Psychedelic Furs/Gary Numan @ Brooklyn Paramount, Brooklyn, NY 10/19/25

 

Bill: Psychedelic Furs

Venue: Brooklyn Paramount, 385 Flatbush Ave. Ext., Brooklyn, NY

Date: Sun 10/19/25

Door: $74 (had friends extra won pair)

9:40pm Psychedelic Furs

Active: 1977 (London, UK)

Latest Release: Made of Rain (Cooking Vinyl, 2020), "Evergreen" (Cooking Vinyl, 2021)

Biggest Release: Midnight To Midnight (Columbia, 1987)

First Release: The Psychedelic Furs (Columbia, 1980)

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8pm Gary Numan

Active: 1977 (London, UK)

Latest Release: Intruder (BMG/The End, 2021), A Perfect Circle: Live (BMG, 2025)

Biggest Release: The Pleasure Principle (Atco, 1979)

First Release: Tubeway Army-Tubeway Army (Beggars Banquet, 1978)

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Psychedelic Furs were a long time "bucket list" band I never got around to seeing.  Stars aligned, a friend of mine won two pairs of tickets, a friend in town was an old fan from way back of the bands second album Talk Talk Talk. I liked the first one and pretty much ignored everything else except the inescapable hits.  That said, those hits held up and I liked the show.  I actually had to bail before the encore was done to get said friend situated in a car and say goodbye, so I missed the lone first album song "India."  Likewise, we grabbed some food across the street at Junior's so of course we missed "Cars" from Gary Numan, but I saw him headline about 10-15 years ago.  This was a casual experience in every sense of the way for me.

So of what I was which was the mid-point of Numan's set through the Psych Furs first encore "It Goes On" from Talk Talk Talk it was a pleasant enough hang.  Their original lineup is down to the Butler Brothers leader Richard and bass player Tim.  They are augmented with some session types that had established road histories.  The Furs played a set spread out over their career start to end.  The Talk Talk Talk friend groused about the performance of "Pretty In Pink" but loved "Mr. Jones."  The friend that had the tickets groused that "Sister Europe" wasn't on the setlist and the performance of "President Gas" was subpar.   It says something that I was blissfully indifferent to the point I left before my favorite song in the bands catalog, "India," was played, but I look at the setlist before I came.  That said, I thought the band were fine and played with a sort of authority that I appreciated throughout the 15 songs I saw.  "Love My Way" and "The Ghost In You" were good enough hits for me this evening.

Gary Numan wasn't much different at 67 than the Webster Hall show (I'm going to say the 2014 one, not the couple in recent years).  His style has evolved into more of an industrial leaning presentation.  "Are Friends Electric" from his early Tubeway Army band of course was played.  I missed the two from Pleasure Principle and the focus was later work from albums like Pure, Savage and his last studio one Intruder.  In all honesty I'd rather throw on a Tubeway Army record at this point.  Usually, I'm more appreciative of newer material being a shows focus.  Maybe because the earlier material that established Gary Numan was always a cursory interest, I wasn't able to keep up into his current territory.   Since I arrived mid-set and was still getting my analytic bearings, I didn't feel the same emotion as the guy behind me yelling "Enough Already!  PSYCHEDELIC FURS!!!" but I understood a bit where he was coming from.  The 19-show show I saw in 2014 seemed insanely long and a half hour of the hour set was enough for me this time.  My friend that had the tickets loved Gary and his band much more than Psych Furs and complained his set was only 60 minutes compared to their 75, so there is no substitute for taste.  Everyone and their mother has got an opinion about Gary Numan nowadays.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

All Of This And Nothing (1988)