So I bundled up and headed to Madison Square Garden. I'd previously seen Chrissie at Lilith Fair and that woman has lost not one single thing over the decades. She and the boys put forth a high-energy set while the front woman displayed a penchant for humor as well.
"It's like being on tour with Elizabeth Taylor," Hynde quipped of her tour buddy between dedications of "Hymn to Her" and "Back on the Chain Gang."
Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers are the only remaining members of the original Pretenders lineup, but they gelled very easily with the rest of the newer faces on the likes of "Holy Communion" and "My City Was Gone," as well as the rest of the bevvy of more familiar numbers. On the former, Chrissie again garnered laughs by saying her song about religious tolerance is now appropriately about mere tolerance in our upside-down world.
She praised Chambers' work at the kit as he laid down a Buddy Rich riff en route to the striking familiar opening beats of "Middle of the Road." That song, "Don't Get Me Wrong" and "Brass in Pocket" kept everyone's spirits high. And the lighters -- well, the cell phone screens -- were out in force when she showed off her still amazing vocal range with "I'll Stand By You," sung back at her by thousands.
And then it was time for Stevie, a woman I worshipped in the early '80s, I remember imploring my mom to rush home so I could see her HBO special. (Before we had a VCR, of course.) And Jenna and I had to employ our own brand of tolerance with the nuts all around us in our otherwise fine seats, straight across the arena from the stage. To our left and ahead of us, people got into verbal tussles about whether standing was allowed or not. To our left and behind us, more fighting -- this time about the two women chirping and giggling behind us. And I couldn't fault the guy next to me for his complaints, although I did fear his "lose some weight" response to them saying "grow some hair" would end violently.
So at times, it was a little difficult to focus on the show. But there was an amazing combo of "Wild Heart" and "Bella Donna" -- the title tracks to the two albums that made me a diehard Stevie fan. And Hynde returned to the stage to sing "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" with Stevie (and music director/wunderkind Waddy Wachtel).
Before the tour, Stevie said publicly she wasn't going to be matter of fact about her setlist for the show, picking gems from her "gothic trunk of mystical things." I know Jenna could have done without "If Anyone Falls" and I certainly didn't need another uninspired take on "Gypsy," but both of those were gotten out of the way relatively early.
For me, the highlight of the night was the Buckingham Nicks tune "Crying in the Night." The Fleetwood Mac precursor played very well all these decades later. Stevie credited Waddy with forcing her into it, and so cheers to him for that one.
Among the others Nicks picked out for the tour was her self-proclaimed best and favorite song, "Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)" from Twilight -- hope she doesn't mind if I respectfully disagree and stick with "Silver Springs" -- and "New Orleans," which she said she started writing while emotionally watching coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
Because of all the bickering around us, we were pretty selective about songs we chose to stand up for and rock out on. We stayed up for "Gold and Braid" when Nicks originally came out, got back up for the duet with Hynde (since most everyone else did), popped up for "Stand Back" -- as Prince's spirit wafted through the air ... and on the videoboard, then again when "Gold Dust Woman" and "Edge of Seventeen" closed the set. Everyone was on their feet for the encores "Rhiannon" and "Landslide." Both were lovely, even though the latter had just started appearing on the setlist during the most recent dates.
I couldn't have loved the show more if I had actually been conscious for it.
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