Uh-oh It’s Magic
Posted By Kathleen David on June 10, 2006
Ariel and I are off on an adventure tonight. We are going to see the Cars and Blondie at a venue in New Jersey. I haven’t seen either since the 80s so I am on a nostalgia trip. Ariel hasn’t heard of either so this will all be new for her. It is an outdoor venue and the temperature will be a bit on the lower side in the evening. But it sounds like a fun evening of 80s music. A friend offered us the tickets. Thanks Jo.
Caroline woke up in a very bad mood this morning. Everything has been a fight or a tantrum. I am really wondering how early she got up before she ventured out of her room. Most mornings she wakes up and is the most chipper and cheerful person you would ever meet. I guess one bad day is expected every now and again.
Peter has been working on the Gunslinger comic this week. He is having a lot of fun with it and the art work we have gotten looks incredible.
I am grateful for skinny tie music.
Just so you’re aware (in case you weren’t), what you’ll be seeing is actually The New Cars. It’s two original members from the Cars (the keyboardist and guitarist, Greg Hawkes and Elliot Easton) with Todd Rundgren on vocals and Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton and Tubes drummer Prairie Prince. Original bassist/vocalist Ben Orr (lead vocals on “Just What I Needed,” “Drive” and a few others) is sadly no longer with us, and original vocalist/songwriter Ric Ocasek (lead vocals on the lion’s share of the songs including “Shake It Up,” “You Might Think,””Magic,” “My Best Friend’s Girl,” etc.) and drummer David Robinson weren’t interested in a reunion (though Ocasek, at least, gave his blessing – not sure about Robinson).
The current Blondie line-up has only three original members, but as it’s the core of Debbie Harry, guitraist/songwriter Chris Stein and drummer Clem Burke, the three members that have been in every Blondie line-up (though keyboardist Jimmy Destri was also in every line-up before this one), it’s a bit more legit. They’re saying this will be their last tour, so it’s good to catch them while you can!
Despite my feelings of dubiousness about The New Cars, I’d be going to see this tour if it were coming somewhere close to me, mostly for Blondie. I am a huge fan of the original Cars, too, but what I’ve heard of the redone Cars classics hasn’t thrilled me. I regret that I have never seen either band live, especially in their heyday, though I did see Debbie Harry perform solo in the ’90s.
For VH-1 Classic, I’m… oh wait, I don’t work for VH-1, I just carry around entirely too much music trivia in my brain…
Hmmm. I think that you will end up having a good time. While the New Cars line-up is not the original, Todd Rundgren is not exactly chop liver. I would be curious to learn if he dones any of his own great songs during the concert.
I believe I’ve read they’re mostly doing Cars classics with a couple of Rundgren tunes and a couple of all-new songs tossed in.
Sometimes i run across something that truly reminds me just how old i’m getting.
This is one of those things.
I have seen Blondie live exactly once, and the Cars never — in 1978, before “Heart of Glass” broke, when they were virtually unknolwn in the States — opening for the Kinks at the Fox here in Atlanta.
The other opening act here was Tom Prtty, and that was a Weird Night, due to Ray disappearing completely shortly before the Kinks were due on — later that same tour, up in the Northeast, the Cars (who hadn’t broken yet, either) replaced Petty; that must have been one hëll of a show.