Brother Matt and I found a spot among the screaming fans at Pat Benatar‘s House of Blues show, part of her current “Summerize” tour. Opening act, Lennon (aka Lennon Murphy), bravely leapt into her angst ridden set, solo on piano. In fact she came on without anyone announcing who she was and just launched into her stuff after taking a quick deep swig from her Corona. Damn. A girl after my own heart.
I know I’m a weird bird, the crowd was all hyped up waiting for Pat Benatar to come on, curvy Lennon was singing about loveless bar-hook-ups and I’m reminded of my own largely untapped talent for tunes. I doubt that others let their minds go there but part of me was really drawn to the whole soul baring/soul freeing experience of pulling a crowd into ones heart and being with the performance of a song. I know that I’m still in that listless, “I don’t know exactly who I am” soul-searching stage. Damn, I’m 49-f-ing-years-old and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I really gotta do more with the music than leave it like a light hidden under a bushel basket.
Pat Benatar and her husband Neil “Spider” Giraldo kicked serious butt. Being the amateur musician/sound guy that I am, I notice Neil’s continual interaction with his guitar roadie and stage sound technician. He switched back and forth between two guitars pretty much every song (and a few times during the song!). Again, I’m a weird dude to notice these things. They did start the show by saying that they were still experimenting with the set and playing it by ear, this being an early show in their summer touring season. So I’m guessing that all of the facial gestures and fidgeting by “Spider” was all part of getting things “tightened up.” A couple times during the first few songs the Pat’s vocals and the volume of the guitars came really close to feeding back, it’s like all the frequencies were crashing on the same range. Again, only something that a part-time amateur sound-guy would notice. And what concert would be complete without the weirdness of total strangers standing all crammed together, some wanting to dance, some wanting to just see past the tall heads standing up front, and one particular person who was trying to squeeze into spots on the floor where there just wasn’t any room whom I and later someone else had to yell at to quit crowding and pawing. Yeah, I think a good time was had by all. I’m glad i didn’t miss it. JBB
Quirky Lennon pre-HOB performance video diary … yeah, she’s all about the mouse with the big ears..
