This was the rare concert in which it was completely worth sitting through two painful hours of opening acts just to see the headliner.
The Greek Theatre was more than half-empty when Juliette Lewis ““ yes, the same Lewis who played the mentally handicapped lead character in “The Other Sister” and Jennifer Lopez’s trusted friend Ginny in “Enough” ““ and her band took the stage.
Lewis came out clad in a red sequin spandex number, with something that resembled a red bird attached to her right shoulder. While I wholeheartedly admit that she had intense energy on stage, it was frightening at times.
The gyrations, spastic shimmies, and hair flipping made me think that Lewis used her Oscar-nominated acting skills to act out her idea of the ideal rock star. The overdone act was just a little too out there.
When Cat Power came out, the theater was mostly packed. Power started off by singing a cover of Bob Dylan’s “House of the Risin’ Sun,” which destroyed a classic, but was at least an indisputably original cover. It was agonizingly slow, but Power’s deep, sultry voice was mesmerizing … for the first 10 minutes. Her entire set made me long to find her impressive voice and talent in a smoky jazz club, where I would more than gladly submit to hours of listening to her soft yet powerful voice.
Her breathy vocals translated emotion and pain arguably as well as Diana Krall’s. When Power sang songs with jazz or blues elements, she shone. The rest of the time, I was deeply bored.
When the Pretenders finally took the stage, they reminded me of how a rock band should present itself. If Lewis pretended to be a rock star, Chrissie Hynde embodied one. The British rock band has been around to accommodate different audiences since 1978. The decades haven’t affected Hynde, whose powerful, commanding voice hasn’t seemed to have changed at all from the time she recorded “I’ll Stand by You,” a classic played at both weddings and funerals.
The song “Love’s a Mystery,” from the latest album “Break Up the Concrete,” had a country sound. It was refreshing, and was performed to the fullest by Hynde ““ a spectacle nothing less than mesmerizing in comparison to the opening acts.
A few songs into the set, she announced that the band was now going to perform new songs, and if anyone wasn’t cool with that, they could leave.
But first, the band played the 1980s classic “Back on the Chain Gang” to a cheering, dancing audience. A fan asked Hynde to marry her, but she comically declined, citing her loyalty to the band’s original drummer, Martin Chambers. She then played a song about not getting what you want and dedicated it to the fan who had proposed, saying that he would relate to the lyrics that night.
The band was outstanding and featured guitarist James Walbourne, whose solos made me want to play Rock Band immediately, if not pick up some real guitar skills.
During “Tequila,” the audience waved actual lighters, which made me realize that having only seen cell phones at concerts, I hailed from a different musical generation. Looking around the audience of everyone from nostalgic middle-aged career people down to adolescents, it was evident that a band of this quality is relatable to all ages.
Though the Pretenders’ music was not something I grew up with, the true talent of the band left me with nothing but respect.
– Maryia Krivoruchko
E-mail Krivoruchko at mkrivoruchko@media.ucla.edu.