Hall & Oats @ The PNE

I am not surprised that this got 80% full 90 minutes before show time. The last time they played the PNE it was full. They opened the show with their biggest hit as part of their sound check. Ironically this isn’t the strongest song in their catalog. Normally starting a show with your major hit, traditionally reserved for the encore, is set list suicide. They have better hits that were spread throughout the set that made casual fans forget that Man Eater (in their mind) was their only career highlight. Aside from obvious sound tweaks during the first number, the sound for the rest of the right was consistent. They flew in their crew including their long time sound mixer. The band are musically and personally really tight. Many of the band members are long time employees of Hall and Oats. Daryl’s voice gave out in a few sections, however, he gracefully worked within his limitations. The show was initially designed to be an hour of greatest hits but they extended their set to a full 90 minutes by doing the Ron Jeremy 24″ extended mixes. There were some cool micro jams within the mixes, however, most of it was just filler that the audience didn’t mind. The audience was either really old or hipsters that thought that they were coming out to see Chromeo. This was the first time this year at a PNE where the whole floor section was on their feet.