Stuff That Works - Chrissie Hynde In Concert
As any long time fan of The Pretenders should know,
Chrissie Hynde recently released a solo album, Stockholm,
and is doing a tour in support of same.
Julie and I have both been longtime fans of Chrissie and we were excited
for the opportunity to see her in the Jack White Theatre at
The Masonic Temple in Detroit. One more reason for me
to love Jack White was given to us by a couple guys we sat next to:
The Theatre is named after him because he donated $142K to save
the Masonic Temple from bankruptcy - he paid the back taxes.
Way to go Jack.
The show opened with The Rails - a duo of
Kami Thompson and James Walbourne.
It was the two of them with guitars.
Kami has a very nice voice and the two of them produced
some wonderful harmonies.
Walbourne does double duty - after performing with Kami he shreds his electric guitars
as a member of Chrissie's touring band: Will Travel.
The Main Event - Chrissie Hynde is my favorite bad ass guitar slinging rock n roll singing woman on the planet. She won my respect back when the Pretenders toured with Simple Minds and I got
to watch her defend an excited fan at Pine Knob. Security was going to toss out a young
lady who jumped up on stage. Chrissie stopped the music and threatened to leave the stage unless the lady was returned to her seat. It was an exciting few minute - Chrissie won the stand off!
These days she is standing up to the INSANE amount phone/camera use at concerts.
There was an announcement several times BEFORE the show to the effect: "Chrissie respectfully requests that phone cameras not be used during the show. She encourages you to experience the moment." Some folks paid no heed, but she would tell them "No" when they tried to shoot her. (She did declare open season during the 2nd of two encores - and THANKED us for not using our phones during the show.)
Anyway, Chrissie and Will Travel presented us with a nice mixture of her new songs from Stockholm with a good peppering of Pretenders material. Chrissie has always been a bad ass, striking guitar hero poses - she still does that, but now a happy little grin might shoot across her face right after she gets done looking tough enough!
Great, great show - I would recommend you see it if you enjoy Pretenders music and/or Chrissie.
Her vocals were marvelous - covered a great range. She could woo us with a ballad or blow our hair back when it was time to rock.
I have got to hand it to the members of Will Travel.
(Left to Right) Bassist Nick Wilkinson and drummer Kris Sonne built a solid platform from which the others could launch. Nick is the quintessential rock bass player - standing quietly in front of his stack and letting it rip. Sonne seemed to have a lot of fun behind his kit
and was there when we needed him to be.
Keyboard player Sean Reid was solid -but he really did himself proud when he
produced a horn and played the part perfectly during "I Go To Sleep."
James Walbourne kicks ass and is the perfect guitar slinger to play along with Chrissie. I love it when it is obvious to me that a band loves what they are doing - and I got that sense
from these guys every minute they were on stage.
The show was great from start to finish.
Chrissie sounds wonderful and is full of energy.
She also seemed to really drink in the rabid support of the audience. We raised the rafters in the Masonic several times. A couple of times, Chrissie started to say something, but the cheers were too loud and she paused and drank in the love and appreciation flowing her way.
Here are the Stockholm Tour Dates.
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