On Saturday the post-punk, new wave, and goth-leaning festival Cruel World returned to Pasadena for its 2025 iteration. Along with big-font players like New Order, and Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, the Go-Go's, and more, the stacked lineup also featured a reunion of Aimee Mann's old band 'Til Tuesday, performing their first show together in over three decades.
Aside from this being 'Til Tuesday's first show in 33 years (aside from a private warmup show earlier the day) it was also their first with the original lineup -- Mann, Robert Holmes, Joey Pesce, and Michael Hausman -- in 35 years. The setlist included songs from all three of the band’s albums and a take on the Cars’ “Drive,” which Mann first covered on the FX series The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story in 2018. “This is a song that made us recognizable in airports across America,” she said before they closed with their biggest hit, 1985’s “Voices Carry.”
Mann recently spoke with Variety about the reunion, saying it was Hausman -- who's also Mann's manager -- who brought to her the idea of getting the band back together. It doesn't sound like it took her much convincing, though she did encounter some challenges in rehearsal. Here's just one of the quotes:
The biggest hurdle for me has been that, especially in the early songs, I sing completely differently. And it’s been really hard for me to figure out how to sing that stuff, because I feel like that style was born out of playing in rock clubs and not really hearing what I was doing and just trying to sing as loud and high as possible. And I don’t know how to do that now. So I actually took a couple of voice lessons to see: How do professionals deal with this — like, higher notes that they can’t really hit? I mean, I’ve obviously lowered every key, just because over the years I’ve found it’s just more comfortable to sit in lower keys anyway. That’s kind of the journey I’m on
She sounds good to me! Along with the 'Til Tuesday reunion, Cruel World 2025 also hosted British synth-pop duo Blancmange for their first North American show in nearly 40 years. See some highlights and 'Til Tuesday's setlist below.
SETLIST:
"Maybe Monday"
"Love In A Vacuum"
"What About Love"
"Rip In Heaven"
"Looking Over My Shoulder"
"Coming Up Close"
"The Other End (Of The Telescope)"
"Drive" (The Cars cover)
"No More Crying"
"Don't Watch Me Bleed"
"Voices Carry"
