Squeeze

September 22, 2019

Atlanta, GA

The Tabernacle

Review and photos by Robert Kern

Squeeze takes capacity Tabernacle-Atlanta crowd to 80’s rock church

Squeeze rolled into Atlanta, GA with their 2019 “Difford and Tilbrook Songbook” tour Sunday night, preaching the gospel of perfect 80’s rock to a sold-out crowd at the Tabernacle.

Backed by an amazing 5-piece band, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook blistered through a 90 minute set littered with songs those in attendance knew and obviously loved.

The band opened with “Footprints” off the album Babylon And On. After moving through the song “Big Beng”, they then unleashed a tidal wave of hugely successful tunes.  Starting with “Hourglass”, the band then ripped through high energy versions of “Pulling Muscles (From the Shell)” and “Up the Junction “.  The interplay between Difford and Tilbrook live hasn’t lost a bit of its magic even though these 1980’s music icons are now gently inching into their 60’s.  Both men seemed to genuinely enjoy their time on stage, exchanging smiles and laughing several times over the course of the performance.  As for the vocal chops, their harmonies haven’t lost any of the luster you’d come to know from recordings that are now past the 40-year barrier.   In short, they were terrific.

Later in the set Glen Tilbrook prefaced the song “Tempted” with an invitation for the crowd to sing with the band.  Apparently a planned moment, very sparse backing from the band resulted in a joyous sing-along for the almost 3000 in attendance.  The band quickly followed that with a string of crowd-pleasers.  In rapid succession came “Another Nail in My Heart” and “Goodbye Girl”, then closing the set with “If I Didn’t Love You I’d Hate You”.  Squeeze then left the stage to thunderous applause.

Returning for the obligatory encore, the band cranked out “Please Be Upstanding” and “Take Me I’m Yours” before concluding the show with another crowd sing-along favorite, “Black Coffee in Bed”.  Glenn and Chris took the occasion during the closing number to introduce the band on stage, then quickly wrapping up the song and departing, completing the U.S. leg of the tour that began in August.

Squeeze will continue with a series of dates in the U.K. in October and November, and then will tour Australia in February 2020.