Last week, L.A. Mommy and I had a chance to act like we were young again.

We hired a babysitter and went out to a concert to see a band we’ve loved since the early MTV days and the delightful John Hughes movies from the 80’s. I’ve never seen The Psychedelic Furs before so I was excited. I’d never see some one-hit wonder band, but the Furs had so many cool tunes I had to go. And it was especially nice for L.A. Mommy - she used to work for the music management firm that handled Richard Butler, the lead singer. At that time, Richard had a band called Love Spit Love, and she’d seen him live a few times.

So excited to be out of the house, we arrived at the Newport Music Hall before the first band came on. Which is sooo uncool. But we didn’t care. The Newport is a great place to see a show. It’s, like, the second oldest music venue, or something like that. And I have seen probably a hundred shows there: Adam Ant, Primus, Living Color, Fishbone, The Sundays, White Zombie, Ellen Degeneres (yes, I was the only man in the venue, and didn’t know why…) and the list goes on and on. It was good to be back in the old hall.

The opening act was a band called Islands. Didn’t know a thing about them but I really loved their live work. They won over that crowd with just a song or two. I’m definitely going to be picking up an album or two.

Next up was the Happy Mondays. Shaun Ryder, the lead singer, was also a client of the music manager, so L.A. Mommy knew him, too. Not sure if you know Shaun’s story, or saw him portrayed in 24 Hour Party People, but his excesses seem to have gotten the better of him. Their songs were played too loud and old Shaun merely held his earpiece tight to his ear and stared at the monitor that was feeding him the lyrics. It was not a great set. Their performance of Step On was probably the only highlight.

Finally, we got to the main event. The Psychedelic Furs sounded great. The sound mix was perfect and Richard’s voice is still there (not perfect but who’s is 30 years later?) They did most all of the hits as well as a few personal faves. They even played one of my favorite songs from the Love Spit Love era - Believe - and not one of the singles from the album.

We got to here Love My Way, Heaven, Ghost in You, Pretty in Pink, President Gas, Heartbreak Beat and all the others. The only one I wanted but didn’t get was one of the later songs, Until She Comes.

The strangest thing about our show was the crowd. I expected a few dozen groups of women in their 30’s and 40’s getting together with their high school and college friends to relive the old days. But this crowd was… odd. Very odd. It was a weird mix of everything. Some people looked like they had driven their tractor to the show. Some looked like they belonged at a Wrestlemania event. There were kids there. There were old, old men there. Anyway, it was fun to do some people-watching for a change.

It was a great night. A lot of old memories were brought back and I had a smile on my face for most of the night. And not just because of the audience…. Really.