Joe Jackson Band reunion a worthy trip down memory lane
REVIEW
Mar. 17, 2003
By Dave Ferman
Star-Telegram Pop Music Critic

DALLAS - Before he hit it big with 1982's Night and Day, Joe Jackson led a tight little four-piece band that quickened the pulse of New Wavers everywhere.

Between 1978 and 1980, Jackson, bassist Graham Maby, drummer Dave Houghton and guitarist Gary Sanford made three albums, had one massive hit - Is She Really Going Out With Him - and fused piano-based songwriting with crunchy power-pop laced with ska. And then, after a final show in December 1980, they broke up.

The sheer amount of time that has passed makes the original Joe Jackson Band's current reunion tour an improbable, I-can't-believe-they-did-that treat. But what was quickly evident as the band started to play Deep Ellum Live Sunday night was what a very good idea this was: These songs - One More Time, On Your Radio, Beat Crazy and several more - and the way these four men play them, hold up remarkably well in 2003. Jackson's pliant voice riding atop Sanford's spiky guitar and the tireless Maby/Houghton, is simply a wonderful sound, a chunk of history that sounds absolutely fresh and, often, compelling.

This was not Jackson's finest hour: He was pale and sweating profusely, saying that it was from a cold that had caused his voice to give out the previous night in Austin. He was a bit shaky, flubbing a few vocals and piano runs.

Still, he was on target most of the time, performing with gusto and good humor, whether with the band or on mid-set solo renditions of Real Menand Home Town. And the band was all but flawless behind him, whether on the oldies or a bunch of songs from the new `Volume 4,' the group's first studio recording in 23 years.

While not as uniformly strong as the best of the band's catalogue, several of the new songs done Sunday - such as Awkward Age and Love at First Light - offer further proof that this band still has plenty to offer the world of rock 'n' roll, and that it would be a shame if this reunion was just a one-shot deal.