{"id":14581,"date":"2025-06-07T19:40:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T19:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/?p=14581"},"modified":"2025-06-07T19:40:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T19:40:31","slug":"simple-minds-modern-english-soft-cell-woodlands-pavilion-the-woodlands-tx-may-31-2025-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/2025\/06\/07\/simple-minds-modern-english-soft-cell-woodlands-pavilion-the-woodlands-tx-may-31-2025-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple Minds \/ Modern English \/ Soft Cell – Woodlands Pavilion – The Woodlands, TX. – May 31, 2025 – Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written By Dave Clements<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I knew Sunday morning was going to come early with my alarm set for 3:30 am to catch a flight to Indy. Having said that I was very committed to seeing three bands that I hadn\u2019t seen before yet I knew a few of their songs from many years ago. To add to my desire was that I always enjoy shooting at the Woodlands\u2019 Pavilion especially when granted a photo credential for the pit (versus the sound board, many yards away from the stage)!<\/p>\n

The first band up this Saturday evening was Modern English and yes of course they are from England, more specifically Essex, England. You could have offered me a million dollars if I could name one song the band had recorded and I would have had to say\u2019 keep your money\u2019. Worse yet I don\u2019t ever remember hearing the band\u2019s name\u2026Modern English.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The band took the stage right at 7 pm, actually a minute or two before,\u00a0 and it was obvious almost immediately that they were serious about their job – to warm up the audience. By no means was it a sold out crowd this night however the size of the audience was respectable. Both under the pavilion as well as on the grass.<\/p>\n

Their set list started with Gathering Dust, Long in the Tooth, and Someone\u2019s Calling. I certainly hadn\u2019t heard any of those three nor the two that followed: Hands Across the Sea or Swans on Glass.<\/p>\n

Before getting to the last song in their set let me mention that I thought these chaps on stage were quite good \u2026for sure very energetic and talented even though I didn\u2019t know their music. Three of the four kind of had a \u2018British look\u2019 (whatever that means) but for sure the guitar player looked like he was from \u2018deep in the heart of Texas\u2019. He was sporting the black hat, boots and jeans\u2026maybe he dropped into Cavender\u2019s before the show?!<\/p>\n

Modern English\u2019s last song was their \u2018claim to fame\u2019 song and probably earned them a lot of money for many years. The song was I Melt With You and every person in the house was up on their feet singing along with the band. The pavilion was transformed from a \u2018listening room\u2019 to a \u2018loud outdoor arena\u2019 immediately. It was joyful to observe and gave me the logic behind them being part of this tour around America!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Let me confess a lie before moving on\u2026the couple sitting next to me did not stand during the song, likely the only ones seated\u00a0 and I they will go nameless. They know who they are and why they didn\u2019t join in on the fun!<\/p>\n

Soft Cell was same song, second verse. Rather than six songs in the set their set had eleven songs. My memory isn\u2019t that good however I am fairly certain that I had never heard the band\u2019s name Soft Cell either.<\/p>\n

As was the case with Modern English these folks were fun to photograph as the lighting was good as well as high energy music and an equally high performance especially from the lead singer Marc Almond and the two backup vocalists.<\/p>\n

If there were people in the audience that came to see\/hear Modern English and or Soft Cell they really came in my judgement to hear two songs, period, paragraph. They came to hear I Melt With You as previously mentioned or Soft Cell\u2019s hit Tainted Love.<\/p>\n

As was the case in the first set everyone, including the couple that didn\u2019t stand for Modern English were<\/em> standing and singing along to Tainted Love.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At 9:15 pm sharp Simple Minds abruptly came out on stage and kicked things off. There was, right from the beginning, a difference between what was now happening on stage and what had transpired for the two hours before. Simple Mind\u2019s lead singer Jeff Kerr was one gear higher from his first movement on stage right through to their final song of the evening. He is very animated as you will likely see in the HMR Photo Gallery and his supporting cast was special. There was obviously a lot of talent on stage and Kerr as the \u2018up front cheerleader\u2019 for the group brought it out of the others!<\/p>\n

Simple Minds are a rock band that formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1977 and of course they are known international because of their mega hit song that I will get to in a moment.\u00a0 Both Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill have been with the band since the beginning and it is obvious that each knows the others every move on stage.<\/p>\n

Their fifteen-song set had a little redundancy sound wise but still diverse enough to make them very enjoyable. They started with Waterfront, I Travel and Come A Long Way. Although it was hard to listen and still take photos from the front of the stage I liked what I was hearing in those first three songs. That positive vibe continued throughout the evening.<\/p>\n

As was the case with the two bands that came before them Simple Minds saved the best for last. You know the song if you were there and frankly it is probably the song that brought you there\u2026it brought me\u2026Don\u2019t You (Forget About Me).<\/p>\n

And\u2026We won\u2019t!\u00a0 Until next time help keep live music alive\u2026we certainly don\u2019t want to lose it!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written By Dave Clements I knew Sunday morning was going to come early with my alarm set for 3:30 am to catch a flight to Indy. Having said that I was very committed to seeing three bands that I hadn\u2019t seen before yet I knew a few of their songs from many years ago. To… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14582,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14581\/revisions\/14582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}