Here went the 90s roaring back

Nostaglic much?

Dearly beloved
We are gathered here today
To get through this thing called “life”
Electric word, life
It means forever, and that’s a mighty long time

Sometimes I play Purple Rain—beginning to end—in my car, turned up very loud. When de-elevator tries to bring me down, this is good medicine. IYKYK.

If you’re my age, the 1980s were really a good decade for music. Many of the bands from that decade are still touring. I saw REO Speedwagon a week or so ago as they came through Atlanta, opening for Train. Speedwagon lead man Kevin Cronin said Train picked them to attract a younger crowd. Cronin, who is 72, looks absolutely great. Train is from that decade I spent adulting, from the mid-90s through the early oughts. Speedwagon played loud and hard. But Train was a boatload of fun.

The 90s (mid 80s to the 2000s) are roaring back to a generation that’s never heard anything before auto-tune, and I say hooray: four cheers for it! A few weeks ago, I heard a song on the SXM Radio 80’s channel that I’d never heard, by a band I’d didn’t recognize. The Style Council did “My Ever Changing Mood” in 1984. I was so shocked that I liked it a lot that I shared it with my 15-year-old trombone-playing son, who immediately fell in love. I emailed the DJ Alan Hunter (one of the original MTV veejays) and he answered: it’s a good song and good band.

Apparently I was too caught up in the dailies in ‘84 to catch that bright blip of Brit-pop. The Style Council also did a jazz number with the quite subversive title “Dropping Bombs on the White House.” Listen to it.

Paul Weller is the lead man in The Style Council, which, after a 30 year hiatus, has not played together since 2019. Weller, 66, still tours. If he was still alive, Prince would be the same age. I bet he’d still be touring, releasing new material, and filling any arena he cared to play.

As for Minneapolis artists, Soul Asylum is still around and touring. I saw them open for Stone Temple Pilots, who opened for Live, just last weekend. While REO Speedwagon and Train filled the Ameris Bank Amphitheater, STP/Soul Asylum/Live only sold about 60 percent of available tickets. I don’t know why, because, while I was busy adulting, grunge and alt was the thing. I figured more of us dad-bods would be there to hear “Runaway Train.”

Green Day lugged The Smashing Pumpkins and a whole lotta punk around the country, landing at Cobb County’s Truist Park (home of the Braves), to a sellout crowd last week. Punk sells well: Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day’s front man, is worth about $75 million; among his businesses is a guitar shop, a record label, and (I defecate you not) Green Day’s own brew: Pink Bunny Coffee.

But the biggest news is from England: the Gallagher brothers have patched things up (for now). I’m referring to Liam and Noel Gallagher, otherwise known as Oasis. The band announced a 2025 tour—in the U.K. only—that broke Ticketmaster, similar to the tsunami that Taylor Swift caused. If Oasis came to the U.S., I expect they’d fill any arena the promoters chose; the last time they played in America was, December 20, 2008, in Fairfax, Virginia. Then again, I might be wrong—Americans can be picky about their Brit bands.

How many 90s kids would show up for a Champagne Supernova these days? I don’t know. I do know that there’s a whole lot of music from that era hitting the tour stops this year. And I for one am happy to fill in the musical blanks in my life.