Howard Jones - Things Can Only Get Better

Howard Jones brings his Things Can Only Get Better tour to ACL Live at The Moody Theater on Tuesday, August 4, with a full bill of guests. He's not playing alone: Wang Chung, The English Beat, Modern English, and Richard Blade are all on the lineup, so it's a whole night of synth-pop and new wave rather than a single headliner. The show starts at 6:30 PM.

Jones has been touring internationally for four decades, and he's played in a few different formats over that time, from intimate solo sets to a full high-tech band. He first made a name for himself in 1983 with New Song, which combined English songwriting with pioneering synthesizers. His first two albums, Human's Lib and Dream Into Action, were worldwide hits—Human's Lib hit number one in the UK in 1984, and Dream Into Action became a Top Ten Platinum album in the US. He's sold more than 10 million albums, and his music has turned up in series and films like Stranger Things, Breaking Bad, Watchmen, The Carrie Diaries, Superstore, and Bumblebee.

His most recent album, Dialogue (2022), is the third in a trilogy of electronic releases, following Engage (2015) and Transform (2019). He describes the tour as something he dreamed of curating—bringing together some of his favorite bands to play the pop anthems everyone knows and loves, with the goal of bringing positivity and joy to the crowd. With Wang Chung, The English Beat, Modern English, and Richard Blade joining him, that's exactly the kind of lineup he's putting together.

It's a Tuesday night, so it's a mid-week show rather than a weekend one. The whole thing kicks off at 6:30 PM at ACL Live at The Moody Theater.