19 July 2024 (gig)
22 July 2024
A strong presence on the music scene for decades now, The Pretenders were one of the best post-punk era bands. While The Pretenders are not a punk band, band leader Chrissie Hynde certainly was a pioneer of that movement as she worked at Malcolm McLaren's SEX shop and was very close to Sex Pistols' guitarist Steve Jones (which was depicted in the 2022 miniseries "Pistol"). Hynde also embodies the spirit of the genre and slight elements of punk can be detected on the group's self-titled debut album.
The Pretenders performed on July 19, 2024 at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston, Massachusetts.
The sole remaining original member, Hynde (looking fantastic at 72) led a crackerjack of a band featuring James Walbourne (an amazing guitarist who used to play in The Kinks Ray Davies' solo band), David Antony Page (bass) and Kris Sonne (drums).
Beginning with a pair from The Pretenders newest album, 2023's "Restless", "Losing My Sense of Taste" and "A Love", they were followed by a duo from 2020's "Hate for Sale" LP, "Turf Accountant Daddy" and the song, "Hate for Sale".
After promoting the band's most recent efforts, Hynde and company resurrected 1981's "Kid" and the ever defiant "Precious" (from their masterful debut album).
Hynde's unmistakable rhythm guitar riffs shined on "My City Was Gone". A song concerning Hynde's disappointment of returning to her hometown (Akron, Ohio) in the early 1980s and seeing the changes ("All my favorite places/My city had been pulled down/Reduced to parking spaces").
A ballad from 2020's "Hate for Sale", "You Can't Hurt a Fool" focused on the more introspective side of the group.
Going back to 1984's "Learning to Crawl" disc, the band unearthed a deep-cut with "Time The Avenger" before returning to 1980 again for "The Wait". The killer power chords and quick vocal delivery obscures the fact that "The Wait" is a sad tale of a latchkey kid who roams the nights places such as pool halls.
The Pretenders ended the set with "Merry Widow", a tale of a brutal divorce, and the appropriate, "Pack It Up".
Now, as great of a drummer that Sonne is, the absence of original drummer Martin Chambers was felt at times as he is one of the greatest stickmen of the past 50 years.
The group returned for two encores and shined on The Kinks' "Stop Your Sobbing"
and the classic "Talk of the Town" during their first stage return.
Encore number two was more Top-40 friendly with 1986's jangly "Don't Get Me Wrong" (a new number, "Let the Sun Come In" was sandwiched in between songs) and a pair of monster hits from the "Learning to Crawl" record, "Back on the Chain Gang", and the frantic drum-filled "Middle of the Road", ending an amazing evening with Miss Hynde and her trio.
