DPA MICROPHONES CAPTURE NUANCE AND DETAIL ON YANN TIERSEN’S TOURDPA Microphones released a statement this week, stating that, "Reproducing the full emotional and dynamic range of a solo piano on a large-scale sound system presents a unique set of challenges, especially when that performance is as nuanced as Yann Tiersen’s. Known for his emotive, minimalist compositions and genre-blending artistry, his latest tour, titled “Rathlin from a Distance | The Liquid Hour,” unfolds in two distinct chapters: an opening set of a solo piano followed by a second half steeped in modular synthesis and electronics. For Veteran Live Sound Engineer Jamie Harley, whose four‑decade career spans electronic, indie and acoustic music, the challenge was finding a way to blend these two very different sound worlds into a seamless live experience each night. The DPA Microphones’ DPK2015 Piano Stereo Kit became an essential part of that equation."

“Working with DPA Microphones on Yann Tiersen’s tour has been about capturing nuance without compromise,” says Veteran Live Sound Engineer Jamie Harley to MC. “Yann’s performance moves between fragile, highly textural piano passages and expansive electronic moments, so the microphones must stay honest to the source while giving me control in very dynamic environments. The DPK2015 Piano Stereo Kit, in particular, lets me focus the microphone exactly where it needs to sit—preserving detail, avoiding midrange build-up and keeping everything natural, even at high gain on large systems. When the technology disappears and the piano simply sounds like itself night after night, that’s when you know you’ve got it right.”

The statement continues: "For the piano-driven portion of the performance, Harley deployed the stereo pair of DPA 2015 Wide Cardioid Microphones, which are included in the miking kit. Known for their natural sound reproduction and controlled off-axis response, the 2015s proved to be a powerful tool in managing the delicate tonal characteristics of Tiersen’s playing style. “Yann plays in a very textural way,” Harley explains. “He’ll hold notes and build layers of tone. If you’re not careful, things can get mid-range-heavy quite quickly. I was really interested to see how the piano kit would handle that, and it worked extremely well.”

"The 2015 microphones were positioned inside the piano to capture both clarity and depth, with a focus on maintaining tonal balance across the instrument’s full range. The wide cardioid pickup pattern of the mics allowed Harley to capture the natural resonance of the piano while minimizing unwanted bleed."

“Having that directional control is a godsend,” he says. “Especially when you’re working with a very quiet, delicate instrument on a large system. You need microphones that keep everything tight and focused exactly where they need to be.” 

The post DPA MICROPHONES CAPTURE NUANCE AND DETAIL ON YANN TIERSEN’S TOUR first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

From The Orchard acquiring Brazil’s OniMusic to the BMG-Concord merger… it’s MBW’s weekly round-upThe biggest headlines from the past few days...
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THE JEREMIAH SHOW: Kailee Spark Is RestlessSinger-songwriter Kailee Spark brings her quiet honesty to The Jeremiah Show, where two powerful conversations reveal the artist behind the music.

In her first appearance, she introduces her debut album Savor This, reflecting on a path shaped by her writing, travel, and a need to express what she couldn’t always say out loud—“Music was something I could turn to instead of talking.”

In the next interview, the conversation shifts, shaped by the personal losses of her father and grandmother within weeks of each other, and by the experiences behind her single “Restless.”

Still, her perspective remains grounded: “Time is kind of irrelevant—the only time we have is now.” Across both interviews, Kailee resists the pressure to play small—“People tell you to think smaller—but you shouldn’t”—and instead leans into a creative life that’s instinctive, present, and unfiltered.

To hear the full story behind the songs, listen to both episodes of The Jeremiah Show featuring Kailee Spark.

Kailee Spark Savor This Interview

Kailee Spark Is Restless Interview

Kailee’s Website

Kailee Spark’s Instagram

Listen to Kailee Spark’s Music on Spotify

THE JEREMIAH SHOW - POP CULTURE, MUSIC ICONS, and FOOD GODS 

Brought to you by Cuzen Matcha Worldwide

The Jeremiah Show - Please Subscribe - CLICK HERE

Host | Executive Producer - Jeremiah D. Higgins

Sound Designer - Graham Palmer, SURPRISE STUDIO

THE JEREMIAH SHOW PROUDLY FEATURES

Music Connection Magazine, Cuzen Matcha, Voracious Records, Golda Zahra , MusiCares , Omad Records, and Greens First

The Jeremiah Show Airs Monday - Friday, 10 am - 12 pm, and 9 pm on Friday Nights on RADIO EVOLVE ROCKS in Santa Barbara, California

The post THE JEREMIAH SHOW: Kailee Spark Is Restless first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

In Q1, YouTube Music and Premium saw ‘largest quarterly increase’ in non-trial subscribers since 2018 launch, says Alphabet CEO, as platform’s quarterly ad revenues rose to $9.88BYouTube's advertising revenue grew 11% YoY to $9.88 billion in Q1 2026
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I imagine this is quite logical thing and generally people don't want to listen to #music simply and automatically generated by #AI machines. There is some good stuff for #creativity support and is interesting as well in general. But I think it is good to smartly combine analog, digital and AI worlds...or not...there is not one right answer

UMG generated $3.39 billion in Q1, up 8.1% YoY – driven by BTS, Olivia Dean, Taylor Swift, and moreUniversal Music Group has published its Q1 2026 results for the three months ending March 31
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Recording industry Renaissance man David Goggin (aka Mr. Bonzai) passes at 78Music Connection was saddened to learn of the passing of David "Mr. Bonzai" Goggin this week:

David Goggin (often known by his pen name “Mr. Bonzai”), whose journalism, photography, visual art, and advocacy chronicled the golden age of recording studios, has died peacefully after a valiant fight with two cancers and a stroke. He was 78.

David is survived by his wife of 42 years, acclaimed artist Keiko Kasai, with whom he shared a long and intimate personal and artistic partnership. She was the muse for over 1,000 of his drawings and portraits.

A true Renaissance man, Goggin was an accomplished artist, writer, photographer, journalist, filmmaker, and poet. He was best known for his monthly interviews with producers, engineers, and musicians for Mix magazine and later EQ magazine from the late 1970s through the 1990s. He produced over 250 interviews for both these magazines, offering quirky, insightful, and vivid portraits of studio life, where some of the era’s most iconic albums were recorded. His work documented the voices of producers, engineers, and session musicians often overlooked in mainstream music reporting.“

I just kind of fell into it. I was always around music,” Goggin told podcaster Daniel Keller. “I wasn’t thinking about a career; I was just doing what I loved. Suddenly, I’m in the studio with these legends, documenting them making their music. This became my life—capturing these moments. I realized I had a front-row seat to history.”

Born in Kingston, New York in 1947 to cartoonist Edward James Goggin and Anna Marie Farrell, David Goggin graduated from the University of California at Irvine (UCI) with a degree in English Literature. After producing light shows for concerts by Janis Joplin and Buffalo Springfield at UCI, he spent a year studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh and traveled extensively in the UK, where he met John Lennon in 1968-1969, and witnessed a session where The Beatles recorded “I Am the Walrus.” This experience ignited Goggin’s lifelong passion for the craft of recording and the people behind it.

While at UCI, Goggin studied drawing with David Hockney; it was a pursuit he continued throughout his lifetime. Building from his drawing technique, his art practice expanded to include delicate wire sculptures that are widely collected by an eclectic group of Hollywood luminaries including Norman Lear.Goggin started his career in media in the late sixties, hosting a late-night comedy radio show in Montreal. When the show was cancelled, David returned to Orange County and began work in the recording industry as the studio manager at the Lyon Recording Studio, while doing publicity for an affiliated company, Lyon Lamb Video Animation Systems.

Goggin’s first break as a music journalist came with the then-startup Mix magazine in 1979, where editor and soon-to-be lifelong friend David Schwartz invited him to write a monthly column about the pressured, offbeat life inside a small Orange County recording studio. Writing under the pen name Mr. Bonzai, his columns became a staple of the magazine, evolving into his first book and the popular Lunching with Mr. Bonzai series. Over his career, Goggin wrote more than 1,000 articles and interviews for major publications in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Billboard, and The Hollywood Reporter, Sound & Recording Japan.

Among his many skills was his ability to elicit brain-scratching quotes from pressured artists. Film composer CJ Vanston called him “the mother of all flies on the wall,” and Suzanne Ciani said he was “always a charming and clever centerpiece at any industry convention,” while “Weird Al” Yankovic said that Mr. Bonzai “got inside my mind when I wasn’t looking,” and Graham Nash observed that his greatest talent was “being invisible,” and George Massenburg described him simply as “curiosity and joy.”

Many of his articles featured his award-winning photography, establishing him as Los Angeles’ preeminent recording studio photographer. Sights of Goggin, in his pork pie hat, metallic glasses, lanyard Montblanc fountain pen, and multi-colored shirt, working booths at industry conventions with a Leica camera and ladder in hand, made him one of the most recognized figures in the pro-audio industry.

Goggin’s early studio stories were compiled into his first book, Studio Life: The Other Side of the Tracks (1984), and his life’s work included seven more books: Santa’s Secret Sled (1980), co-written with Bruce Lyon; Hal Blaine and The Wrecking Crew (1990), co-written with legendary session drummer Hal Blaine; The Sound of Money (2000), co-written with his friend and client Chris Stone; Faces of Music (2006); Music Smarts (2009); and John Lennon’s Tooth (2012).

In 2025, he co-authored Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios with music journalist Martin Porter, reconstructing the wild and innovative history of Record Plant Studios in New York, Sausalito, and Los Angeles, where Goggin worked as a press agent.

In addition to his work at Record Plant, Goggin collaborated with the studio’s owner Chris Stone on industry advocacy groups such as SPARS and the World Studio Group. He co-founded, with producer/engineer Ed Cherney and Stone, the Music Producers Guild of the Americas, which later became the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy.

He was also active in the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) community, producing conference sessions with audio-industry pioneers and hosting the Technical Excellence & Creativity (TEC) Awards. He appeared on NAMM’s TEC Tracks stage in January 2026, with Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh and producer Bob Margouleff to discuss the making of the 1980 hit “Whip It” at Record Plant.Mothersbaugh once called him “a master of modern music photojournalism,” obliquely adding that “Mr. Bonzai is the future of the past.”Goggin’s company, Communication Arcs, provided PR and photographic services to leading pro-audio manufacturers and recording studios, including Sony, Telefunken, Sommer Cable, Ocean Way Recording, United Recording, and Bernie Grundman Mastering.

For half a century, David Goggin’s work compiled the audio and visual history of the recording studio era, bridging the early creative chaos of the analog studio age and the digital birth of personal music production, always focusing the lens on the people and technology behind the scenes that made the music happen.

"David 'Mr. Bonzai' Goggin was a friend of mine, and to countless others in the Pro Audio/MI industries," says MC publisher Eric Bettelli. "Dave's contribution to our industry spans decades. He was a top notch professional music journalist, publicist and author, whose work speaks for itself. He just never missed a beat. And most of all, Dave was one of the good guys, who was always eager to share his incredible talent with all. A real Mench. Dave, RIP, and hope to see you again on the other side."The post Recording industry Renaissance man David Goggin (aka Mr. Bonzai) passes at 78 first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Thurston Moore on New Collaboration With Bonner Kramer and Sonic Youth's Early YearsThurston Moore discusses how his project with highly collaborative musician, producer, and songwriter Kramer finally took place, and goes into detail about the early years of Sonic Youth, guitar, and an appreciation of a certain classic rock band's early work (which may surprise you).

BMG+Concord is the music industry’s biggest bet in years. What’s the plan?Thomas Coesfeld and Bob Valentine answer MBW's questions on a mega-merger – and ambitious targets
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Focusrite ISA C8X: Vintage Studio DNA Meets a Modern WorkflowThere’s legacy gear, and then there’s ISA—the kind of circuitry that’s quietly shaped decades of recordings without ever needing to scream for attention. Now, for the first time, Focusrite has pulled that DNA into a full audio interface with the ISA C8X.

To understand why this matters, you have to go back to 1985, when Rupert Neve designed a custom console for George Martin. That lineage—the transformer-driven sound built around the Lundahl LL1538—has remained at the heart of every ISA preamp since. It’s not marketing fluff; it’s the same sonic fingerprint that’s been sitting at the front end of countless recordings for nearly four decades. As Focusrite puts it, “ISA is what Focusrite was founded upon… beloved by artists and engineers worldwide for over 40 years.”

What makes the ISA C8X interesting isn’t that it preserves that sound—it’s that it finally integrates it into a modern workflow without compromise. On paper, it’s a 26-in, 28-out USB-C interface housed in a sleek 2U rack unit, but that spec sheet undersells what it actually does. Two of its eight preamps carry the original transformer design, delivering up to 79dB of gain—more than enough to handle low-output ribbons and dynamics without breaking a sweat—while the remaining six offer ultra-low-noise performance and plenty of headroom. It’s a hybrid approach that balances character and clarity rather than forcing you to choose between them.

The real personality comes through in its analog shaping options. The all-analog Console mode adds harmonic saturation and low-end punch via a soft-clip circuit, while 430 Air mode—lifted directly from the ISA 430 MkII—introduces a high-end shimmer that feels more like expensive signal path enhancement than a typical EQ boost. These aren’t afterthought features; they’re the kind of tonal tools that encourage you to commit to sounds on the way in, which is increasingly rare in an era obsessed with fixing everything in post.

Or, as Jack Cole, Product Manager at Focusrite Professional Solutions explains, “ISA has been a staple in studios for over 40 years and it’s been at the front of the signal chain for some of the greatest recordings ever made. We’re really excited to present the sound and ethos of ISA in an audio interface for the very first time. The sonic signature remains the same but workflows have been updated and modernised, with remote control and recall functionality alongside tonal enhancement features and a vast array of analogue and digital I/O. We hope that users will see, feel and, most importantly, hear the attention to detail that the entire Focusrite team have put into ISA C8X."

And that modernization is where the ISA C8X really earns its place. It’s built to function as the centerpiece of a studio, not just another interface on your desk. With 24-bit/192kHz conversion and up to 125dB of dynamic range, it delivers the kind of fidelity you’d expect from Focusrite’s higher-end systems, while the connectivity—ADAT, S/PDIF, MIDI, Word Clock—makes it easy to expand. Monitoring support goes all the way up to immersive formats like 7.1.4, and the ability to control everything remotely via Focusrite Control 2 (even from mobile) means it slots into modern, flexible workflows without friction. It’s equally at home in a hybrid analog setup or a streamlined in-the-box environment.

Even the bundled software feels intentional rather than obligatory. The inclusion of Brainworx’s console emulation and Sonnox’s Oxford plugins ties the hardware back to its roots, giving users access to the tonal philosophy behind the original Focusrite Studio Console. Optional Sonnox bundles push that even further into mixing and mastering territory, making the ISA C8X feel more like a part of a broader ecosystem than a standalone piece of gear.

What ultimately sets the ISA C8X apart is that it doesn’t chase the ultra-clean, hyper-transparent trend dominating much of today’s interface market. Instead, it leans into character—warmth, depth, subtle saturation—while still delivering the precision and flexibility modern studios demand. It’s not trying to be everything; it’s trying to be something specific, and it does that with clarity of purpose. As Cole puts it, “We hope that users will see, feel and, most importantly, hear the attention to detail…”—and that attention shows up in the places that actually matter.

For anyone who’s spent years chasing that elusive “record-ready” tone before even opening a plugin, the ISA C8X feels like validation. A reminder that great sound doesn’t start in the mix—it starts at the source. And now, finally, that classic ISA sound has an interface to match.

The post Focusrite ISA C8X: Vintage Studio DNA Meets a Modern Workflow first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

A Song That Changed My Life: A Place to Bury Strangers on Slowdive’s “Jazz Odeon”The Band Members: Oliver Ackermann, guitar, vocals, bass; John Fedowitz, bass; Sandra Fedowitz, drums.

The Storyteller: Oliver Ackermann

The Song: Composed with swirling, spellbinding sonics, Slowdive’s “Jazz Odeon” unfolds like an ever-evolving auditory drift — waxing and waning, dissolving and returning. Long coveted as a captured live rarity traded on cassettes and limited-run CD-Rs, the track circulated through the close-knit shoegaze community, a ghost signal passing hand to hand. As one of the many shimmery, shivery standouts from the Reading, Berkshire-based band, it solidified Slowdive as preeminent authors of ethereal, dreampop soundscapes.

The Background: Before forming A Place to Bury Strangers, Oliver Akermann was already chasing elusive sonics percolating within his subconscious through his Virginia-based noise-gaze project Skywave. Built on dense, controlled distortion and heavily fuzzed-out melodics, the band gained traction within the tight-knit yet far-reaching avant-garde nu-gaze network.

In this pre-streaming DIY ecosystem, hand-traded cassettes and limited-run CD-Rs shaped an underground culture that valued the thrill of discovery. Music existed in fragile circulation — a landscape of ghosted artifacts where recordings were prized precisely because they could vanish if a tape or dub was lost, mislabeled, or damaged. These songs felt like sonic artifacts; flickering transmissions, unstable and sonically alive.

When Skywave dissolved after Ackermann’s move to Brooklyn, that same instinct for sonic excavation carried forward into a new phase: A Place to Bury Strangers. Here, he shifted from chasing sound to constructing it from the ground up. Through custom circuitry and his pedal effects company, Death By Audio, Ackermann learned to shape feedback, distortion, and chaos into instruments of control — pushing tones to a breaking point or deliberately collapsing them. The result became the band’s signature: a physically overwhelming wall of searing atmospherics.

Now, often described as the “loudest band in New York,” A Place to Bury Strangers revisits their origins with Rare and Deadly (April 3rd, 2026, via Dedstrange), a collection of songs that loops back into that same underground culture of exchange — an archive of accidents, fragments, and hidden gems.

Ackermann reflects on how a Slowdive rarity inadvertently burned itself into the DNA of APTBS today.

The Story: Ackermann first encountered Slowdive’s “Jazz Odeon” not as a formal release, but as a trace — a copy of a copy circulating within the shoegaze exchange culture. For years, it existed in a superposition-like state: a recording that felt both real and unreachable, with elusive sounds that had to be hunted down.

That search ended during a backpack trip through Europe, when a contact at Allison Records dubbed a mixtape of unreleased tracks for Ackermann on the spot. “I was super excited because my friends and I were always chasing down music,” he recalls. “That was one of those tracks I thought I would never be able to get any other way.”

The moment stuck. It wasn’t just about finally hearing the song — it was about the medium. Even years later, Ackermann describes it as something preserved through distortion and duplication. He later re-dubbed it onto his computer so he could DJ the song in clubs. “I still have that twisted dub,” he says. “Everything sounds better on cassette. It still blows me away — the rising and the falling of the track. Beauty and decay combined into a just beautiful, epic performance.”

For Ackermann, “Jazz Odeon” wasn’t just a rarity —it exposed how sound could exist in two states at once: immense yet fragile, soft yet crushing, distant yet intimate. That duality became central to his own approach with A Place to Bury Strangers.

“I always liked that duality,” he says. “It’s what we try to do with our live sound —overwhelming and loud, but soft like a warm blanket of static energy.”

That tension between distortion and emotion became influence and direction. “Different songs and sounds build the sonic universe I want to create in,” Ackermann explains, “and push the boundaries of what’s possible.” Those early encounters with unstable recordings ultimately led him to found Death By Audio, an effects company where he builds pedals that recreate that same unpredictability — tools for other musicians designed to craft new sonics that, if desired, can break apart in meaningful ways.

“It opened my mind to sounds I couldn’t quite place,” he notes, linking the Slowdive dub directly to his work as a sound designer. “It’s important to have that desire to go off on a journey… to see that goals lead to all sorts of other things along the way.”

Ackermann surmises that “Jazz Odeon” was as much a discovery as a threshold — the moment where the creative instinct to seek sound became permanent. “It’s an epic track,” he says. “Let the listener make up their own mind. No spoilers.”

Photo by Heather Bickford

The post A Song That Changed My Life: A Place to Bury Strangers on Slowdive’s “Jazz Odeon” first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

‘The road to true artist development is still a long one. Tenacity wins long-term.’Tom Rose, MD of UK-based GRAPE.VN (formerly Propeller), on radio's significance in the streaming age, the firm's pan-European promo work with RAYE, and its move to offer management, label services and more following a rebrand

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NEP at Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NCWeb: robertlesterfolsom.comContact: dshaw@baselinemusic.comPlayers: Nep, vocals; Tyler Pons, drums; Sophia Damiani, bass; Jake Sonderman, guitar

Grab your slide rules: Albert Einstein almost had it right, but the real equation on display at Cat’s Cradle was E = NEP².

That proof arrived in the form of NEP (yes, that’s really her name)—a shadow-boxing indie-pop artist who brought a cocktail of swagger, nervous laughter, and Daytona Beach daydreams to the adoring Back Room crowd.

NEP burst onto the stage with a quick four-song salvo: “Daytona,” “Fender,” “Lovelace,” and “Milktown,” followed by the brisk pop flash of “Rocket Ship.” None of it calmed the room. If anything, the next stretch detonated the place: “Teddy,” “Biketoberfest,” “All Around Beauty,” and “Soundtrack” spilled out in a sugar rush of jangling guitars and nervous giggles.

The crowd surged toward the stage in what became a kind of musical cyclone. The quartet itself looked almost comically small against the swell of bodies pressed forward—NEP, her guitarist, and drummer hovering around the five-foot mark, while the bass player stood like a benevolent giant beside them.

Add NEP’s constant giggle—somewhere between nervous energy and mischievous charm—and the whole affair began to resemble a cinematic “escape from the kids’ table at Thanksgiving.”

The guitar work was simple and unadorned—almost stubbornly so—but it carried a kind of innocence that fit the material. The grooves were uncomplicated, the structures tidy, and the melodies had the breezy, slightly sunburned feel of songs written somewhere between a dorm room and a beach parking lot.

At times, the silliness threatened to overwhelm the music. There were genuinely lovely musical moments that got sliced apart by NEP’s constant asides and laughter. The vibe in the room became so beach-soaked you could almost smell the Coppertone and feel sand under your feet. The sugary, slightly smug Hello Kitty delivery sometimes obscured the delicate little juxtapositions the band—competent if understated—was putting together.

Mid-set, the groove settled into something like autopilot before reanimating with “I Close My Eyes,” “Florida Girl,” and the crowd favorite “Pup.” Without a dominant soloist or any real instrumental grandstanding, the evening became less about virtuosity and more about atmosphere: a blend of sonic melancholy and occasional Beach Blanket Bingo chaos.

The songwriting itself showed care. Songs were thoughtfully paced and clearly diaristic. There may not yet be an obvious hit single lurking in the catalog, but a certain gravitational pull—something about Daytona, about leaving and remembering—kept the set moving forward.

That Florida lineage occasionally bubbled at the surface. The warm embers of Tom Petty and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers flickered here and there, and the ghost of Southern guitar traditions that ultimately fed into The Allman Brothers Band hovered around the edges of the sound.

Elsewhere you could hear faint splashes of quirky new-wave DNA—moments that hinted at the playful pop instincts of Bow Wow Wow and the bright theatricality later embraced by Culture Club—another clue to the mixing bowl of beach culture, pop instinct, and youthful irreverence that NEP seems to inhabit. The post NEP at Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

80s KIDS at The Virgil, Los Angeles, CAIn the world of independent artists, there are those whose musical aesthetics evolve gradually, while a rare few create rare transformations that feel almost cinematic—where everything that came before suddenly clicks into a vivid, fully realized expression. Watching Shannon Curtis confidently strut onto the stage at The Virgil as one half of 80s Kids, it’s impossible not to think back to a much earlier version of her: seated behind a keyboard at Molly Malone’s in 2009, delivering the intimate, heartfelt songs of I Play the Piano and Sing Love Songs with grace, warmth and a quietly captivating emotional pull. That artist is still very much present. But what she’s become, alongside her husband, producer and creative co-conspirator Jamie Hill, is something far more expansive, theatrical and electrifying.

What Curtis and Hill have built with 80s Kids isn’t simply a nostalgic cover project. It’s an immersive, vibrant and intricately woven aesthetic experience—a retro radio broadcast, underground synth club and deeply personal time capsule. From the moment fans entered the venue, the world was established: purple-lit ambience, a neon logo, a wall for photos, merch tables stacked with cassettes and vinyl, and the brilliantly conceived “80s Kids Radio” playing over the speakers—complete with faux ads and an over-caffeinated DJ named Ronny Rocket hyping the cultural breakthroughs of 1985 with just enough ironic hindsight to make it both hilarious and subtly dark.

This level of detail speaks to the duo’s long-standing DIY ethos. As pioneers of the modern house concert movement, they’ve spent over a decade redefining what independent artists can be—building a sustainable, community-driven career outside traditional industry structures, releasing albums at a remarkable pace, and cultivating a fiercely loyal audience through their Misfit Stars ecosystem. That same spirit of independence and innovation fuels 80s Kids, which began almost accidentally during a pause between original album cycles and quickly evolved into a full-fledged band vibe, complete with two releases (80s Kids and the just released 80s Kids 2) and a touring identity all its own.

But it’s onstage where the concept completely ignites.

Curtis appears in a striking, high-voltage look that channels the raw energy of an underground ‘80s new wave club—sheer black mesh, high-waisted shorts, fishnets, over-the-knee boots, fingerless gloves, her silver-gray hair loose and electric under saturated pink and purple lights. Gone is the seated singer-songwriter; in her place is a commanding, kinetic performer who stalks the stage, dances between vocal lines, and radiates a fierce, unapologetic presence. Part Pat Benatar grit, part Berlin-era cool, she embodies the era without ever feeling like an impersonation.

Alongside her, Hill remains mostly silent but absolutely essential, triggering meticulously crafted synth arrangements via a Roland controller and custom-programmed soft synths that recreate the original sonic architecture of each track with stunning precision. And that’s one of the show’s most refreshing choices: there’s no ironic reinterpretation, no attempt to “update” the songs. Instead, Hill faithfully rebuilds them—allowing Curtis’ powerhouse voice, drenched in reverb and heartfelt intensity, to step into and often elevate the original performances.

The set leans heavily into British and European synth-pop—a-ha, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, OMD, New Order, Yazoo—with only a few American detours, including a crowd-erupting “Dancing in the Dark” and a torchy, deeply felt take on Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away.” From the opening pulse of “Take on Me,” Curtis commands the room with boundless energy, hitting every soaring high note while channeling the wide-eyed exuberance of her younger self discovering this music for the first time.

One of the night’s most unexpected highlights is 80s Kids’ fiery rendition of Sheena Easton’s “Strut,” a track notably absent from the 80s Kids albums but perfectly suited to Curtis’ commanding stage presence. Leaning into the song’s sly, confrontational edge, she channels its proto-feminist spirit with a knowing wink—transforming what once felt like a playful ‘80s pushback against objectification into something that resonates even more sharply in a post-#MeToo cultural landscape. With a throbbing groove beneath her and a torchy, defiant vocal delivery, Curtis turns the performance into a moment of empowerment, strutting, twirling and locking eyes with the crowd as if reclaiming every lyric in real time.

Highlights come in rapid succession. “It’s a Sin” builds from a mystical opening into a raucous, dance-fueled explosion, with Curtis punctuating each refrain with sharp, physical movement. “A Little Respect” becomes a total audience clap-along, her voice effortlessly riding the track’s emotional peaks. “If You Leave” transforms the seated crowd into a communal dance floor, while “Bizarre Love Triangle” pulses with hypnotic intensity as both performers lock into its groove.

Just as infectious is their take on The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me,” which becomes a playful, semi-theatrical duet. As Hill steps in with the filtered vocal in the second verse – interestingly taking the female role – Curtis reacts in real time, half incredulous, half amused, turning the song’s familiar back-and-forth into a bit of live storytelling. She leans into the drama, punctuating lines with expressive gestures and sly glances, transforming the synth-pop classics into a wildly retro yet freshly animated crowd pleasing singalong.  

Yet what truly elevates the evening is the storytelling woven throughout. Curtis is a natural, hilarious and disarmingly honest narrator, spinning anecdotes about Gen X identity, early encounters with technology, adolescent crushes and the cultural artifacts that shaped her worldview. A particularly memorable sequence leads into “Take My Breath Away,” where she recounts seeing Top Gun at age eleven, sitting between her parents while processing the film’s now-iconic love scene knowing her ex-beau is in the audience—an experience she describes with such vivid, comedic detail that the eventual performance lands with both humor and genuine reflective resonance.

Elsewhere, she riffs on everything from Short Circuit to menopause to mixtapes, framing her generation as “punks and weirdos, theater kids and band geeks” who found belonging through music. These moments aren’t filler—they’re connective tissue, grounding the performance in lived experience and reinforcing the idea that 80s Kids is as much about identity as it is about sound.

Musically, the band moves fluidly between high-energy dance numbers and more introspective ballads. “Broken Wings” showcases Curtis’ ability to pull back into a more restrained, haunting delivery, while “Only You” creates a hypnotic, almost intimate atmosphere. Even lighter tracks like “Always Something There to Remind Me” carry a sense of joy that balances their lyrical melancholy.

By the time the show closes with “The Promise” and a soaring, deeply felt “Forever Young,” the through-line becomes clear. This isn’t just a fond, powerfully produced look back - it’s reclamation. Curtis and Hill aren’t simply revisiting the music of their youth; they’re reinhabiting it, reinterpreting their own histories through it, and offering it back to an audience that, whether they lived it or not, can feel its enduring pulse.

In that sense, 80s Kids represents not just an artistic evolution for Shannon Curtis, but a kind of full-circle arrival. The young woman who once sang alone at a keyboard has become a fearless, totally embodied performer—one who understands that the songs we grow up with don’t just shape us; they stay with us, waiting for the moment we’re ready to truly live inside them.

Photo credit: Nancy SchoegglThe post 80s KIDS at The Virgil, Los Angeles, CA first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

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