More on the Concert

The Pretenders are in unusual band. They play pretty straight up rock with occasional ballads with no frills. The one thing that makes them unusual is their lead singer. I know there are some bands that have female lead singers and of course there are all female bands, but the Pretenders seem like any all guy rock band except the lead singer, songwriter, and for all intents and purposes the band itself is a woman, Chrissie Hynde. Those of you who don't follow music might know Chrissie as the singer that took Phoebe's place at the coffee shop briefly in Friends. Those of us who have followed her career enjoyed watching her struggling to learn "Smelly Cat."

For this concert the band had its original drummer, who was excellent, and an amazing lead guitarist named James Walbourne, but the Hynde is always the center of it all. She looks amazing for 58 years old (older than me!) and sounds great. She has also clearly lost none of that famously cranky personality that made her so endearing to some of us. She was clearly not happy with all the people taking flash pictures from the front of the audience and complained about it between every song for the first half hour. At one point someone called out that she wanted to take her picture and she said, "You want to take my picture? So we're all here so you can get your f---ing picture?" She walked to the front of the stage and posed, first giving the woman the finger, then with her back to her.

It was great stuff. The Pretenders were inducted into the R&R hall of fame in 2005 and it was well deserved.