While the ‘80s are often reduced to a stereotype of big hair, day-glo colors, and emotionless pop, the truth is that is was an incredibly fertile period of musical creativity. The punk firestorm of the late ’70s ushered in a period of reinvention where anything was possible. As such, what was lumped under the umbrella of “new wave” spanned a large breadth of styles and genres, with artists taking their cues from an array of disparate influences.

That paradigm was on display last week at The Athenaeum as the package tour of Haircut 100, ABC, and Howard Jones made a stop in Columbus. Each of the three British-borne artists is firmly cemented in the ‘80s new wave lexicon, yet as the show revealed, they are just as dissimilar as they are alike.

First up, Haircut 100 (pictured top) is perhaps largely seen Stateside as a one-hit wonder for “Love Plus One,” their only single to chart in the U.S. But the album that spawned that hit, 1982’s Pelican West, was a multi-culti tapestry of funk grooves and calypso accents filtered through rose-hued pop that has shown its lasting power and presaged the likes of Vampire Weekend. Beginning with “Baked Beans,” the band stuck to that debut record (ignoring their follow-up, 1984’s Paint and Paint) for their short six-song set. That band included original members singer/guitarist Nick Heyward, guitarist Graham Jones, and bassist Les Nemes, who commented that though he looked po-faced on the outside, he was ecstatic on the inside. Heyward, for his part, showed more exuberance, bounding around the stage as he led the troupe through renditions of “Love’s Got Me in Triangles,” “Fantastic Day,” and, of course, the big hit every bit as lively as their original recordings. They finished with “Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl),” which was perhaps the highlight of the night.

Though they continued to record well into the ‘90s, albeit only with one original member, singer Martin Fry, remaining for most of that decade, ABC (pictured above) is still largely remembered for the string of hits they had in the ‘80s. The band melded a new romantic aesthetic with soul touches and modern production that proved to be both commercially and artistically successful. As such, Fry has a rich songbook that he has been touring the last few years. Dressed in a gold lame tuxedo jacket, the 66-year-old singer revealed that he still has the pipes to do it justice too. Hits like “When Smokey Sings,” “Poison Arrow,” “(How to Be a) Millionaire” and “Be Near Me” were interspersed with equally strong album cuts like “Show Me” and “All of My Heart” from the band’s best-selling debut, 1982’s The Lexicon of Love. The performance was a reminder of how much the band transcended their time.

Headliner Howard Jones (pictured above) has never stopped recording since releasing his debut single, “New Song,” in 1983, and even had a Top 40 hit in 1992. But his electro-pop oeuvre (as well as his signature keytar) will always be associated with the ‘80s. That is not surprising given that, by my count, he had nine Top 100 hits during the decade. As such, seeing him live, it seems at times that he has played them all before he pulls out another one that you forgot. This night, dressed in a colorful faux fur coat, he started slowly with “Pearl in the Shell,” a single that didn’t chart as high as others, before diving into “New Song” and “Like to Get to Know You Well.” While Jones largely sticks to an electronic palette, what his shows always reveal is that there is a beating human heart at the center of every song. There are also not-so-obvious influences in there too, like African rhythms on “Life in One Day.” And with Kajagoogoo bassist Nick Beggs part of his touring band, he even delved into “Too Shy,” another quintessential song from the decade. Jones may have been the headliner, but what all three artists showed was the timelessness of this music too often thought of as simply a product of its time.