MICK ROCK / WOLFSON ENTERTAINMENT
No one goes to see Hall and Oates to hear deep cuts and rarities. Hell, no one wants to hear anything the Philly duo has recorded post-1985. You’re there for the hits, the classics, the canonical pop standards that make you strain for falsetto notes you can’t reach and dance like you’re in a Wellbutrin commercial. But if I, a noted scholar of the H&O Extended Universe, were to put together the setlist for their current tour, it would be much different than what you’ll hear on Thursday at the Moda Center. How different? I’m glad you asked.
“United State”—H&O’s 1980 album Voices reckoned with the rise of new wave, including this scorcher that stretches a patriotic metaphor to its absolute limits.