Walk Like a Bangle

The Bangles
Opening Act: Sick of Sarah
The Pageant
St. Louis, MO
Sunday, May 2, 2010
General Admission
$25

I didn't pay much attention to The Bangles in the 1980s. I knew their break-through singles Manic Monday and Walk Like an Egyptian, but that was a year before I really got interested in music. And I didn't care at all about ballads when Eternal Flame became a big hit.

One easy way to get my attention now is to have some connection to Yes. The Bangles' singer guitarist Susanna Hoffs is a self-professed Yes fan. She did a cover of Yes' I've Seen All Good People on an album of covers with Matthew Sweet. She even recorded the song with Steve Howe. I listen to this whole album often, and Roy and I also like an earlier volume they did of cover songs from the 1960s. I've become a fan of Susanna Hoffs, and that gave me new interest in The Bangles.

I heard The Bangles were coming to the Pageant, a concert venue in my neighborhood, just a half-mile from my home. I didn't rush out to buy tickets, but I made a note of the date. If we weren't too busy that day, it might be fun. I knew about five songs of theirs, so I figured I'd know about a third of their set. On the good side, the show was non-smoking. On the bad side, there were no reserved seats. I have this thing about needing a spot with a good sight-line at concerts. I'm short, so I can't see over most other people. I like getting to general admission shows early, waiting in line to get my pick of seats. Roy was interested in this show, but not enough to invest hours waiting in line.

The day of the show, I was running errands all morning and early afternoon. I'd have to make an early dinner if we were going to the show. We could have easily blown it off, except for this turn of events: I got home to find out our neighbors invited us over for a party they were having. I was tired, but Roy and I went down. I ended up playing a Wii dance game, dancing to a Beach Boys song. It was fun, and it put me in the mood to go to a concert and dance to the live music.

Our timeline was off from my original plan. We blew off waiting in line for good seats. The show started at 8. We weren't ready to leave home until 7:15, after dinner. We walked over, got tickets, and walked right up to the front row.

I knew the show hadn't sold too well; I read on-line that the Pageant wouldn't be opening the balcony for this show. Roy and I were hoping that there'd still be seats available, or if not, we could stand along the wall and hope for a good view. If we couldn't find a good spot, we'd just leave. Tickets weren't that expensive. When we got there, most of the seats were already taken. But we've noticed at shows that skew to an older crowd, almost everyone heads to the seats, and leaves the standing-room-only pit in front of the stage empty. There were maybe 10 people standing in the front row, so we joined them. Roy mentioned that if we had waited in line all those hours, this would pretty much be the spot I wanted anyway. We got there 15 minutes before the opening act started.

The opening act was called Sick of Sarah. Unfortunately, the sound quality during their set was just awful. We could hear the drums and bass, far-away sounding vocals. The guitar player was standing right in front of us, but I could not hear what she was playing. The band had a lot of energy and put on a good live presentation. Roy wandered back to the sound board, to see how different it sounded there. Not much better. Sometimes the front rows can get bad sound because the main speakers are above us, pushing the sound further back. We hear the on-stage monitors and get a weird mix. I don't know what was causing it this time. I hoped the Bangles would be better. The opening act played for half an hour.

I like the idea that the Bangles were taking a young group on tour to give them exposure, like bands used to do before the package tours became so popular. It feels like so many bands charge a fortune for concert tickets on the basis of nostalgia, and the return is that they have to offer up nostalgia, delivering songs that every one knows, by every band. With a band playing a small venue, with $25 tickets, the show becomes less of an "event" and more of a real concert by an active touring band. There's a freedom to play lesser known songs and bring unknown acts with them.

The Bangles came on stage right at nine. They opened with their cover of Hazy Shade of Winter, a Simon and Garfunkel song. For me, it was a great opening because it's so lively and it's the only song where I could sing along for the whole song, knowing all the words. The sound was much better than the opening band's. We could hear every instrument and the vocals clearly. The only thing I had trouble with was catching everything the band members said to the audience.

There were three microphones set up in front. Vicki Peterson stood stage center, Susanna Hoffs was stage left, close to where we were standing. For a few songs, Debbi Peterson left the drumset to play guitar; she took the position on stage right. This was not a real personality-driven band for me. Roy asked me earlier if I could name all the band members. I could, but I didn't know which Peterson sister was Debbi and which was Vicki. It turned out that Roy didn't know it was Susanna Hoffs standing closest to us; he refered to her as "the other guitarist" after the show. They all took turns singing, with Debbi sometimes singing while playing drums, and sometimes by the front of the stage. There were only three original members of the band. They were joined by a bassist and keyboard player.

This was just a really fun, well-performed, enjoyable show. I told Roy that it felt like the band stripped off the 80's production sheen from their music. It came across as power pop with great vocal harmonies. The covers they played only reinforced this - a Big Star song in memory of Alex Chilton, the Nazz's Open My Eyes (which Roy and I both thought was going to be Can't Explain from the Who), a snippet of the Who's Magic Bus during the encores. There was another song that used the bassline of The Beatles' Taxman. I don't know if that was a cover or not.

There was one song that I didn't think sounded well. They performed to a backing track for one song, so Debbi Peterson could play guitar. The pre-recorded drums were too loud and seemed to clash with what the band was playing, rather than support it. Either I got used to it, or they fixed the volume issue, because it got better as it got on.

Roy was particularly impressed with Vicki Peterson's guitar playing. He said it reminded him of The Moody Blues' Justin Hayward's very melodic playing.

The Bangles played one unreleased song, from their upcoming album. Vicki Peterson asked the audience to indulge them this one song. I hate that it's come to this. Why is there this dividing line, where songs of a certain vintage are acceptable, and new songs suck? Every song was new at one point, and we used to like them. Did it come with radio deciding to stop playing the new songs from older bands? Or too many artists with new material that wasn't that interesting, too middle-of-the-road. I asked Roy if, when he saw Yes the first time, just before the Relayer album was released, if they meekly asked the audience if they would indulge them playing Sound Chaser? Or did they just open with it? Roy said they slammed the audience with it. Of course, I didn't know half the material the Bangles played at this show, and the new song fit right in stylistically, so I wouldn't have noticed it was new.

For the encore, The Bangles invited Sick of Sarah back on stage to sing and dance. They did In Your Room. The final encore was Walk Like an Egyptian, played to a backing track. Susanna Hoffs had two pre-teen girls sitting off to the side of the stage. Roy heard her say these were her nieces. They came out and danced along for this song. Some of the Sick of Sarah musicians clowned around did the dance from the video in back of the stage. The bandmembers really looked like they enjoying themselves throughout the show. We were too.

The show ended at 10:30pm. I've had good luck meeting some of the musicians who play at the Pageant in the past. I know what exit they use to get on the tour bus after the show. I brought my copy of Susanna Hoff and Matthew Sweet's Under the Covers CD, and we waited. It gets to be late, and we want to go home, but we've already waited all this time, it's bound to be soon. We saw people with backstage passes leave. We saw the young nieces leave, and the backing musicians.

There was a new wrinkle in waiting for autographs. Since the last time we were at the Pageant, a new hotel opened a few store-fronts away. The band could come out of any door and walk over without a big production. That's just what happened. Everyone else left from the usual door in back, but the Bangles walked out front. One of the Pageant employees told us they'd already left. I didn't know whether to trust him or not, but someone from the opening act confirmed it. It was around midnight. We walked home. If I had gone home right after the concert, I wouldn't have gotten to sleep too late. This extra hour and a half of waiting was another matter. I called work and left a message that I'd be in late. I gave myself too little sleep and still got in late, but it's balanced by the happy memories of a good concert. I'm really glad we went.