CHRISSIE HYNDE AND JAMES WALBOURNE (THE PRETENDERS) - AMOEBA RECORDS, HOLLYWOOD, CA - SEPTEMBER 29, 2008
Chrissie Hynde and James Walbourne of The Pretenders played an acoustic set at Amoeba Records Hollywood yesterday, as well as signed vinyl copies of The Pretenders' new album, Break Up The Concrete. The somewhat large (in the hundreds) number of people there to see the divine Ms. Hynde were herded in like rock-loving cows to watch from behind the rows of CDs...this brought the wryly funny Chrissie to admit that she was impressed that Amoeba trusted the audience not to steal anything.
While fans tried to steal Chrissie's heart (some guy proposed marriage right after she sat down, to which she could only reply yes), she had stolen ours from the minute she opened her mouth. She sounds exactly like her recordings, and exactly like how I remember her when my favorite "modern rock" station back in NY would play "Precious" for the 90th time that day.
She and James did not, however, play "Precious," or hardly anything old, besides "Talk of the Town," which got a very warm reception from a clearly, ahem, older crowd. This set was about selling the new album, and sell it they did. The tracks, including "The Nothing Maker," "Love's A Mystery," "Don't Lose Faith In Me," "Almost Perfect," and "Boots of Chinese Plastic" were all strong and just as engaging as the old Pretenders hits. Chrissie flubbing the words during a senior moment on "Almost Perfect" fit the charming, intimate vibe of the show, and the rough and tumble rockabilly of "Boots of Chinese Plastic" made me want to go put on creepers and climb in my 1965 GTO. Except for wishing that Amoeba would rearrange its space to accommodate a live audience for its in-store shows (as much as I enjoyed doing research in the CDs for this blog), it was a very satisfying show, with great, nimble guitar work by James Walbourne. And Chrissie looked fabulous too.
I'm very sad that we were unable to take pictures or video during their set, so I have nothing cool to show you that I shot, so I have a video for "Talk of the Town" (1981), from The Pretenders' second album, that they performed yesterday:
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