songs with Tears for Fears.

Minor complaints, really. It was an awesome show and I'm thrilled I got to be there! And now, here's the video for Head Over Heels, for no other reason than I love this song: