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Joe Jackson

Jul 21, 2026 By Matthew Berlyant Photography by Matthew Berlyant Web Exclusive

On August 11th, Joe Jackson will be 72 years old. Listening to and watching him perform at the Beacon Theatre on a muggy, rainy summer night, though, one would NEVER be able to tell. First and foremost, unlike most who have been in the business of show for almost five (!) decades, his voice still sounds just like the 24-year-old kid who made the new wave/power-pop classics Look Sharp! and I’m the Man.

Furthermore, bassist Graham Maby, who has played on most of Jackson’s recordings since his 1979 debut and has toured with him since then, too, also has an eternally youthful, ebullient quality to him that carries over into his playing, often anchoring the sound of Joe’s backing band and occasionally stealing the spotlight briefly as well, such as the expected, almost Larry Graham-esque slap bass on “You Can’t Get What You Want (Til You Know What You Want)” or the unexpectedly pretty solo he added to the rousing chorus melody of “Real Men.”

Opening with his debut single (and one of his biggest hits and most well-known songs) “Is She Really Going Out with Him?” (a title that nodded to both The Damned’s “New Rose” and The Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack”) with just him solo on piano, Joe slowly but surely started introducing band members one by one. On the second track, his #5 U.K. hit “It’s Different for Girls,” he was joined by Maby. Finally, for the third track, a rousing version of his new album Hope and Fury’s opening track “Burning by the Sea,” the other band members came out, and most of the rest of the concert was played with his full band backing him.

Joe is known as an artist who excels in a live environment and prefers it to studio work. This has always been true, by his own admission, and tonight was no exception. Simply put, some of the songs he performed throughout his career were transcendent and far superior to the studio versions. Among them were several songs from his overlooked 2019 album Fool (one of my favorites of his from this century), specifically the title track and the gorgeous “Strange Land.”

Of course, many songs from his most commercially successful period (1979-1984) were touched upon, including the title track of the aforementioned Look Sharp! Alongside “Another World,” “Target” (featuring incredible percussion work from Felipe Fournier, reminding this old fan of Sue Hadjopoulos’ work on 1982’s Night and Day and live), and of course, the mega-hit “Steppin’ Out,” which followed “Target” just like it does at the end of Night and Day’s first side.

It wasn’t all a greatest hits and new album type of show, though. The evening held a few choice surprises, too, including a version of the rarely-performed deep cut “My House” (from 1991’s Laughter and Lust) as well as a cover of David Bowie’s “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” which the band has been doing all tour as a tribute to the late, great icon, one of Jackson’s lifelong inspirations and, as he stated, an old friend as well. And as the evening concluded, appropriately, with an incredible solo rendition of “Hometown” in Joe’s former adopted hometown, another great show of his of many I have been fortunate enough to see over the years was in the books.