Chrissie Hynde Bayou Music Center November 20, 2014
During "Talk of the Town," one of the Pretenders' best-loved songs, Chrissie Hynde pointed up to the seats in Bayou Music Center's balcony. It was intended to be a nod to the people at the back of the hall, a standard rock and roll gesture.
Only no one was sitting up there. Hynde squinted through her trademark dark eyeliner, said to her guitarist "There's no one up there!" and peeled off a beautiful smile at her own faux pas.
That realization might have sent a more impetuous, less secure artist reeling, but not Hynde. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer just shrugged it off and continued her set for the Houston fans who had joined her this night. Touring simply as Chrissie Hynde, she ran through nearly two dozen songs that bridged her earliest days putting Pretenders through their paces to Stockholm, the 2014 release that for the first time ever bears her name instead the band's.
A couple of things were clear from opening track "Don't Lose Your Faith in Me," a song taken from 2008's Break Up the Concrete. Hynde's pleading vocals were strong proof she's preserved her voice well over a nearly 40-year career. She warmed up further with "Biker," from Viva El Amor, and "In a Miracle," a standout from the new album.
Also obvious -- and a lot less exciting -- was Hynde's disdain for mobile-phone camera use at concerts. Before she ever hit the stage, fans were urged by posted signs and a pre-recorded P.A. message to "be in the moment and not behind the screen." She mouthed to a fan in the front rows "Don't use your phone," during the first song and continued her admonishments throughout the night.
Consider that Hynde started playing during the punk explosion. She was there for more than just the birth of a new rock genre; she was at the grassroots of a global movement. If anyone knows what it's like to live fully in the moment of something special, it's her.
On the other hand, she is making new -- and excellent -- music in 2014 and is touring in support of that music. And performing live in 2014 almost assuredly means playing to a crowd partially hidden behind the veil of hard-shell camera cases. It just comes with the territory now, like a ticket service charge or the upcharge on beer sold at a live-music venue. Fighting it as often and as vocally as she did just made her sound like a mom badgering the kids to put away the gadgets.
Fortunately Hynde always found her way back to the music, in a set loaded with offerings from Stockholm. I counted seven of the album's 11 tracks, the best of which were "In a Miracle," "Sweet Nuthin'" and closer "Dark Sunglasses." That song is the sort of magic that is created when a young artist -- in this case, Bjorn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John, who produced Stockholm -- taps into everything that made a legendary artist great to begin with.
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