The Soft Boys Reunite During Yo La Tengo’s Annual Hanukkah Residency

Veteran English rockers The Soft Boys staged an impromptu reunion performance as part of Yo La Tengo‘s annual Hanukkah Residency in New York City.

The reformation of sorts took place during the fourth night of Yo La Tengo’s yearly holiday event, on Saturday (Dec. 28), which featured Robyn Hitchcock as an opening act.

Following a 16-song set which also featured a version of “The Race is on Again” with The Soft Boys’ Kimberley Rew, the encore section saw Rew return to the stage along with his former bandmates, Hitchcock and Morris Windsor.

Rew’s partner, Lee Cave-Berry, joined in on bass for a five-song set which opened with “Queen of Eyes”, and featured “I Wanna Destroy You” as the penultimate song. Elsewhere, the group also shared a cover of Eric Von Schmidt’s “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down”, The Velvet Underground’s “Run Run Run”, and closed with a rendition of The Beatles’ “It’s All Too Much”.

The Soft Boys initially formed in 1976 and released two albums – 1979’s A Can of Bees and 1980’s Underwater Moonlight – before splitting in 1980. While Hitchcock would launch a noted solo career, Rew would gain more mainstream fame as a founder of the new wave outfit Katrina and the Waves – famed for their 1985 hit “Walking on Sunshine”.

The group would reunite in 1994, before a two-year reformation in 2001 would result in their final album, Nextdoorland. Bassist Matthew Seligman – who replaced founding member Andy Metcalfe in 1979 – would pass away in 2020.

Notably, this isn’t the first time that members of The Soft Boys have performed together in recent times, with select dates during Hitchock’s U.K. tour in August and September also seeing him joined by Rew, Cave-Berry, and Windsor for a number of songs.