The stage at the House of Blues in Cleveland looked like a keyboard store.  There were a couple of large keyboards side-by-side, both with Apple MacBooks open and sitting on the top left edge.  There was a smaller Roland RD-2000 on the left side of the stage toward the front.  There were the Korg keyboards that look like guitars.  There was no drum set.  I know I am in for straight piano balladry, or high tech electronics with everything in between mixed in.  I am at a Howard Jones concert.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Men Without Hats, the opening act, other than a guaranteed playing of Safety Dance.  I was pleasantly surprised by the Canadian MTV icons as lead singer Ivan Doroschuk jumped around and seemed to really enjoy performing.  The crowd really took to the band and I learned why Howard Jones has had this band open for him on his last couple of tours.  They looked rejuvenated and sounded good, but had a blast interacting with the crowd in playing a solid one-hour set.

Once the lights came up with the stagehands scrambling to pack Men Without Hats, the keyboard store became more visible.  After about a half hour, the lights went down and the capacity crowd cheered as Howard Jones entered the stage from the right.  Before a note was played, Jones stood front and center to talk to his audience.  Jones seems to thrive at these smaller, more intimate venues and interacts well with this size of a crowd, somewhere around 1,200.

“Way back in 1985, I played a gig at a packed Wembley Stadium called Live Aid.  Most of you probably still have it on a VHS tape.  When I got to the chorus of the song I am about to play, the audience sang the chorus and took over.  Maybe we can recreate that here tonight”, said Jones before heading to the stool.

Hojo then fired off the opening to Hide & Seek and flawlessly delivered this gem to a crowd of 1,200 with as much enthusiasm as the Live Aid version.  His voice was crisp and his magical fingers did not hit the wrong key – not once all night that I heard.  The crowd did not carry the chorus too well and Jones just played, sang, and smiled.  How many times do you think Howard has played songs from Human’s Lib since it was released in March, 1984?  He played plenty from the album throughout the robust set.

Equality may be my favorite song from that album.  This was played in the early going and sounded remarkable.  Jones commuted from his large center stage keyboard to move around the front with his Korg strapped around his shoulder.  He bent notes with that Korg that gave it the exact wawa sound that is on the original recording.  The gentleman at the other large keyboard, Robbie Bronnimann, was on the same page as Jones all night and the two really generated perfect orchestration, especially noticeable on the new Transform material.

One of the highlights of the evening came when Jones, accompanied by acoustic guitarist Robin Boult, played No One Is To Blame.  Jones joked before the song that this would not be the “Phil Collins Version” of the 80’s classic, but rather closer to the original.  The capacity crowd loudly sang the “and you want her, and she wants you” refrain much to the delight of the pair who played a couple of extra bars of just the music and let the audience sing the whole chorus again at the end.

All-in-all, I prefer this type of concert over the big stadium shows.  Don’t think Howard Jones can’t play bigger venues because the tickets won’t sell, because he has, and can again if he chooses to.  I just think he really enjoys the smaller, more intimate venues like this one.  The Transform tour will continue through the United States through July with a lot of West Coast dates remaining.  Jones will then hit the rest of the world.

Treat yourself to see one of the absolute best keyboard players, and the king of electronic reproduction live and in concert, you will not go home disappointed.