We all get old. Let’s face it, this is something that happens, even to famous people. Often, one will go to see an act and say, “Wow, they got old!” However, some age more gracefully than others and I must say that at 68 (!) years old, Debbie Harry has still got it. And by “still got it,” I don’t just mean that she looks great for 68,(she does) but that she and her bandmates still sound great and can still bring it. Every year, SXSW brings a fair number of classic acts out to play and Blondie, making their first appearance at SXSW, definitely fit the bill. One only need to give the SXSW lineup a quick scan to see the obvious influence that Blondie has had and still has on rock and pop music. Harry even joined Dum Dum Girls onstage for a song earlier in the week. Sad to have missed that, but hey, you can’t see everything.
Filling their set with classics such as “Heart Of Glass,” “Call Me,” and “Rapture” as well as some promising new material from their upcoming album Ghosts Of Download, Blondie definitely know how to work a room. They even played a cover of The Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)”, which seemed a bit of an odd choice but sounded great and was fun to hear regardless. And really, when you think about it, the right to party really does feel like an actual thing while at SXSW, especially when Yahoo! was footing the bill for free drinks tonight.
Opening for Blondie this evening was another survivor of the ’70s and ’80s, synthpop/industrial/goth icon Gary Numan. While Harry looks good for her age, Numan looks like a guy who’s trying too hard to look good for his age. Numan put on a solid show, but I have to say that not being overly familiar with his work, much of it felt like generic industrial rock. Except for when he played “Cars,” I felt like I may as well have been watching Stabbing Westward. That may be harsh, but hey, at least “Cars” sounded great.