Howard Jones Plays Brilliant Acoustic Gig at the Avalon

Club D went on the road to Easton, MD to check out this phenomenal acoustic show. Jones is one of her all-time favorite musicians and he did not disappoint.

Howard Jones with ClubD in the lobby of the Tidewater Inn in Easton after the gig.



Brit rocker Howard Jones made a name for himself in the 80s with his brand of synthpop. A prolific songwriter and pianist with an incredible vocal range, Jones is most renowned for his hit, “No One Is to Blame.” Still making music and touring, Jones has amassed quite a collection of introspective and melodic songs that he continues to share the world over.

During the past decade, he has embarked on two different, yet similar, acoustic tours in America in which he reworks his electronic songs often with some funky improvisation. The first such tour, in the late-90s, featured him with a percussionist and resulted in a phenomenal disc recorded in Los Angeles, Live Acoustic America. This time around, he’s touring with an acoustic guitarist, Robin Boult, performing a mix of new songs and classics and he’s brimming with animated stories. To set the stage for this intimate show, he has chosen to perform at small, charming, rustic venues. And that’s how I came to see him at the historic Avalon Theatre in Easton, Maryland on October 26.

My favorite HoJo album is his first, Human’s Lib, and I was thrilled that he played four songs from it. The chorus of the beautifully haunting song “Hide and Seek,” contains six little words that are quite profound, “Hope you find me in you.” Introducing another song from that album, “Don’t Always Look at the Rain,” he mentioned that the “Joseph who’s 5 years old and starts fights in his playground yard” is now 30 and he recently went to Joseph’s wedding.

When introducing the song, “Life in One Day,” Jones said though he still believes in some of the song’s lyrics, “some it is just crap” and he warned he might have to stop in the middle when he got to his now-bothersome lyrics and lament about it. Luckily, he did all the lamenting before singing it. For example, he said, the future does not take care of itself somehow and one person can change the world single-handedly. He then had the audience repeatedly sing the “ooh ooh ooh, who-oh-oh” until he was happy with it.

Another story he told was how he conceived of “No One is to Blame.” While visiting San Francisco, an American friend was pointing out to him all the beautiful women in the city but Jones had told him he was quite happy with his wife back home. Still ogling, the friend said, “you can look at the menu but you just can’t eat.” Jones raced back to his room and scribbled down that line, which became the first line of the song, and out poured the rest.

After the show, I waited around to meet Jones. My friends and I were staying just across the street at the Tidewater Inn. It turns out, so was Jones. After chatting with his manager and with Boult, Jones finally emerged looking exhausted. I shook his hand and walked across the street to the hotel with him and Boute making casual conversation. In the lobby, though evidently exhausted, he graciously agreed to pose for a photo with me. I then headed to my room, still beaming from a night of great music.

SETLIST
Set 1
Someone You Need (new, co-written with Duncan Sheik)
Like to Get to Know You Well
Love's Never Wasted (new and unrecorded)
Pearl in the Shell
a new song (didn't catch the title)
Don't Always Look at the Rain (mixed in with Dave Brubeck's Take 5)
The Prisoner
Everlasting Love

Set 2
Dreamin' On
Hide & Seek
Just Look at You Now (from Revolution of the Heart, 2005)
Wedding Song (from People, 1998)
Straight Ahead (new)
Life in One Day
No One Is to Blame
What Is Love?

Encore: Things Can Only Get Better