Opening For Pat Benatar, Tarrytown, NY
Last Sunday night I had the honor and privilege of opening for one of the First Ladies of Rock, Ms. Pat Benatar, at the Tarrytown Music Hall just outside of New York City. It was a last minute call, and I had just a couple of days to drum up a proper opening set for this pop icon. My good friend Greg Mayo and I hit the stage at 8 pm sharp armed with a six-song set that packed as much punch as we could fit into our little duo set up, Greg on the electric, myself on the acoustic. Not for nothing, but we hit ‘em pretty good, and I was beyond grateful for every cheer or wave of applause thrown our way.
Being an opener is a double edged sword. On the one hand, you are getting an opportunity to play your music for a built-in audience and thus receiving a chance to entice a new wave of potential fans into your musical world. The flip side of this is that everyone there DID NOT come to see you. In fact you are holding up the show, for crying out loud. So my theory on being an opener is really simple: Within the first five seconds, grab the brass ring of their affections and don’t let go. You have five seconds to make them sit up just a little bit and say, “Hmmm…ok. Let me check this out. I’m intrigued”. If you can do that, you’ve succeeded. Anything beyond that is a pearl on top of an already priceless pile of gold. If you don’t grab them right then and there, your potential new fans are now just a crowd of people checking their watches and waiting for the real show to start.
I’m so very thankful to report that we did, indeed, grab them in the first five seconds. They stayed right there with us for twenty-five minutes. They listened, clapped to the groove, cheered us on, and gave us devoted silence in the quietest section of the set. Thank you, Tarrytown….I love you.
Now, let me just say a few words about the main event. Pat and her husband/longtime producer Neil Giraldo (who goes by the ultimate rock nickname Spyder) took the stage with their band and proceeded to melt everyone’s face off from the downbeat. They raged through the hits like “I Need A Lover”, “Heartbreaker”, and “Love Is A Battlefield”, as Pat bounded around the stage with electrified exuberance. Her voice soared high, ripping through octaves with all her rock glory. “I’m 59. I’m old!” she exclaimed at one point. But you know what I think? The only thing those meandering years have done is filled her with more wisdom, wit, and experience. She can still smoke a whole lot of folks one half her age, and she looks FIERCE. I was mesmerized.
When Pat and Neil sat center stage on two stools to perform a captivating duet, Neil told a short story that I did not know. He told the crowd, “Patricia and I met in New York City in 1979. She had an idea and I had a plan. So we hopped a plane to LA, and twenty-eight days later, we had completed In The Head Of The Night”. Just before this, Pat told the audience that she and Spyder had just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. “And I don’t know how he does it”, she laughed.
These two stories are what I was most blown away by out of the entire performance. Here is an example of that very rare instance in life when two people come together with nothing but a dream and love in their hearts and set out to see where it will take them. In Pat and Spyder’s case it took them from the New York City struggle, to musical success, to the top of the charts, around the globe a hundred times over, to pop icon status, to an intimate show in Tarrytown, New York, where I was lucky enough to cross their path. What I saw in these two incredible people is the infinite possibilities that lay waiting for those who dare to come together and breathe life into their dreams, trusting in the power of what’s between them. At one point, Spyder grabbed the phone of an excited fan, walked over to Pat and put his arm around her, snapping a photo of the two of them. As he snapped that photo, it was as clear as a crystal blue sky that the love they have for one another is the driving force behind every hit, every Grammy, every whirlwind tour. Otherwise, how else could they have survived this long?
