A reunion gig like “The Lost 80s Tour” can be tricky. Anticipation was high at House of Blues for no less than five, mostly UK, phenoms (including Real Life, Gene Loves Jezebel, When in Rome and headlining Flock of Seagulls) who had made radio waves roughly 25 years ago.

There’s a temptation to embrace the cliché of the 1980s, to treat it like a cute little inside joke. Dramarama was having none of that.

John Easdale’s recently reassembled crew (as seen on VH1’s “Bands Reunited”) was the scene-stealer of the night, feeling oddly edgy and intense about their music, even “daring” to play a track from their more recently recorded Everybody Dies (2005). But the moment of the night belonged to their howling, audience inciting performance of “Anything, Anything” – a song that stands the test of time, carrying an urgency beyond that of their contemporaries’ material (as well as remaining one of the most requested songs in KROQ’s history).

Featuring an Easdale stage dive, H.O.B. broke down for a couple minutes into a frenetic mess – almost like it was the 1980s or something.