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The Rapture! A Free Blondie Concert in BostonJun 30 '03 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line 'Cause the man from Mars stopped eatin' cars and eatin' bars, And now he only eats guitars Over 20 years later, and still nobody knows what Debbie is talking about.
On a steamy night in Boston, New Wave rolled back into Beantown. Free concerts attract a varied crowd from people who happened upon the scene to die-hard fans who follow the band everywhere. Most of the audience at Blondie's free concert behind City Hall (the ugliest building in Boston) seemed to be somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. I saw one young man wearing a Blondie t-shirt ("Don't be that guy") and a few thirty-somethings were singing and dancing along excitedly. For the majority of the crowd, it was only the major hits that induced cheering and dancing, while the new songs and minor hits left us looking at each other in confusion. Blondie's opening act was the worst stage performance I'd ever seen. At times, I had to cover my ears and scream because the singing was so off-key. I felt like I should do everyone a service and go up to the singers afterwards and tell them, in my best Simon Cowell voice, "You think you can hit those notes, but, really, you can't. That was dreadful." My gay best friend and I agreed that this boy-band, Ball in House (I think that's what they were called. We spent a lot of time making fun of their name, so I'm not sure what it actually was.) reminded us of a gayer version of *NSYNC with less talent. They performed a couple or original songs, but we couldn't understand a single lyric since they used a guttural singing style that sounded like a constipated Christina Aguilera. And then they committed the sacrilege of ruining a Crosby, Stills, and Nash song, a solo song by Steven Stills ("Love the one you're With"), and "Karma Chameleon." It was so bad that, at times, I was shaking with laughter. This Ball in House crap also referred to Blondie as "she," an unforgivable faux pas, especially when one is opening for them. Mayor Thomas "Mumbles" Menino introduced Blondie in this concert sponsored by Mix 98.5. His second concert introduction of the week, he didn't botch this one as badly as he did on Tuesday when he pronounced Guster as "gooster" after describing them as "my good friends." The Liverpudlians standing next to me (Yay!) agreed that Menino shares many traits with Simpsons' Mayor Quimby. Blondie began its set with a fast-paced, rocking song that few people seemed to know. They launched into two other similar-sounding tunes directly after. Debbie Harry's minimal stage banter ranged from cute to nonsensical. Commenting on the amount of rain we've been getting lately, the New York native said she had mold growing on her left foot. She also asked the crowd if they'd eaten any chowder that day, a dish that Boston is famous for. At other times, however, she mumbled as much as our mayor. After playing "Accidents," Debbie announced, "We played that on f*cking purpose! It was no accident." She sounded a bit drunk. At times, I couldn't understand what she was saying, but perhaps the sound-system was lacking since, on "Warchild," I really thought Debbie was singing, "I am a Weintraub." Although she is still strikingly beautiful, one too many face-lifts has left Deborah looking like a cross between Joan Rivers and Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream after she's been hooked on speed for awhile. Debbie's white-blonde hair is the same color as her skin, and, when the wind blew, she looked like something out of Night of the Living Dead. Wearing a military green dress decorated with chains, Debbie moved gracefully across the stage, but her attempts at dancing looked stiff and robotic, matching the architecture of City Hall, which looks like a Transformer that's about to walk into the Harbor. When she sang, "I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha!" on "One Way or Another," I was truly scared. Debbie's voice has never been one of the strongest in rock, but it has held up fairly well over the years, only occasionally faltering on the highest notes. The only original member of Blondie who's still with the band (guitarist Chris Stein) was not in Boston, and his replacement was unmemorable. Drummer Clem Burke and keyboardist Jimmy Destri, both of whom joined in 1975 were solid, but didn't distinguish among each song nearly as much as on the records. If I hear a Blondie hit on the radio, I know what song it is by the first couple of notes. The band in Boston played each song just a little too fast and sacrificed melody in an attempt to "rock out." Also, on "Maria," the lack of bells was obvious. That song is nothing without the bells. "The Tide is High" wasn't reggae enough, and "Call Me" was much too fast. Blondie saved the two biggest crowd-pleasers, "Rapture" and "Heart of Glass", for the encore. The crowd got pretty involved in the "ooh-ooh, uh-huh" part of Heart of Glass and danced and waved their arms. Many people think that Madonna is being revolutionary by rapping on American Life, but Debbie Harry started the white, blonde popstar rapping trend more than 20 years ago. On Blondie's upcoming single, which they played live for the first time, Debbie raps again. I couldn't understand a single word of the new rap, but I hope it makes as much sense as Rapture, my favorite line of which is: You go out at night, eatin' cars You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too Mercurys and Subarus I saw a documentary once where they interviewed Grand Master Flash and he said that, while he admired Debbie's rapping attempt, he had no idea what the hell she was talking about even though he'd heard the song dozens of times. Yes, they are past their prime, but if you get the chance to see this ground-breaking band play for free, you'd have to be insane and out of your mind to pass it up.  |
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