A Manic-Free Monday With the Bangles (Highline Ballroom Concert Review)

Was pretty spent when Monday evening rolled around -- are all events on school nights anymore? -- yet I don't think I could have picked a better concert to attend than the Bangles, who were as rockin' and entertaining as the crowd was friendly and polite at the ladies' Highline Ballroom gig.

In town to promote their growing-on-me-more-every-day new album, "Sweetheart of the Sun," Susanna Hoffs reminded the crowd that it was the 30th anniversary of the band -- they were The Bangs back when "Getting Out of Hand" was released in 1981 -- which I suppose is true if you don't count the ugly decade they spent not speaking because they all hated her for being so damn pretty erroneously singled out as the lead singer by the media.

I've never been a huge fan of Highline Ballroom, but Monday night showed it's not so much the venue that's the problem as the people attending. I heard the doorman tell someone the show was sold out, yet there was ample room to breathe, with only the requisite 9-foot-tall guy standing in the middle of the place (in a stylish windbreaker so he wouldn't catch cold during his periodic smoke breaks) causing a little discomfort in the "view" department. (Not that I'm saying Susanna is the only one I wanted to watch, but Mr. Overactive Thyroid happened to be blocking her no matter where he stood.)

The gals -- who are all in their 50s now but look quite fit -- opened with the new album's strongest track, the quasi title tune "Anna Lee (Sweetheart of the Sun," then satisfied my friend Christopher's only requirement of the evening by launching into a raucous version of "Hazy Shade of Winter," which like Joan Jett's "Crimson and Clover" I'd argue is better than the original. The somewhat obscure “Some Dreams Come True” (off of 1988's underrated "Everything") and the song that launched them into stardom, “Manic Monday,” followed, before Vicki Peterson (the group's actual leader) greeted the crowd, letting us know how much they'd missed New York. (I'd missed them last time they were in town a few years ago at B.B. King.) Susanna then did "I'll Never Be Through With You," probably the second-best song off the new album (it's actually a song she'd recorded for a solo album that was scrapped when the band reformed in the late '90s), Debbi sang the first of many leads on the new "Ball N' Chain" followed by big sis's "Rain Song," from the band's first comeback LP, "Doll Revolution."

Susanna then dedicated "If She Knew What She Wants" to her bandmates (um, they know what they want: they want to be you to rock!), followed by an unexpected three-fer from their debut album, "All Over the Place," with Vicki belting out "Restless" followed by Debbi's "Live" and then back to Vicki on "He's Got a Secret." At this point I was in complete 1984 heaven, feeling like I was listening to the new album with my friend Greg at my big brother's place at Shadow Creek Apartments in Mesa. (Should mention that the Grass Roots' 1966 song "Where Were You When I Needed You?" -- which the girls covered on the b-side of "Hero Takes a Fall" -- was playing on the PA system when we arrived!)

When Susanna stepped in for now-retired bassist Michael Steele to sing "September Gurls," Micky's presence was definitely missed. My friend Mark and I were just discussing how underappreciated she was, a la George Harrison -- "Following" is the best album track on "A Different Light" and "Complicated Girl" and "Glitter Years" are the best part of "Everything" -- whom Susanna calls her favorite Beatle.

Back in 2011 briefly, Susanna did "Under a Cloud" (another highlight from the new disc) and then Debbi abandoned her drums for what I knew would be one of the evening's best moments -- "Going Down to Liverpool," also off their debut -- only to have the ante upped with the appearance of "our friend" Fred Armisen as guest drummer! (“You never know who is going to stop by in New York!” Vicki explained.) Needless to say, New Yorker -- especially my "Portlandia" loving pal Christopher -- ate this up. Susanna then got a little sentimental, thanking the crowd “from our collective Bangles hearts for your support,” before launching into the (where's my lighter) mega hit "Eternal Flame." (It's hard to tell how the band feels about this. It reportedly was the straw that broke the band's back, yet it had to have paid to fix it many times over.) This was followed by (in my opinion) the biggest surprise of the evening -- Vicki's "Get the Girl" (with a brief interlude of the Turtles' "Outside Chance"), the tune that brought them back together for the first time in a decade, which was included on Susanna's director husband's "Austin Powers" soundtrack in 1999. (You just KNOW Jay Roach was saying, "Honey, how come you're not singing?" and Susanna was like, "No, no, no. Let one of them sing on this one or this comeback will never happen!") From there, they did one of the two covers off the new album, an obscure Nazz song called "Open My Eyes," which Vicki said they used to play back in the day.

The Susanna trio that followed next -- "Ride the Ride" (the unsung hero of "Doll Revolution"), "In Your Room" and then, AUDIBLE SHRIEK BY ME, "Hero Takes a Fall" -- was the most energetic moment of the evening, with each song catchier than the next. (A brief bit of The Who's "Magic Bus" happened at some point, too, although it's all a blur now.)

When they played "Walk Like an Egyptian" as the first encore, Christopher and his friend Maris asked me if there were any outstanding "mandatory" songs left. Being the chart geek that I am, I immediately thought of "Walking Down Your Street" (which just missed the Top 10 back in 1987 as the fourth single off "A Different Light") and "Be With You," another Top 40 hit from "Everything." As Christopher scoffed, Michael jokingly started to scream out "Vacation!," and then Debbi starting pounding out the Seeds' "Pushin' Too Hard," another favorite cover they like to play live. As the entire gang -- including Fred Armisen, who had rejoined the band on cow bell -- took a collective bow, it was clear this was it. The ladies said they had to be up early for an appearance on "Good Morning America" (fabulous, I saw it!), before heading to Boston for the next gig -- "why bother going to sleep?" Vicki asked. As we left, Michael, Christopher and I all agreed that the show had been outstanding -- the perfect blend of old and new -- tumultuous Tuesday ahead of us be damned.