Timeless Joe Jackson

Joe Jackson (by John Anderson)

"You the man, Joe!"

Joe Jackson winced as someone shouted that from the balcony of the Paramount Theatre Monday night. I winced too, wondering how often he gets that.

But for 90 minutes, he was the man. As Jackson sat alone at the piano during the first song, dressed in a dapper jacket and slacks, he almost looked like a character from Cabaret, his falsetto high and clear. Latest effort Rain, recorded in his adopted home of Berlin, certainly owes much to the city's historical mood swings, but it's also reflective in its sense of isolation.

Longtime bassist Graham Maby and drummer Dave Houghton, who have been playing with Jackson since the late 1970s and appear on Rain, then joined him for a crystalline "Steppin' Out" and proceeded to reel in the years: “On Your Radio” and “Different for Girls” from 1979's I’m the Man; “Cancer” and "Chinatown" from 1982’s Night and Day; "Take It Like a Man" from 2003's Volume 4; “King Pleasure Time,” "Solo," and “Invisible Man” from Rain; and an amazing cover of David Bowie’s “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)." Jackson replicated the missing guitar of Gary Sanford with his piano to impressive effect, veering between jazz, pop, and new wave effortlessly. Encore closer "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" riled up the already besotted, mostly khaki KGSR crowd, inciting a singalong chorus. Joe just smiled, like you do when you've hit the mark.