Benatar at Basie: If She’s Still Rockin’ Then Hot Dang, So Am I

I was recently at a Sandy Hook Beach Concert with my parents when my mom said she heard that bands no longer get requests to play Fifties music. That audience is dead. “Your father and I,” she said, “have outlived our music.”

Which I thought was quite funny. Which is a messy but passable segue way into my story: Two weeks ago my girlfriends and I went to see our '80s idol Pat Benatar play at Count Basie, accompanied by bandmate Neil Giraldo, the guitarist who is also her husband. 

And I can skip to the punchline and tell you that the first female rocker ever to appear on MTV absolutely rocked. Some 30 years later, she still sounds, and looks, great.

Which lately doesn’t happen so much. After waiting 15 years for Axl Rose to release Chinese Democracy, my husband dragged me out of his concert early because Axl coughed his way through the best of Guns ‘N Roses, that is, once he finally showed up. Which was 11:15 p.m.. On a school night.

I saw Def Leppard at PNC a few years ago and was disappointed. Ditto for my last Tom Petty concert. The older I get, the worse my old music icons sound. Which kinda means I’m getting older.

It also means I’ve lowered my expectations. So when Ms. Benatar and Mr. Giraldo served up “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Heartbreaker” and “Love is a Battlefield” as loud and raw as they once did back in my day, I was blown away.

And instantly transported back to my tween years. Suddenly BFF Marisa and I were once again singing “Shadows of the Night” into our hairbrushes. We swayed to “We Belong,” shook our Battlefield shoulders, put up our dukes and got down to it.

What really gets me, though, is “Hell is For Children.” Her raw, huge voice coming from that tiny body, paired with his screaming, crying guitar. To see this live, which happened at Count Basie Theatre, is beyond awesome, and chilling.

That’s because Benatar and Giraldo are storytellers. They tour every summer, always making a Red Bank stop, and in between the music, they share cool stories about the making of their music, and their marriage. (check out video at right)

Scene-stealer: Their recount of writing “Hell is for Children” together. So so so so cool.

My music may not be from this century, but Pat Benatar’s still got it going on. And if she’s still rocking, then so am I.

Long Live '80s Rock.

Even when I’m in my eighties.

THE DETAILS:

Pat Benatar: at The Count Basie Theatre every summer

In the meantime: Read Pat’s biography, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”, which tells how she broke into the boys' club of rock and roll and helped define a generation.

Download the movie

Download the movie