Hall & Oates Prove to Be a Durable Duo

Luckily for blue-eyed soul duo Daryl Hall & John Oates, time has returned to their side.

The hit-making machine responsible for such ‘70s and ‘80s pop radio smashes as “Rich Girl,” “Private Eyes” and “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” has spent the ‘90s watching modern alternative rock wash them off of the charts.

But as Wednesday’s driving, acoustic-driven set in front of a capacity crowd at the House of Blues proved, the pop eye has a way of looking backward. By broadening the sound of their old hits, Hall & Oates showed that the grooves underlying the songs have surprising longevity. For the 80 minutes they were on stage with a six-piece band, they displayed a sculpted, bare-bones sound. Whether it was adding twin acoustic guitar touches to “Out of Touch” or groovy funk tinges to “Say It Isn’t So,” they gave the songs a passion and a versatility that weren’t apparent in the originals. It became clear why so many rappers, from De La Soul to Method Man, have slyly appropriated bits and pieces of Hall & Oates’ music and made it their own.

Although a few of the newer and slow songs were a little shaky, all seemed well when the duo stuck to the hits. The gentle “Sara Smile,” the prowling “Maneater” and an off-the-cuff encore of Sly & the Family Stone’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime” provided the evening’s best musical moments and an abundance of feel-good energy.