Sparks Spectacular: Music That You Can Dance To (1986)

By Miss Missy Tannenbaum

Music That You Can Dance To is an album that very few fans would entitle as their favorite. As with the other low-rated albums, MTYCDT‘s advantage was most of the fans’ belief that it would probably be better live. When Sparks started with the album’s title song the beat kicked right in. Gone were the previous night’s sound problems with the synth; it sounded as crisp and loud as it could get.

This is not the easiest album to perform live because it has more heavy drumbeats and bass than harmonious melodies. By far, the most difficult song of the evening was undoubtedly the cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips.” The performance was good; the band did everything to the note and more. Judging by Russell’s vocal work he really wanted this to be well received; he absolutely did his best. The problem was that without audience participation a live version of “Fingertips” falls dead, and unfortunately tonight’s audience seemed completely uninterested in the song. What a pity, as it would have been great if the crowd would have bothered to just shout “Yeah!” That was all the song needed to become an excellent live performance.

Thankfully there were melodies like “Armies Of The Night,” a wonderful highlight of the evening where Russell’s voice was at its very peak of clear, sheer beauty when he hit those high notes from the middle part of the song.

During “Shopping Mall Of Love” it was Ron Mael’s opportunity to shine with his lead vocal, but he certainly was not in a hurry to let us hear him sing: he rather wanted to drink some water. To everybody’s amusement Ron showed off his cleaning skills after spilling water on the stage. He demonstrated that time is not an issue when it comes to wiping the floor clear of everything of a liquid nature. His poignant, dry singing contrasted with Russell’s perfectly. It was a joy to hear the drumbeats as the only instrument and there was really good work by Steven Nistor, who was accompanied by Russell’s and Jim Wilson’s terrific hand claps.

The encore was, as expected, “Change.” Over the years, “Armies Of The Night” from the main set has ended up being a more obscure song than “Change,” but the difference this time was that the song was performed with the original eighties hard synth arrangements instead of the piano version Sparks have done in recent shows. No matter which version, “Change” is truly popular among the fans, something that the enthusiastic crowd proved with a standing ovation.