KC Confidential.com

Going into Tuesday night’s Blondie concert at Crossroads KC, I figured that if the band just showed up and Debbie Harry didn’t look like she needed to sit down, the crowd would still be able to get into the old hits.

As things turned out, nearly 2,000 fans indeed reveled in the dance-friendly sounds of New Wave Past. But Harry and company did more than merely eke out another paycheck.

The band rocked, emphatically at times – especially original drummer Clem Burke, whose busy poundings and flourishes supplied the same solid foundation as on the records.

And Harry showed that she still had it going on more than 30 years after her arresting looks and coquettish persona helped lead Blondie to international stardom.

While her Playboy Bunny beauty has understandably faded – I mean, the woman’s 64 years old, so let’s give her a break – her wily possession of that certain something remains remarkably intact.

On Tuesday, whenever she shared a smile, which was often, it was a terrific two-way street: you knew that she knew that you knew that she knew what you were thinking . Or something like that. All I can say is it’s still a turn-on.

Harry’s vocals weren’t spectacular (not that they necessarily ever were, even way back when). But they were in tune (which they haven’t always been, even way back when). And her delivery was consistently spirited, from the rousing show-opener, “Call Me,” to the last encore song – a faithfully fun take on Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” that came off like it could have been a bona fide Blondie song from the group’s heyday.

“Hello, this is Blondie calling!” Harry said as a bridge between “Call Me” and the pure pop appeal of “Hanging on the Telephone.”

“Gimme some!” she yelled, and held out her hand microphone to pick up the audience’s noisy response. “It’s good to hear your voice!”

Although it was in a measured way, she shook and clapped and danced to the happy music in a peach dress that I have to say looked more like fancy drapes than rock goddess material. But she wore it at least as well as she did the 15 songs that Blondie performed in 80 minutes.

The set was fortunately dominated by some of the best 1970s and early ’80s stuff that made and kept Blondie famous. Still, the singer and the five male musicians on stage with her – including Blondie co-founder and guitarist Chris Stein – might have thrown out a few more choice nuggets from yesteryear.

It all comes down to personal taste, but I would have preferred to hear more melody drenched Blondie oldies like “Denis,” “Dreaming” and “(I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear.” The latter was typed up as part of the band’s onstage set list, but (as far as I could tell) was missing from the performance.

Regardless, the oldies offered up worked pretty nicely, including a blistering version of “Atomic”: “Was that good for you?” Harry teasingly inquired after finishing. “It was good for me. I’m glad it was good for you.”

From the same golden era came the reggae-injected “The Tide is High.” Harry had no trouble getting the audience to sing along with her, particularly when she raised both index fingers and playfully proclaimed: “I want to be your number one!” That she was.

The song went to another level when it morphed into the Staple Singers’ soul classic, “I’ll Take You There.” The earthy transition seemed to give Harry permission to really get down: “Where you wanna go?” she yelled. “Where you wanna take me? Well, that’s what he said to me. He said, ‘I’ll take you there, baby-baby-baby-baby-baby-baby…uh-huh!”

Take it from me, that was quite an “uh-huh.”

There were more welcome reggae vibrations in the initially slow serenade of “Rapture.” That is, before the early ‘80s hit went into hyper-drive with Harry’s frenetic, ahead-of-its-time rap that was finished off by a big, fat, wacky guitar solo by Stein as he dutifully hunched over his ax.

Other familiars included the chilly warmth of “Heart of Glass” and the white-hot “One Way or Another,” Blondie’s head-bobbing ode to relentlessly hunting down the lover of your choice.

“Yeah, you wanna get what you wanna get,” Harry shared, egging on the crowd. Or was it the other way around?

“One way, baby!” she shouted. “One way, baby!”

No two ways about it: the crowd went ape. And no one more so than the middle-age guy in a ball cap standing down front who tossed his cell phone on stage at Harry’s feet. At the tune’s climax, she picked up the phone, put it to her ear and pretended to have a conversation. When she sauntered over and gave the phone back to him, he looked like he’d just been handed a million dollars.

I couldn’t resist approaching him and screaming into his ear over the wonderful din: “What are you going to do with that phone?!”

“I’m going to fuck it tonight!!” he screamed back. I had no reason to doubt him.

Brian McTavish

Set list:

Call Me

Hanging on the Telephone

Two Times Blue

The Hardest Part

Fade Away and Radiate

(I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear (Not performed?)

Screaming Skin (not on set list, but performed)

Maria

Atomic

The Tide is High

You’re Too Hot

Rapture

One Way or Another

Encore:

My Heart Will Go On

Heart of Glass

Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough