Thomas Dolby says he gets lonely onstage from time to time. The electronic-music whiz -- who scored big during MTV’s nascent days with “She Blinded Me With Science” -- has spent the past several years playing one-man shows. “But I’ve yet to become institutionalized for talking to myself,” he laughs. On his latest tour, the 48-year-old singer and multi-instrumentalist brings along three members of the San Francisco-based Jazz Mafia Horns, who also back him on his new EP, Live at SXSW. “It’s refreshing to play with a live band,” says Dolby. “I like the idea of putting some of the more up-tempo and funkier numbers in my set.”
Live, Dolby (a laptop star before they had a name for such guys) and crew rework many of his ’80s tunes. They also try out some new songs like “Your Karma Hit My Dogma” -- a biting track inspired by the former Mr. Britney Spears, Kevin Federline, who illegally sampled “She Blinded Me With Science.” “I found out about it after it was already on MySpace and had several thousand downloads,” says Dolby, who settled with K-Fed out of court. “I don’t know if it was just ignorance or what.”
Fri., Sept. 14, 9 p.m.
