I was ready. Everyone I know who’s seen Tears for Fears live sings their praises. My anticipation only grew the days before as I listened to their new album, The Tipping Point. It’s a year old, but as co-founder Curt Smith states, that’s not old at all to the band, now in their early 60s – at that creative crossroads between youthfulness and experience.
The Tipping Point is the band’s first studio release in over 17 years. It’s an album with vitality. If a band waits that long, you know they’re not releasing an album for the wrong reasons. Total sincerity is the result, which is one of the hallmarks of Tears for Fears, founded by Smith and Roland Orzabal in Bath circa 1981.
During a performance at The Hollywood Bowl, which was the band’s first time playing at the historic venue, they sang and performed with poppy gravitas and had people singing, dancing, and based on the fans in front of me, smoking cannabis with a passion for the good times.
And Tears for Fears is exactly that: a good time. I didn’t expect how hilarious the group was on stage, joking about how their songs are far more famous than they are – a life of fame that would evoke either envy or fear in pop artists today. A lot of laughs along with the tunes.
The band has been at it for 40 years now, and at this point in their career, it shows. Everything is so smooth. Not only that, no song was played without a zeal for it. Orzabal – who looks a bit like a beautiful wizard you’d see in a flash tattoo – couldn’t contain his excitement. “I’ve been to the Bowl quite a few times to see other …
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Author: Jack Giroux / High Times
