Blondie came through Austin last Thursday, September 29th, for a performance at Austin City Limit’s Moody Theater. Jen Quinonez caught the show and shared her thoughts…
I’m going to pretend I did not see Nico Vega running around on stage in what looked like war paint and a big t-shirt and skip right to when Blondie came out.
Simple tied white drapes in the background that beautifully matched Debbie Harry’s wig of choice (think: Emmy Lou Harris) created a classic background to a high energy fun bubble of new and old Blondie jams. Debbie looked great, Chris Stein hds really cool guitars and their keyboard player was wearing the strangest shoulder pads I have ever seen – and it was fabulous. I can’t remember what the first song was because there were some hilarious dancers in tennis shoes in front of us – but the second was one of my favorites – “Dreaming”. It’s a little more down tempo than the recording, but it was still great.
They went back and forth between new and old songs for most of the show until one block of about six new songs in a row. That was different but didn’t hurt the show, as we were all aware of the barrage of sweet, sweet hits that were coming our way. While I enjoyed hearing “Atomic”, “Rapture”, “Maria”, “One Way Or Another”, “Call Me”, and many other hits, part of me was a little sad that I never got to hear the grittier album cuts like “X Offender”, “Kung Fu Girls”, “In The Flesh” or “Hanging On The Telephone” (side note: If you didn’t know, that is an original song by The Nerves. Check it out.).
And HERE is a grainy iPhone video of Blondie covering the Beastie Boys.
All in all, great show. Even in her 60s, Debbie is the epitome of a rock and roll queen and even though Clem Burke seems like one of those cheesy drummers because he throws his drumstick in the air and plays behind one of those plexi glass screens, he was a delight to watch and kept the energy elevated all night. Also, he never dropped a stick! I bet he watched Cocktail a lot.
…and for the record, Dreaming isn’t free, it was $46.50.
– Submitted by Jen Quinonez, Audio Engineer