Live Music Reviews and Photographs / NYC, Buffalo, Toronto, Pittsburgh
If you were an 80s pop fan in Europe, Asia, South America, etc (basically any non-primarily English speaking country, you knew Modern Talking, with Thomas Anders on vocals and Dieter Bohlen writing, singing background, and playing guitar, as one of the biggest pop acts to come out of Germany. Whether you called it New Wave, …
Continue reading "Thomas Anders brings Modern Talking magic back to Toronto – Aug 8, 2025"
Over the last ten years, we’ve seen a resurgence of New Wave/synthpop bands from the 80s coming out of retirement to tour, discovering that their fans from forty years ago were nostalgic for the music of their youth and now had disposable income!! Besides bands like Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, and the Cure who never …
The 80s were the heyday of the hard hitting hair bands, shredding the stage but with smiles on their faces. They played to sold out stadiums of eager young’s fans and partied like there was no tomorrow. Not privy to backstage antics, I don’t know if they’re still partying and the hair is definitely not …
"The Hurting" by Tears for Fears was the very first CD I had ever purchased. Before that, it was always vinyl and cassettes. I was starting college and that album became very much the soundtrack of my freshman year. The teenage angst and pains of childhood expressed by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith through their …
Continue reading "Tears for Fears kicks off tour in Ohio – May 21, 2022"
It was Pretty in Pink and 80s high school proms all over again last night at History in Toronto. If you were music aware in the 80s, there’s no way you could avoid not knowing Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark and their brand of electronic dance music. While they were not the first pioneers (like …
Continue reading "OMD brings back the 80s in a big way at HISTORY – May 3, 2022"
Nation of Language is one of those bands that seems to have come from nowhere and exploded onto the music scene. That being said, they did form back in 2016 with Ian Richard Devaney on guitars and lead vocals, Aidan Noell on synthesizers, and Michael Sue-Poi on bass. Supposedly Devaney took inspiration from OMD's "Electricity" …
Continue reading "Dancing the night away with Nation of Language at Lee’s Palace – April 7, 2022"
Shot for QRO Magazine. You can also view the gallery here. After seeing the crowd at the Sea Hear Now Festival (see my coverage here) singing along to every Billy Idol song just this past weekend, I kinda knew what to expect as I drove up to Port Chester for his headlining show at The …
This year was pretty epic for me as a music photojournalist. In addition to this blog, I also shot for Pancakes & Whiskey and QRO Magazine. I attended 83 shows in total although it seemed like so many more. The shows are in date order since it would be impossible for me to rank them …
If you were dating in the late 80s, Richard Marx were a staple of your mixtape. Nowadays, a mixtape means a completely different thing than it did back then but Marx plans to be a part of it as he will be releasing his first studio album in six years with "Limitless" on February 7th. …
Continue reading "Richard Marx brings back memories at Paste Studio – Oct 18, 2019"
I was taken back to my school days as the original line-up for Bananarama is touring the United Stated for the first time. I still remember mixed tapes with "Love in the First Degree"! My write-up and photos are here. NOTE: all photographs are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography
This show was at BB King's where you can have dinner while being entertained. The tables are first come first served so, being the nutjob that I am, we got a table right up against the stage. While waiting, we could see Pat doing soundcheck. Taking pictures was obviously a no-no because she turned away …
Continue reading "Pat Benatar plays BB King – July 11, 2011"