Just Another Manic Monday: the Bangles on Tour

Me with the Bangles. Love this pic because I forgot to hide my braces & they don't look too terrible!

Time, time, time
see what’s become of me…

____________________

It’s the springtime of my life.

Seasons change with the scenery
weaving time in a tapestry

Won’t you stop and remember me?

-The Bangles,
“Hazy Shade of Winter”

Saturday I got to play VIP and pre-game the Bangles concert in Philly. Even better than walking past the line of peeps patiently waiting to enter the TLA, or noshing on freaking gigantic slices of South St. pizza courtesy of Lorenzo’s?

Getting to shake paws and rub elbows with the Bangles.

Oh, hai. Have you met my inner fangirl?

LOOK at those women. They haven’t aged a bit. (Or, as my husband said, “If you get a chance to talk to Susanna Hoffs make sure you tell her she’s still pretty hot.” DONE, babe. Check that one off my life list.)

Susanna Hoffs is tiny, by the way. I felt like a bumbling ogre next to her. Oh, and I’m dressed in 80s gear (neon pink tights, purple Chucks, asymmetrical lace skirt), so I look like an idiot too 🙂

Now, in my mind, which is a twisty and confusing place, every musical act has an equal and opposite musical act, and you only like one. So, were you a Debbie Gibson or Tiffany fan? Madonna or Cyndi Lauper? Go-Gos or Bangles?

I have always been very firmly in the Bangles camp, and I’m gonna have to say: they can still rock the house. Much more so, in fact, than the lackluster crowd who paid to see them; I’m pretty sure I was annoying those around me as I bounced and bobbed, and I don’t care. I’ll have time to be old and boring when I’m dead.

Antigone Rising opened, and those women can play some guitar. Is there anything sexier than a tough woman playing glass slide on a steel resonator? NO. There is not. Also, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve never seen a female musician who didn’t have some seriously cut biceps. Coincidence? Or maybe just a lot of moving instruments around.

The Bangles played all the old favorites- ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’, ‘Manic Monday’, ‘In Your Room’, ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’; and they broke out some songs from their new album Sweetheart of the Sun that was just released last week. My favorites there were ‘I’ll Never Be Through With You’, which Debbi Peterson (who smokes the drums AND the guitar, thankyouverymuch) affectionately dubbed Stalker Rock, and a tougher, snarky song that had me jumping up and down called ‘Ball and Chain.’

(Yeah. I miss concerts. And being younger.)

All good stuff, nostalgic and yet still fresh and fun, and it basically left me thinking we need more girl bands that rock their own instruments. Who meld sweet harmonies and lovely personalities with kickass riffs. Know what I mean?

I don’t play an instrument, really. I can still play my first book and a half of Suzuki songs on the piano; they’re part of my muscle memory. I can read music, and pick out a few chords on a guitar. But I can’t pour my soul and my angst and my fire into song. I envy those who do.

Music is something primal. It’s something tattooed onto our collective consciousness; it brings a roomful of individuals together for the love of the beat. The best songs are the ones that feel like old favorites even as you hear them for the first time (Adele excels at these).

I think I’ve been inspired to urge Cass to take up an instrument. Happily, our public school offers music lessons once you hit the middle grades.

And maybe I’ll pick up a guitar again, myself.

Sigh. The arts in school!! They matter.

Have you revisited some of your favorite songs of your youth recently? Seen any of them in concert? (I know some of you saw New Kids on the Block when they came around. ‘Fess up.)

Do you play an instrument? Do your kids?

Me with @Valerie4012. My shirt shows The Misfits, the equal but opposite musical group to Jem & the Holograms.

Photo credit: I think both of these were taken by Jessica at Delaware County Moms. Thanks man!

And many thanks to the good folks of 95.7 Ben FM who bravely gave 20 Philly area mom bloggers VIP tickets to the concert, and to the Bangles for not making fun of my outfit, and to Jeff for watching the kids TWICE in one day.