Photo by Adam Miszewski, Pabst Theater Group
Pretenders at the Riverside Theater July 29, 2024
Pretenders at the Riverside Theater July 29, 2024
Chrissie Hynde never had a Plan B. It seems she willed herself into leading a band that played rock and roll. That was never more evident than Monday night when Hynde’s band the Pretenders played a free-range set at the Riverside Theater that included songs from the band’s 2023 album Relentless and “Stop Your Sobbing,” the Kinks cover they recorded in 1979 which appeared on their flawless debut album—and a plenty of material from in-between.
Famously, when the Pretenders played the Oriental Theater back in 1981 the Violent Femmes were busking outside, and local trio was asked to be the opening act. Was it really 25 years ago that Sandra Bernhard was the surprise opening act at the Riverside for the Pretenders? That same year The Pretenders opened for Neil Young and Crazy Horse at the Marcus Amphitheater, with Hynde joining the headliner for an encore of “All Along the Watchtower.”
Future trivia be damned, Monday’s show dispensed with any opener. Billed as “An Evening with Pretenders,” Hynde and the current lineup (guitarist James Walbourne, bassist Dave Page and drummer Kris Sonne) played a set loaded with enough new material to defy anyone looking to call the band a walking jukebox of oldies. “Losing My Sense of Taste” and “Merry Widow” fit right in with the legacy tunes.
Rock and Roll Ingredients
Utilizing the time-tested recipe of two guitars, bass and drums, the band served Hynde’s songwriting and her vocals—that bell-like vibrato and idiosyncratic phrasing that made “Kid” (dedicated to deceased original members James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farnon) and “Mystery Achievement” come to life.
In 1982 following the deaths, Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers regrouped. This night’s set included both sides of that comeback single, the jangle-pop mission statement “Back on the Chain Gang” and the Thomas Wolfe swipe, “My City Was Gone”—complete with borrowing a slowed-down bass groove from fellow Ohioans, The Outsiders’ “Time Won’t Let Me.”
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Half-recalling a Blatz beer jingle, Hynde handed the mic off to an audience member to fill in the words; she dedicated songs to Moby Grape’s Jerry Miller, Johnny Thunders (“Junkie Walk”) and writer Edna O’Brien.
While Hynde was the star of the show, she offered plenty of time to her band, especially Walbourne. His playing on “Thumbelina” was a direct line back to Sun Studios. “You didn’t see that opening the Olympics-did ya?” Hynde quipped as he finished the guitar solo. And the night was also a reminder of just how unstoppable Hynde is as rhythm guitarist.
For much of the crowd, “Don’t Get Me Wrong” and “I’ll Stand By You” struck the right emotional chords. But me? I trade them in a heartbeat to have heard “Precious” and “Brass in Pocket.”
“I’m not the kind I used to be, I’ve got a kid I’m 33,” the 72-year-old Hynde sang as if time stood still for her. And maybe it did, because the encore “Middle of the Road” was a rave up that rivals anything she first heard on her portable transistor radio. Returning for another tune the Pretenders closed with “Mystery Achievement,” a slab of noir dread that resonates enigmatically as it did 44 years ago.
