Madness Brings the House Down in Oakland

(Madness Return to the States Part One of 2 )

May 15th 2025 – Charm, more than a few laughs and a damn good show; this is what Madness brought to Oakland on the night of the 15th. Anyone fortunate enough to be at the Fox Theater on this night was immediately brought to their feet and did not stop moving until the house lights signalled that the band was in fact done for the evening. This is a powerhouse of a group of musicians, however, these weren’t the only folks performing; a horn section, and a guest guitarist were also there to bring life to the stage that evening.

Formerly known as the North London Invaders, Madness hit the Camden Town scene in 1976, and outside of a small hiatus in the late 80’s, has been bringing their unique two-tone ska to the ears of the masses ever since. During their tenure as the preeminent ska-rock group they have had a multitude of successful hits across the globe; hold the accolade of spending a cumulative 214 weeks on the UK Singles Chart and have received the Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for Outstanding Song Collection. These among many other achievements have been well earned and deserved from a band that still brings a sense of joy and passion to their performances.

Now dear reader to get to your burning question, yes of course they played the hits! It Must Be Love (1981), House of Fun (1982), Wings of a Dove (1983) and Our House (1982) were all phenomenal and turned the crowd into an accompanying choir with every chorus. However, what really struck me about the evening was how much fun everyone on stage was having and how there was a palpable transmission of that energy to the crowd. In other (not trying to sound clever) words, there wasn’t a single person that wasn’t enjoying themselves that evening. I’ll leave this article off with an example of this because it truly is something to experience in person, but Lee “Kix” Thompson lived up to his nickname this evening. A member of the crowd managed to bring in a box of Kix cereal and presented it from the crowd to Lee. Without hesitation, Lee walked over, grabbed the box and began to pour the corn puffs into his mouth. Now this was not only very fun to witness but also was a proud photographer moment because I was able to capture Kix waterfalling Kix.

Unfortunately by the time this article goes up Madness will have departed from the States, but they are still on tour so check out their schedule and if you get the chance to see them in a town near you, you will not regret going!