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Jul 02, 2023 By Matthew Berlyant Photography by Matthew Berlyant Web Exclusive

Sparks are unlike anyone else. One would be hard-pressed to name another group together more than fifty (!) years after their debut who are also in one of the most productive, creative phases of their storied career, and still going strong, relying not only on well-earned nostalgia for their ‘70s and ‘80s classics, but proudly showcasing new material to an uproarious crowd who was on their feet virtually the entirety of the hour and forty minutes set. As such, they played no fewer than six songs from their brand new album The Girl is Crying in Her Latte and the only previous album that garnered more than one song was, interestingly,

1986’s Music That You Can Dance To. The rest of the main set was a career-spanning greatest “hits” (perhaps in a more open-minded world, though it should be noted that a few were gigantic UK and European hits) set ranging all the way from “Beaver O’Lindy” (from their second album, 1973’s A Woofer in Tweeter’s Clothing) to 1994’s “When Do I Get to Sing ‘My Way’” (from 1994’s hilariously-titled Gratuitous Sax and
Senseless Violins).

In addition, we got such classics as the title track of 1982’s seminal Angst in My Pants, the title track of 1979’s No.1 Song in Heaven, and the perhaps less-beloved but ultra-catchy title track of 2000’s Balls, one of the main set’s highlights. We also, of course, got the much-loved legit UK smash hit “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us” before the main set closed with the appropriately-titled new song “Gee That was Fun.”

After repeated begging and pleading from the enraptured audience, they finally came back out and encored with “My Baby’s Taking Me Home” and “All That” from 2020’s A Steady Drip Drip Drip, capping off a wonderful evening of music.