Celebrate Fairfax with Pat Benatar June 9, 2012

 

("You're The Right Kind of Sinner...")

On a hot Saturday night 80's rock superstar Pat Benatar, accompanied by her husband Neil Giraldo on guitar, Mick Mahan on bass and Chris Ralles took the main stage at Celebrate Fairfax much to the delight of the packed crowd.

Benatar kicked off the evening with an energetic, all out version of  "All Fired Up", not holding back and showing the crowd she can still rock out at nearly 60 years old.  Pat still sounds the same as her 80's self, but even more powerful and more confident.  She struts around the stage, giving her all, having fun with the crowd and you can tell she is thoroughly happy to be there.

After the first few numbers she talks about "the holy 14", aka their set list.  It's made up of primarily the same songs each time they go out with usually 2 songs, usually lesser known hits/album tracks, thrown in the mix to shake it up a bit.  Due to time restraints, only 12 songs were performed, but it's not about quantity, it's about quality and she gave a fulfilling, hit packed nearly hour and a half concert.

A few songs into the show, Neil & Pat pulled up a couple of stools and shared a drink while Neil talked about their history and celebrating 30 years together.  Pat told the story of how their video for "You Better Run" was the 2nd video every played on MTV and told the crowd an interesting piece of trivia...Neil was the first guitar player ever featured on MTV....which makes him "old as dirt" as they said together before doing an acoustic version of the song.  Next up, Pat encouraged everyone to take out their cell phones and hold them up as she did the classic, "We Belong".

Before doing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", Pat told the crowd how she hates the song and always wants to leave it off the set list, but "You guys would get on Facebook and Twitter and complain that we didn't do it" so she agreed to do it if the crowd sang the line she hates the most and when it came time, the audience delivered..."So before I put another notch in my lipstick case, you better make sure you put me in my place"...

The 80's classic "Love is a Battlefield" followed before a 2 song encore that included one of Pat's favorite songs, "Let's Stay Together" (not to be confused with the Al Green classic) and one of her first big hits, "Heartbreaker", in which she mixed in a bit of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire".

12 songs and nearly an hour and a half later, Pat Benatar showed the crowd she can belt it out with the best of them and in 2012 is still a force to be reckoned with. 

Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo
Celebrate Fairfax

Fairfax, Virginia
June 9, 2012

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The Setlist
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All Fired Up
Shadows Of The Night
River of Love
Invincible
Promises In The Dark
You Better Run
We Belong
Hell Is For Children
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Love Is a Battlefield

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Encores:

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Let's Stay Together

Heartbreaker/Ring of Fire

...All photos taken by Brian Walmer...