The highlight of the Blondie set was seeing Clem Burke play drums. Wow, he barley broke a sweat! I never saw Keith Moon, but I saw his spirit on that stage! Debbie’s voice was in fine shape and once she gets the rust out of her hips, they will be able to keep up with the New Cars. Lots of Blondie fans there it seemed. She should have kept it to one hour to avoid her self-fulfilling “VHI Behind the Music” worthy stature.
The first thing that hit me was the New Cars' stage set. I suspect that Prairie had his hands on this one. Nice AV effects and a simple stimulating compliment to the music. They came out charging. I think as long as the “I Saw the Light” royalty checks keep coming to Todd’s house…. he is going to play it. This was my first time seeing Elliot Easton. He says more with a guitar 10 seconds than any one I know, and then he just steps back like a Gentleman Hepcat. Judging from Todd’s playing, I think Todd is up for the challenge of trading hooks with Elliot. To this day, my wife calls me nuts when I repeat the lead guitar parts on old Cars songs five or six time in a row and the shake my head and say “wow”!’ But I am nuts, because I was skipping Mother’s Day back in DC, to see the show.
I also was on a mission to indoctrinate my friend, Mark Boisvert, into a Todd fan. Not sure if that mission was accomplished. At least we able to rekindle distant teenage memories of cruising in a Vega listening to the Cars while nursing a bottle of Schmidt's Beer. .
After the Joe Jackson/Ethyl Tour, it was refreshing to see Todd doing something different along with some fantastic musicians. You can tell that they are having fun up there and when they finally get their chops down after few more show, its an solid “A” show, not to be missed. I hope Todd makes lots of money on this, so he can sit down in his Kauai Utopia and write another album as good a Liars.
