Keep on Dancin’ (80’s Style!) Part II.

I am officially old. This I know to be true after my big night out at the Cape Cod Melody Tent seeing Blondie’s Parallel Lines 30th Anniversary Tour. It was…awesome!

At 46, I was slightly younger than most of the audience. I didn’t come of age until 1980 and Blondie really hit their stride in the discos of the late 70’s. Don’t get me wrong. A lot of people were about my age and there were even a couple of young “Goth” kids roaming around.

After a lot of arguing, I ended up driving. We stopped at a restaurant and then made our way over to the tent. As we walked up, I could see a couple of big, expensive looking tour buses humming away in the parking lot right next to the tent. It never occurred to me that Blondie would use tour buses…I guess I pictured them using fancy hotels and limos.  

We found our seats quickly which were excellent. A  lady next to us apologized in advance and told us she would be dancing a lot. That was fine with all of us! She was thrilled that we were totally into it.

There was a lot of confusion about if there was going to be an opening band. Nothing in print listed one but the nice older lady taking tickets said she thought there was.

Well, I have to tell you I found my new favorite band. They are from LA and called Miss Derringer and the best description I found describes them as “Goth-Western-Murder-Ballad-a-Go-Go”. From the minute they went on, I was hooked. Who wouldn’t love an opening song titled “Click, Click, Bang, Bang”? I leaned over to my friend (who is an aficionado of all things David Chase and HBO’s Sopranos) and said I could totally picture this music in a Soprano’s episode or a movie. His response was “David Chase would love this stuff”.

Anyway, the acoustics were weird so we couldn’t hear the name of the band. They did mention they would be selling CD’s and signing stuff outside the tent afterwards so I ran outside to see if I could find out who they were. As I was hunting around, the band came out and walked right by me. I knew I loved them even more…the look, the sound, it was all there! I really think they will be big.

There was a line of people waiting for the signing so I finally went up to some guy to look at his CD. He was nice enough to tell me the band’s name but he was a little on that creepy, stalker side of music fan-dom. I sometimes worry about the security in these smaller summer venues…retirees looking to make a few extra bucks mostly. They can barely wrestle a drunk to the ground so what if something really bad happened?

So yesterday I went to the band’s site to check them out and then bought three of the songs on Itunes. “Click, Click, Bang, Bang” wasn’t to be found so I emailed the band. I got a nice email back saying that song was coming out on their next CD.  I will keep my eyes open.

Blondie was just great. Someone told me Deborah Harry is 63!  She looks great and never sounded better. Most importantly, she seemed to be having a great time. I do have to say the revolving stages at Cape Cod Melody Tent (and the South Shore Music Circus) are totally annoying. Miss Derringer was fine because they pretty much stay put but Deborah Harry was all over the place. I know singers and actors will often pick an audience member to focus on but how do you do that if the room is slowly spinning? Ugh!

Yesterday was a total rest day. Tylenol, water and a big nap. I do sometimes miss the old days but Friday night sure took me right back.

I was laughing about the comments on the last post. I remember being eighteen in Boston in the early 80’s. It was a great time for the club and music scene. The Channel, Spit, Axis, The Paradise…there was someplace to go every night of the week. I worked part time as a part-time bank teller and dreaded pulling Saturday duty. It was only three hours but it was a killer when you were hungover!