Ball Arena 80s night: Simple Minds, Soft Cell, and Modern English

Simple Minds

Three bands. Three songs I knew. Somehow it didn’t take more than that to convince me to join my friends at the Simple Minds, Soft Cell and Modern English show at Ball Arena in Denver. 

Perhaps it’s because across four decades, none of the three songs associated with those bands have gone away. From television to commercials to radio, I Melt With You, Tainted Love, and Don’t You (Forget About Me) have remained in the public consciousness. 

Each band has continued to produce music after the listening public moved on, but if they balked at performing those signature tunes, they would have been run off the stage. 

Before we could go to our seats, we had to receive new seat assignments. We had tickets for the third level, which was closed and curtained off. 

The three bands didn’t come close to capacity, so they moved everyone down to the lower bowl. We had accessible seats along the top of the first level, and they provided much better views. With much of the lower bowl full, I figured there was not a similar venue they could have played, so Ball still represented the best option for big 80s names. 

Modern English

Modern English could barely contain itself in 30 minutes, and I wished they got more time. Sure, we got six songs in that time, a little happy banter, and a blazing take on Melt with You, the one song everyone wanted to hear. Despite starting with a song called Gathering Dust, Modern English did anything but. They dropped one song from a new album – Long in the Tooth – but stuck with some prime-period songs like Hands Across the Sea and Someone’s Calling. Their brand of New Wave never really sheds its Joy Division influence, but it’s not a bad influence to wield. 

If Modern English departed too soon, Soft Cell probably overstayed its welcome. The duo (augmented by two backup singers) took the polar route to Tainted Love. The rest of their music didn’t really hit with me. We could have done with less, since there wasn’t much action on stage or life in the songs beyond the one everyone wanted to hear. But I heard Tainted Love, the only essential for this crowd. 

Simple Minds was the clear headliner, and gave a relentless performance across their 18-song100-minute set. With most members in their 60s, the Scottish band's energy never flagged. 

Singer Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill remain the two original members. As the primary songwriters, their presence helps. Kerr didn’t move like a man pushing 70, regularly striking rockstar poses that likely required hours of yoga to avoid hurting himself. 

During the 80s, Simple Minds were often written off as being too similar to U2, a comparison that doesn’t really hold up. You can hear common influences at times, but little else. But what Simple Minds plays is a likable brand of 80s rock, replete with guitar hooks and easily repeated choruses. 

Wisely recognizing the age of its crowd, Simple Minds ended its main set with Don’t You (Forget About Me), their hit song from the 80s movie time capsule Breakfast Club. 

The encore varied a little more, with their backup singer taking lead for one song. Kerr kept saying “one more” and talked about not wanting to send us home as the curfew time approached. But they had more than acquitted themselves as headliners of this one-night 80s revival.