You know that I love me some BLONDIE so I was super excited to hear they were playing a FREE show in Coney Island. We headed down there after work on Thursday night to the park that was busting at the seams with people, many of whom were SEATED on lawn chairs. Me sit at a Blondie show? never!!

I’d seen Blondie once before front row in London, and they were amazing then, but I felt their show had gotten better since then, the band was just incredibly! Clem as usually went to town on the drums (fabulous drummer and a real showman to boot) Chris on guitar fabulous as always and so was Paul! (greatly enjoyed their extended playing at the end of songs) and last but not least, Debbie! She sounded truly amazing and you could see she was excited to be playing in her home city, NYC again! She danced around the stage in her trademark, almost awkward looking manner and laughed and joked with the audience who were, as always, enthralled by her.

The setlist was pretty decent I was surprised to see the inclusion of ‘Two Times Blue and more so ‘Your Too Hot’, a couple of Debbie’s solo songs from her last album, but they worked well and the crowd loved them (I think I was the only one singing long to the NA NA NA NA parts in ‘Your Too Hot’ though!) The Tide is High was a highlight for me, loved the slightly different arrangement.’Call Me’ was another favorite, as was the extended version of Rapture (I always wonder how she doesn’t mess up that rap!) Hearing ‘The Hardest Part’ for the first time live was amazing!

For an encore they came back to do ‘Heart of Glass’ which is always a show stealer. As the song became to fade out there was a cool instrumental, and all of a sudden I hear ‘Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’ being worked in! I flipped out! It was a truly outstanding performance, perhaps the best of the night. I am totally still obsessed with her version days later! That my friends, is how you pay tribute to Michael Jackson!

Blondie and Pat Benatar together was quite the combination. Check the show out if you get the chance! There are a few dates left see here

(All photos by Yehou Levy)

MP3:
Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough (Covered by Blondie)