Written by Eddie Ferranti
May 17, 2008 at 08:00 PM
ImageGot a chance to check out one of thee newer music venues in H-Town recently and I was not let down. The Showgrounds is located on thee interior of the horse racing track at Sam Houston Race Park in NW Houston.

This particular evening was quite comfortable for this time of year in Texas. Pat Benatar and her hubbie Neil Giraldo were the headliners and they brought their “A” game! I’ve been a long time fan of Pat since her early success on MTV. Remember when they showed videos?!

Anyway, PB was the first hot 8×10 photo I ever got from covering a concert! It was the Agora way back in the early 80’s in Houston. It is hard to imagine that it has been over 25 years since then and the woman sounds better than ever. Her “opera type” pipes never sounded better and the girl is still carrying herself quite well at thee age of 55. Can you believe she has scored 19 Top 40 singles over her career? She and bad ass Neil “The Spyder” tore thru some chestnuts this particular evening. Some of which included “Shadows of the Night”, “Invincible”, “Painted Desert” and “We Live for Love”.

The stage was huge and had very good lighting to showcase the gig. I was impressed with the sound also for the show throughout. Watching Pattie B dance and boogie to NG’s super guitar work was worth the evening in itself. The two of them actually looked like they were enjoying themselves. Imagine that?!

She played “air guitar” and struck many of her vampy/diva poses that still work over 25 years into performing.  Steamy hot cuts that this reviewer really enjoyed were “Hell is for Children” and “Promises in the Dark”! And of course referring back to MTV, she had to do “Love is a Battlefield”. The crowd was beyond enthusiastic and rightfully so.

Positive energy shows like this are wonderful escapes from reality in this rat race of a world we live in.

PB announced that she will release a total acoustic album in time for Christmas 2008……….Let’s hope they tour behind that one, too! As far as thee opening act, Thee Fabulous T-Birds, it was just okay. Kim Wilson and his latest version (how many have there been since Jimmy Vaughn left?) tried to get it going, but the daylight performance seemed like more work than play for KW & Comapny. Unfortunately they seemed to get the crowd into it on the encore of “Tuff Enuff” and by then it was too late………..Until next time, I’m out.