About every two decades, that which is cheesy suddenly becomes chic again. This decade, pop culture has welcomed the 1980s back with open arms, fetishizing everything from Rubik's Cubes and Chia Pets to ugly Vans sneakers and plastic Swatch watches. The sound of the Reagan era has returned, too, with the U.K. quartet Editors bringing back the echo-ey, earnest, dance-ready sonics of such bands as The Cure and Depeche Mode. Sure, there's nothing fresh about being a New Wave/goth revivalist band, but Editors revisit this well-trod turf with style, making the act of brooding ring triumphant with anthemic build-ups like "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors," one of several European hits off their latest album, An End Has a Start. Also on the roster is Canadian indie-rock fave Hot Hot Heat, another young band successfully doing the New Wave revival/Interpol thing.
Editors w/Hot Hot Heat/Louis XIV, 8 p.m., Wed., Jan. 9, Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg, $17. —Wade Tatangelo
This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2008.