80's Weekend #6, July 28, 2018 at the Microsoft Theater

I’m not usually one for nostalgia concert packages: most of the acts are 30 years or more past their prime, which can be sad, or they’re still relevant but no one wants to hear anything that isn’t the hits (and usually just the biggest one). And the festival format doesn’t allow the decent acts with songs beyond the hits much time for a full set, and the one-hit-wonders have way too much time. Even when they get some good bands we usually wouldn’t bother, if only not to have to pay for the whole thing when only one band is worth seeing (and not for a portion of their full set). But we’ll take tickets to a show. Carla & I were at a nephew’s birthday party on a Saturday afternoon when our sister-in-law messaged us that she had tickets for the ‘80s Weekend show that she needed to get rid of since she had another show that night. (Her error in scheduling, and she picked the country act on the other side of that conflict, which was to our benefit.) We didn’t have anything going on that night so we took them, though we had to cut short our time at the party (after I drove to near downtown L.A. to meet her for the tickets, then we had to go back and get ready), and missed the first few acts, but Soft Cell/Marc Almond and Thomas Dolby probably didn't hold much for us anyway. Also seeing Richard Blade on a screen more than anyone needs to, but very little downtime between acts since they have a revolving stage to minimize the wait, though we were in no hurry for any of it. We walked in for Berlin. Terri Nunn still looks and sounds great, not too far from their heyday (but our seats weren't great and they didn't have big Jumbotron screens). They actually had a few beyond “Take My Breath Away” but there wasn’t much concern for them. They were always to me a band from KROQ and Metro between the edgier stuff, though "Sex (I'm a...)" often seemed audacious for the mainstream (which was why it was "alternative"). The Microsoft Theater is still a little too formulated to be all things to all shows, but it’s a surprise that no one else has much thought to make pitch black their venue's interior theme to focus the visuals. There wasn’t anything to gain for being closer and among the moms who couldn’t get out of the ‘80s, or worse, only knew it secondhand, and had been partying much longer and earlier in the day than we had; Adam Ant would have been fine enough for festival filler, but I’d seen him just recently -- maybe on his same tour -- and his set here ditched some of the lesser hits in favor of trying to fit in some newer (or newer) tracks. (Though I always forget that Ant did "Desperate But Not Serious." That's always been a great track. Maybe even to balance out with "Goody Two Shoes" (which he inevitably had to have played).) Few in the crowd were there for anything but the hits (to be said for pretty much all the acts), but Ant played like he was still a concern, since it was more of a crowd than he’d get on his own. And he still had that masked drummer, who had a different costume (still with the mask) and made his act cooler than maybe it was even 30 years ago; Blondie have longevity if nothing else. They’d seem to be just the kind of band to headline one of these shows, with enough hits to fill any slot, but just the fact that they landed the feat of having a #1 hit in every decade of their career (up to the ‘10s, at least), maybe put them in another echelon, enough to headline this kind of thing. They also know how to churn through the hits, even if they didn’t need much more than “Heart of Glass” and the sucker cuts that everyone recognizes even if they don't know the words. Still, they have enough time to get out some better stuff off the usual track, like “Hanging on the Telephone” telegraphed by starting with a subtle dial-tone before jumping in with that rush of a drum beat like it can't wait to get going (the best starting of any rock song of all time, I argued recently, even if that was just off the top of my head). Debbie Harry could be a grandmother who doesn’t need to keep up with coming on younger than she is, but the band still gets hired for these things and people still get out to see them, even if it’s more for the memories than keeping up artistic integrity when they come up with new stuff that could take away from their contingent of well-loved and well-played hits. If it’s about the hits for the moms who can afford a package show like this (and all the drinks) then it’s as good as any show with a steady measure of recognizable tunes, though it could be a bit much for the casual fans and not enough for those who are really into the acts, though this could be enough for those bands to come out once more and actually get a crowd, even if they're dragging out the same old hits yet again, often to the exclusion of anything else they've done.

Blondies’ set-list:

“One Way or Another“

“Hanging on the Telephone“ (The Nerves cover)

“Fun“

“Call Me“

“Rapture (included snippet of “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)“ by the Beastie Boys)

“The Tide Is High“ (The Paragons cover) (included snippet of “Groove Is in the Heart“ by Deee-Lite)

“Long Time“

“Atomic“

“Heart of Glass“ (included snippet of “I Feel Love“)

“From Russia With Love“ (Matt Monro cover)

“Dreaming“

Adam Ant’s set-list:

"Dog Eat Dog"

"Vive le Rock"

"Apollo 9"

"Antmusic"

"Friend or Foe"

"Ants Invasion"

"Desperate But Not Serious"

"Zerox"

"Prince Charming"

"Christian D'or"

"Strip"

"Kings of the Wild Frontier"

"Goody Two Shoes"

"Stand and Deliver"

Berlins’ set-list:

“No More Words“

“The Metro“

“Masquerade“

“Show Me Tonight“

“Take My Breath Away“

“Sex (I'm a...)“

“Highway to Hell“ (AC/DC cover)

Adam Ant/L7, September 30, 2017 at the Greek Theater

Corey is still the type who only buys a pair of tickets for concerts, assuming a chick will be available to go, then when that doesn’t work out (because chicks can be stupid) then I’m down to go to a show. (And I learned that lesson years ago and stopped buying an extra ticket unless I knew for sure I was getting someone to go with me (and even still risk them flaking out on me).) I didn’t know Adam Ant save for a few of the hits (not always my favorites) but a show’s a show. Even better for me, even though I would have gone anyway, was L7 opening, an odd combination -- the British flashback fighting for relevancy after ‘80s nostalgia was on the wane, with one of the few female grunge acts that survived with their integrity intact before ‘90s nostalgia was going to wax -- but Ant could use the legitimacy and L7 could use the crowd. It helped to present as a rock show, though it still didn’t guarantee a crowd -- this was a show where the C section was closed off (a third of the place), showing how smaller acts can play a venue larger than they should be able to pull, when it turns out they can shrink down a place if there's not the demand. That may have helped us get better seats, though as it was we were in the middle section in the center, a fine view especially since we didn’t need to mix with anyone  (though the excitable lady next to us seemed to have held on to her very intense crush for an impressive amount of time (though only one of many, her companion, who was likely her mom, interjected)). We missed L7’s first song (which didn’t seem like a big deal at the time but ended up being “Deathwish,” which became a favorite later on, a track incendiary enough for them to play as a promise in front-loading shows), but they did a new one, and this time I was sober enough to appreciate it. (Also noting that someone bothered to record & post L7’s setlist, while no one did for Ant’s. Maybe they had just flipped for who was going to headline and L7 missed out that night.) Still four hard-rockin’ ladies who got the chance to go back on the road and play shows, even if Finch looked like she had just come from a backyard barbecue. Ant puts on a show, and I recognized every few songs. “Goody Two Shoes” turned me off from the very start years before and I never much recovered, but I always forgot “Desperate But Not Serious” was one of his, and I can get a transplanted thrill when he does the original “Physical (You’re So)” that NIN covered. The rest of the show could have been forgettable to someone not a particular fan, except for the spectacle of the drummer. There were two drummers, which is usually a turn-off since it guarantees a vacuum on any spontaneity in a rock show, the blood of a great performance, since they both have to be in near-perfect sync with each other and that takes enough planning to kill any surprises. (Not to be confused with a drummer and a percussionist, which is a different thing, but still probably too many people on stage.) This was a lady drummer (also a rarity) who played masked and done-up like she was supposed to be at some place far more interesting.. She wore a monochrome, striped top and had a silver beehive, all visually stunning on their own, and the mask looked like she was going to a masquerade party for rich colonists from the ‘70s -- the 1770s. She never wavered from the appearance, just as she kept the beat, though I honestly wasn’t paying so much attention to the music. I was enraptured by the look, sexy but not gratuitous or purposeful with it, searching for an indication that she was a human and not a well-coifed machine from the time of my ancestors. The visual might have fit with Ant and his band’s uniform of some colonial ruffian with a dash of rough-edges futurism -- an evolution from the early videos, maybe, and maybe something that fits better after all these years -- but it was all a performance upstaged by the presentation of just one element, but that lady was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, at a tagalong show where I figured I could sleep through some songs. It worked that she was a background player, though distracting, a great detail among others that couldn’t keep up, and she didn’t need to be the center of attention, but she could have done it on aesthetic alone. Elsewhere there was music, which was probably good enough.

L7’s setlist:
"Deathwish"
"Andres"
"Everglade"
"Monster"
"Fuel My Fire"
"One More Thing"
"Shove"
"Pretend We're Dead"
"Shitlist"

"Dispatch From Mar-a-Lago"
"Fast and Frightening"