Jon King is about to turn 70 years old, but he remains as sharp, acerbic, and sage as ever. The Gang of Four frontman was a spitfire in a recent sold-out show at 9:30 Club, where he struck like lightning for two sets of songs celebrating his storied English post-punk band on a farewell tour.
On April 25 at 9:30 Club, Jon and drummer Hugo Burnham — the two surviving members of the founding Gang of Four quartet — played through their debut album Entertainment! and followed it with a set of other Gang of Four songs for a date on The Long Goodbye Tour.
Now mind you, Jon and Hugo only returned to action after the passing of founding guitarist Andy Gill, who was touring another Gang of Four band for some years until he passed away in 2020. And founding bassist Dave Allen passed away on April 5. Jon and Hugo returned to American stages in 2022 when Matador Records released a collection, the Gang Of Four: 77-81.
To fill out their ranks for The Long Goodbye, Jon and Hugo recruited Ted Leo on guitar and Gail Greenwood on bass, and the audience heartily approved of these selections. Ted and Gail have deep credibility, and both appeared as if they were working their dream jobs on stage as members of the Gang of Four at 9:30 Club.
For the first set, Gang of Four bounded through 12 songs of Entertainment! in tracklist order. The band set the pace with the anti-imperialism protest “Ether” as King hopped across the stage in his crablike dance.
Stream Entertainment! by Gang of Four on Spotify:
As you might guess, Gang of Four took things to the next level with “Damaged Goods,” the enduring banger that gained them critical acclaim upon its initial release in 1978. The crowd at 9:30 Club went wild for the chorus “Damaged goods (Ah-ah-ah-ah)/ Send them back (Ah-ah-ah-ah)” as Jon lampooned capitalism. The audience enjoyed the song just as much when the band played it a second time in the encore.
Relentlessly, Gang of Four kept hitting the beats for catchy songs that seemed as poignant in their criticism of consumerism now as they did 45 years ago. Jon gyrated across stage and Hugo pounded the drums for “Return the Gift,” chanting “Please send me evenings and weekends.” And social alienation sounded as fresh as ever in “At Home He’s a Tourist,” perhaps one of the most anticipated songs of the evening.
For the second set of songs, Gang of Four chose three of the four songs from the Yellow EP, starting their encore with “Armalite Rifle.” To start the second set, Jon destroyed a microwave with a baseball bat to the beat of “He’s Send in the Army.” Gang of Four were overtly on brand with two songs from the Another Day/Another Dollar EP (1982): “Capital (It Fails Us Now)” and “To Hell With Poverty,” the latter of which closed the main set.
For a few songs in the second set, Gang of Four augmented their lineup with guitarist Marissa Paternoster, who played on “What We All Want,” one of two songs presented from Solid Gold (1981), and “I Parade Myself.” “I Parade Myself” (a well-received later-era tune from 1995’s Shrinkwrapped) skewers vanity in a time before the ubiquitous mirrors of Instagram and other social media platforms, again making Gang of Four seem ahead of their time when they were rather rallying against the current moment.
Everything hit perfectly at 9:30 Club for Gang of Four. Jon was on fire, raging, mocking, and burning down the house. Hugo drove the songs home. Ted gave the tunes his all, and Gail was a streak of unbridled energy as she really dug into the music. It was a rock spectacular.
Here are some photos of Gang of Four performing at 9:30 Club on April 25, 2025. All pictures by Mickey McCarter.
