You've gotta admire the perseverance and dedication of a couple who have been performing the same songs for thirty five years. I'm pretty sure I would have quit, had a nervous breakdown, and/or shot myself in the foot, at least. Instead Benatar maintains a wizened humor, saying, "I'm not doing 'Heartbreaker' in a walker." My concert companion and I agree that while she may not want to, we're pretty sure she could (if and when she gets there). In the meantime, Benatar looks damn good, having hit her stride in 1979 and still going strong in 2013, chunky black booties and fitted black pants - she's stylish and looking fab, sporting a cropped red 'do that suits her powerful, anthemic rock n' roll repertoire.
At her side, as he has been for the majority of Benatar's career, is Neil Giraldo, aka Spyder. Spyder and Pat recently celebrated their thirty-first wedding anniversary, and they have my vote for greatest love story in rock and roll. Spyder is a force all his own, and the duo complement each other perfectly. In her autobiography Between a Heart and a Rock Place, Pat says that when she met Spyder, it became clear that they had the same vision for the music, a dynamic interplay between strong vocals and driving guitar. It's a signature of their performances, and the reason that my ticket is for Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Tour 2013. It's fascinating, to me, that once Pat finishes singing, she turns around, she walks out of the spotlight, and Spyder is right there to pick it up. They're dynamite, and at Boston's House of Blues it really does have the "Behind the Music" feel Spyder alluded to - an informal, intimate music hour in their domain. To their credit, it truly seems they're having fun. For a first-time concert goer like me, it feels like a warm welcome.
Yet, not all my feelings are mushy, gushy stuff. I can only hope it was a miscommunication that caused the show to start at eight instead of seven-thirty... Pat doesn't seem like a diva. She's still singing all our favorite songs, even when it means staying out of her upper register. Several of the arrangements were altered, keeping them in the lower range of her voice - still brilliant, but not the same. We know she's still got the pipes, hitting those higher notes only rarely, but whether it's for comfort, or sickness, or exhaustion as she nears the end of the tour, I don't know.
All the same, we had a great time rocking out to the greatest of the greatest hits - All Fired Up, Invincible, Hell is for Children, Promises in the Dark, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, and as part of the epic epilogue, the unmistakable Heartbreaker. Catch them while you can: the Benatar/Giraldo tour is a show not to be missed.
Official website: http://benatargiraldo.com/
