The Pretenders on Austin City Limits

I can't remember if I ever mentioned that we taped the Pretenders back in March. Anyway, the show airs this Saturday (or whenever ACL airs in your market).

Details.

Chrissie Hynde's voice sounds exactly the same as it did thirty years ago.

Its funny how i really loved their 1st album, and to a lesser extent their 2nd, and then i couldn't care less about them. Didn't hate them, more like utter indifference. None of the singles grabbed me i guess, so i never checked out the albums. But i did revist their debut recently for the first time in...decades? and loved it. If this episode reruns, I'll try and catch it.

Right there with you Mr Fab. Liked the debut. Bought the US EP of the first two singles from "Pretenders II." Stopped right there. The other material I heard on the second LP suggested that I had all I needed. Other Pretenders material didn't make an impression. I traded in the first LP during the Great Vinyl Purge and didn't bother getting a CD of it until 2006-7. Still liked it.



Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

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For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

You can watch it online here.

Watched it the other night. I was impressed. I was never a huge fan, but I thought they put on a jolly good live show.

Like the episode, the full set was about 95% 80s classics, with very little new material. I was surprised by both how committed Hynde seems to be to the songs (instead of being sick of them) and how good her voice sounded.

I heard Chrissie went ballistic on stage the other night - tirade filled with C*** words, calling out audience members, storming off the stage, the full monte... What the heck was that about?

Nosepail - here it is.

Summary - she doesn't like people taking pictures

I didn't realize Hynde was so against phones, but I guess she's mellowed on them - someone at their Bowery Ballroom show last year was clearly up close when they took a lot of video. (Sample clip below!)

I wanted to go to that show but it sold out in seconds. What was frustrating for some attendees is that the setlist was extremely light on the "classics," whereas if you saw their shows opening for Guns N' Roses (which alternated with these small venue shows), they'd do wall-to-wall hits.

Anyway, I love the Pretenders, and I went to see them open for Foo Fighters just so I could finally see them. From the looks of it, the setlist is now a healthy mix of newer and older material, and watching the video I had recording, they sounded GREAT. Hynde still sings wonderfully too - I just wish I had been able to hear that while I was at the show. Sports venues are generally horrible for concerts, and that was especially true of Citi Field. During the opener (Mammoth WVH), we walked around the entire ballpark at the 100 level because we wanted to see what food was being offered, and there wasn't a single area where the sound wasn't a mass of sludge. Couldn't make out a single word, not unless the bass and drums stopped playing. My phone managed to capture everything and balance out the sound, a trick iPhones do that still astounds me, but I couldn't believe how bad it all sounded live. The Pretenders turned the volume down for their set, which may have helped a little, but it was still sludge. The bottom overwhelmed the guitars and vocals so much that when they did play their hits, I had to wait until I could make out a vocal melody to identify them because it was really difficult hearing the riff or guitar part that would've given it away.

Regardless, I'd say their first album, Learning to Crawl, and their singles from the first 15 years or so are all great. Robert Christgau loves their later albums, but I'll have to revisit them to see if they make a bigger impact. (I haven't even listened to their last three albums outside of what they played tonight.) I absolutely love the album of Dylan covers Hynde put out during the pandemic. Greil Marcus thinks her version of "Blind Willie McTell" is definitive, and it could very well be. She did some shows for the album but only in the UK.

As for Foo Fighters, I agree with most of the things already posted on this board. Not a huge fan but I think you'd come up with a commendable disc if you string together their best singles. At least the ones I like best tend to be dreamy pop songs or songs that sound like they're drawing inspiration from Nirvana.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2024 09:42PM by belfast.

Michael, did she do the bit where she receives a note from "someone in the audience," reads it aloud -- "Please play 'Precious'" -- and then crumples it and tosses it away, only to play "Precious" at the end of the set? She did that at the last couple of Pretenders gigs I saw.

I don't remember that happening, but it was the beginning of the season, which is like a million years ago for me.