Tears For Fears Is Ready to Take on Our Mad World of 2022

“All around me are familiar faces, worn out places, worn out faces…” opens Tears For Fears' classic 1983 song, “Mad World.” It's the song that made me fall in love with them and it's the song that set the tone for many an evening of contemplation in the mid-1980s.

If you were alive and following popular music when Tears For Fears first became known in Phoenix, it may have seemed like they were much older than they actually were. The duo of Roland Orzabal (guitar, keyboard, vocals) and Curt Smith (bass and vocals) were in their early 20s when their first two albums, The Hurting (1983) and Songs From The Big Chair (1985) came out, but something about their sound and subject matter made them seem more like the adults in the big room of New Wave bands from the day.

The band, who will perform at Ak-Chin Pavilion on Friday, May 27, had a maturity and complexity that many of their MTV famous peers did not possess. Tears For Fears just seemed a bit more serious than the other, similar bands on the music television platform. Anthemic songs like “Change” and “Shout” didn’t do anything to dispel that argument. Throw in “Pale Shelter,” the aforementioned “Mad World” and the debut record’s title track, “The Hurting” and you had a level of emotional angst fastened and fleshed out by deliberately self-reflective lyrics and beautiful instrumentation in songs that many of their '80s New Wave peers could only try to emulate but never reach.

If you haven’t listened to Tears For Fears for a long time, or maybe ever, hit up your friendly neighborhood record store (preferably) or your favorite streaming service and give those early records a spin. This is a band where the hits were good, but the deeper cuts on each of their records also held up their end of the bargain. When Orzabal and Smith called it quits as a duo in 1991, it seemed like a reunion was probably not possible, but luckily for everyone who loves them, the pair patched things up in 2000.

Tears For Fears has been working sporadically for the last couple of decades, but in the last year, they have come back with, not a vengeance, but a cure. The Tipping Point is the name of the band’s newest release, and it's one of the best records to come out this year. Fans of Tears For Fears who haven't given it a spin will be more than pleasantly surprised. As with all of Orzabal and Smith’s collaborative efforts, The Tipping Point combines epic songwriting, thought-provoking lyrics, and a familiar yet expanded sound.

Recently, the band started the tour that will bring them to the Valley this weekend and unveiled several of their new songs for the first time in a live setting. In checking out the setlists from the first few shows of the tour on Setlist.fm, it seems like new and old fans of the band alike will be more than satisfied with their musical offerings at Ak-Chin Pavilion. Make sure you stay hydrated, though, because while everyone might want to rule the world that night, it will be warm here in the desert.

Tears For Fears. With Garbage. 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 27. Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 North 83rd Avenue. Tickets are available here.