19 Again

On Saturday night I went t0 the B52s and Squeeze concert at CMAC with my friend Melissa. The amphitheatre was amazingly sparsely populated, so I was surprised we had such incredibly bad seats (first row of the last section toward the back). I was super excited to see Squeeze, one of my ALL TIME favorite bands. While I do like the B52s, I never really got into them. Now my friend, Sue, that's a different story (it turned out I really only knew about five of their songs. Sue would have been rocking through all of them).

The B52s opened the concert, which was also a surprise. I would have thought they were the 'bigger band' but my high school friend, Mike, whom I chatted with before the concert texted me a little later to say he had heard from people around him that when Squeeze opened before the B52s in previous concerts half the audience got up and left before the next act. Huh. Very cool for Squeeze!

The B52s put on a great show. Their voices are still strong and clear, especially Kate Pierson's who it turns out is 64 years old! Wow, she wears it well!! They played for exactly one hour, start to finish, and closed with "Rock Lobster," of course. Fun stuff.

As they were changing sets I texted my friend and former neighbor, Chris, who had seats "way down front" and she said there were a ton of seats near her if I wanted to try to come down. So, Melissa and I, looking cool, waltzed pass the guard like we were heading to our "real seats" and had a great view for Squeeze: 15 rows from the stage.

Glenn Tillbrook, 1983

Squeeze (which were really just the two founding members, Chris Difford and Glenn Tillbrook, with a new band) sounded great. The most unsettling thing, though, was how different Glenn Tillbrook looked. He went from "cute, new wave '80s pop star" to the "Elder Statesman from Mississipi" and was pretty much unrecognizable (especially with the long billy-goat beard and light-colored sports jacket) from his past self. I know it's 30 years down the road, but WOW. Still, when I closed my eyes (!) the Squeeze I knew came through loud and clear. This is my second time seeing the and I love them as much as I ever did. 

Glenn Tillbrook, 2012

At the concert, Melissa and decided we might also go see Journey (minus Steve Perry, of course)/Pat Benatar/ Loverboy in August. Then, of course, there is the awesome Train/Mat Kearney concert coming up. What great music this summer!