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ROCKWiRED REViEWS: THE CALL ME iNViNCiBLE TOUR DiVAS LiVE! I remember DEBORAH HARRY telling VANITY FAIR twenty years ago that she wasn’t into nostalgia. At the time, she was plugging one of her solo albums and her band BLONDIE was a distant yet feel-good memory. Twenty years after making such a statement BLONDIE is still kicking ten years after their reunion and the Divine Ms. HARRY is truly in top form. When LENNON and McCARTNEY wrote ‘WHEN I’M SIXTY-FOUR’, those two blokes couldn’t have imagined such a thoroughly buxom, peroxided vamp stalking the stage with the finesse of a gal a third her age.ROCK LEGENDS BLONDiE ANDPAT BENATAR TAKE THE STAGE FOR THE 'CALL ME iNViNCiBLE'  WRiTTEN BY BRiAN LUSH The CALL ME INVINCIBLE TOUR is an enticing bill that teams BLONDIE with their old CHRYSALIS label mate PAT BENATAR with opening act THE DONNAS. The evening of Girl Power is a celebration of the best that CHRYSALIS RECORDS had to offer in terms of late-seventies/early eighties rock goddesses. It’s hard for me to imagine my youth without BLONDIE or BENATAR. My walls were adorned with images of both women and my turntable spun the blue labeled CHRYSALIS pressings of both artists. I couldn’t stop myself from singing ‘pain in the ass!’ when it came up on the last verse of ‘HEART OF GLASS’ or from shouting out ‘Hell…Hell is for hell!’ along to BENATAR’s ‘HELL IS FOR CHILDREN’. The venue for this most recent stop on the CALL ME INVINCIBLE TOUR was the ISLETA CASINO on the outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico on an outdoor recreation area dubbed THE LAKES. The venue was winding and inaccessible resulting in a mile long caravan of cars finding their way to the five-dollar parking. Due to the slow procession, the field was merely a quarter of the way filled by the time THE DONNAS took the stage. The band of young women (all born around the time of BLONDIE/BENATAR’s hey day) deserved a bigger audience with their consistent catalog of balls-to-the-wall rock n roll recalling RUNAWAYS-era JOAN JETT. I had assumed that the show was a build-up for BLONDIE. I certainly did not expect HARRY and the boys to take the stage immediately following THE DONNAS. BLONDIE opened their compact set with CALL ME, which segued perfectly into HANGING ON THE TELEPHONE. I could go on forever about HARRY’s seemingly effortless confidence onstage but I also think its fair to mention that drummer CLEM BURKE’s propulsive power pop drumming has not skipped a beat. Other standouts from the BLONDIE set included a rock funk number THE HARDEST PART off of their 1979 album EAT TO THE BEAT, a stunning rendition of RAPTURE featuring a blues rock breakdown provided by ex-boyfriend and long time collaborator CHRIS STEIN and a shimmering HEART OF GLASS which morphed into the late-MICHAEL JACKSON’s ‘DON’T STOP TILL YOU GET ENOUGH’. For a band known more for being tongue-in-cheek as opposed to being earnest or heartfelt, their homage to THE KING OF POP proved to be the most touching moment of the evening. When BLONDIE completed their set, lightning lit up the evening sky and drops of rain had fallen on the crowd with audience members chanting for PAT BENATAR – who seemed the be the woman of the hour for the Albuquerque crowd – to grace the stage. The enthusiasm for BENATAR was not surprising given the Duke City’s retro sensibility (I have a hunch that the women sporting roller marks in their hair were not paying tribute to the late FARRAH FAWCETT but rather keeping up appearances that hadn’t changed in thirty years). Once BLONDIE’s equipment had been cleared from the stage BENATAR and her husband/guitarist NEIL GIRALDO came out with their bassist and drummer (MYRON GROMBACHER – their original drummer from the CHRYSALIS years!). Sporting long auburn locks and a ruffled black dress, BENATAR looked every bit the rock n roll sprite sans the spandex. Her set launched with 1988’s ‘ALL FIRED UP’ and an electrifying rendition of SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT. BENATAR took the time to spin a yarn about an announcement that she and her band received twenty-some years ago regarding “that music video” that they shot. With that, they tore victoriously into YOU BETTER RUN (The second video to be aired on MTV which made her husband GIRALDO the first guitarist for the music channel). Amidst the gusty wind and the lightning, INVINCIBLE (according to BENATAR was the theme song to the “worst movie ever!”) proved to be the high point of her bands short and sweet set. WE BELONG was the evening’s nadir complete with a backing track of their biggest hit’s unmistakable synthesizer riff and a tedious moment where PAT and NEIL reflected on their thirty year career. The BENATAR set was rushed whereas BLONDIE’s seemed more assured. This was too bad considering BENATAR was what most of the people in attendance clearly wanted to see. BENATAR had to eat her promise of playing a song from every era. Their set contained only the monster hits. Being a bigger fan of BENATAR’s album tracks, I was somewhat let down by the brevity and the obvious song choices. All-in-all BLONDIE steals the show thanks to HARRY’s heartfelt playfulness and BURKE’s manic drumming. BENATAR is certainly no slouch when it comes to that gravelly purr of hers that could still send chills down your spine. BENATAR may have been what the crowd was waiting for but BLONDIE delivered the goods early on. By the time BENATAR got to her encore, which included faithful, no-surprise performances of PROMISES IN THE DARK and HEARTBREAKER, it was okay to start heading back to the car. |