The Human League is currently on the road, traversing North America on The Generations Tour along with contemporaries Soft Cell and Alison Moyet. The tour kicked off last week in San Diego and is already selling out venues across its 21 tour dates. A Saturday night at The Hard Rock in Wheatland provided the perfect opportunity for fans to turn out en masse. Unlike other ’80s nostalgia tours, The Generations Tour focuses on quality over quantity, providing each of the three bands ample stage time to dive into their respective catalogs while leaving plenty of time for the fan favorites.
Alison Moyet kicked off the evening promptly at 8PM and immediately had the front row on their feet and dancing along as her powerful and soulful vocals soared throughout the now-packed room. Unapologetically mixing her solo songs with Yaz(oo) classics gave little time for the enthusiastic crowd to catch their breath, with a “It Won’t Be Long” (a self-described grim song), providing a brief respite before hitting Wheatland with Yaz banger after banger before ending on “Don’t Go.”
Next up, it was Soft Cell’s turn to bring back the nostalgia machine. Anchored by vocalist Marc Almond, the stripped-down set included Philip Larsen on keyboards/synths as well as a pair of backup vocalists, leaving Almond plenty of room to command the stage and work the eager crowd.
Bucking any suggestion that Soft Cell is strictly a nostalgia act, the opening number “Memorabilia” slid right into “Danceteria,” the title track from a promised 2026 release, and what has been described as the band’s last studio album following the untimely death of original member James Ball late last year. Indeed, the 40-minute set touched on much of the band’s catalog before inevitably finding its way to a massive singalong of fan favorites—“Tainted Love” and “Where Did Our Love Go”—before closing out with “Out Come The Freaks” in a fitting homage to Ball.
The crowd fidgeted in their seats as The Human League’s set time came and passed. So when the drum beat finally hit and dueling keytarists stepped to the front of the stage, the entire room was quickly on its feet when vocalists Philip Oakey, Joanne Catherall (stage left), and Susan Sulley (stage right) strolled out and appropriately launched into “The Sound of the Crowd” from their 1981 breakthrough album Dare.
The Human League kept the wayback machine rolling as they followed their set opener with “Mirror Man” and “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of,” underscoring the depth of their catalog and the simple reality that they are no one-hit wonder. With his high-shouldered jacket and narrow frame, Oakey was striking as he prowled the edge of the stage, appearing to aim his attention toward the most fervent fans while Joanne and Susan synchronized their moves, totally in the groove and obviously having a grand time in front of the Hard Rock crowd.
There’s a reason that The Human League is still drawing crowds and filling rooms after nearly 50 years—even as musical tastes have ebbed and flowed, they’ve consistently released quality synth-based tunes, and they never fail to deliver live. That’s why the crowd stuck around (even with the impending risk of fighting the traffic from Pit Bull’s show happening right down the road) to catch not only hits “(Keep Feeling) Fascination” and “Don’t You Want Me,” but the encore as well, which closed with “Together in Electric Dreams.”
ALISON MOYET
SOFT CELL
THE HUMAN LEAGUE
