Pat Benatar

Hallandale, Florida

   What can be said about Neil Geraldo that hasn't been covered again & again? I've never seen anyone enjoy their job as much as him. All 'Mr Benatar' jokes aside, he is amazing in his own right. He works the crowd. He works the band. He works the missus. He REALLY works himself. 

   Thanks to modern technology and wireless transmitters, Neil is free to roam the front stage area, the lawn seating area and the parking lot if he so desired. Today he went for the lawn people. Getting lost in the crowd, at Pat's insistence, he disappeared from my line of sight completely. The crowd surrounded him in the audience the way a magnet draws a pile of metal shavings. I didn't obtain any photos of this, but imagine a crowd of people......got that.....surrounding a man with a guitar that you can't see. See, we did it in under a thousand words.

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     There is something special about a Pat Benatar show.  Is it the hits she reminisces us with that remind us how many years have gone by? Is it the prospect of new music that we'll be looking back on 20 more years from now? Is it the love and banter that she shares with her husband and guitarist, Neil Geraldo or is it a combination of all of the above and some not mentioned?

   The show was at a raceway, not a concert hall, not a converted basketball or hockey arena and not an outdoor stadium. Nobody in attendance seemed to mind. It was crowded. Standing room only type crowded. Those who weren't standing had gotten there several hours earlier and were camped out on blankets and in lawn chairs. So, on a Saturday afternoon, you come outside on a beautiful 75 degree Florida day, have a beer, soda or water to wash down your greasy raceway burgers or sausages, top it off with a quick melting ice cream cone and about 100 minutes of Pat Benatar, how can you go wrong?

 They played the familiar songs such as Heartbreaker, Treat Me Right and All Fired Up for the encore. True Love, from the excellent CD of the same title threw some modern day blues at this crowd of rockers. Not only did they introduce a new song from an upcoming album (Girl or Girlie, it was hard to hear that), she sang it from a lyric sheet as all the words are not etched into the repertoire just yet. To leave your vanity at the door and be comfortable enough with your audience that you can sing from a printed sheet speaks volumes about the way she feels as a performer.