SLCene Suggests: English Beat at The Depot

THE ENGLISH BEAT/INSATIABLE, THE DEPOT, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 8 p.m., $26

Regular readers of this space know that I’ll never pass up a chance to sing the praises of The English Beat, the ska crew led by original Beat singer/guitarist Dave Wakeling and including a crew of stellar musicians fully capable of evoking the classic ’80s sound of the two-tone pioneers. Wakeling is a cheeky frontman, constantly chatting up his audiences with witty between-song banter, and his voice hasn’t lost anything in the decades since we first heard him on songs like “Best Friend,” “I Confess” and “Save It For Later.” Throw in a few songs from his post-Beat band General Public, and you have a couple of solid hours of killer dance music. And for this week’s show at The Depot, you also get local ska cats Insatiable, always a worthy live band in their own right.