Photographs by Dawn Hamilton.
It’s not often you get a double bill featuring a warrior dragoness and a mighty queen bee, but that’s exactly what the audience got with the Rage and Rapture Tour that came to Toronto’s Sony Centre on Wednesday night. Though from two separate decades, the pairing of Garbage and Blondie was inspired, for the parallels between the bands are striking. Blondie rode a wave of success in the punk and new wave days of the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were a female-led punk-pop force that revelled in their counter-culture stance. Garbage’s turn in the limelight was in the wake of the Grunge era of the early 1990s. They were a female-led alt-rock force that revelled in their counter-culture stance. Together, the bands offered up buckets of intergenerational cool.
The night opened with a short set by California’s Deap Vally. Garbage hit the stage by 7:40 and through sheer stage presence, made the early call time feel very Rock and Roll. The Grunge cred is real, with legendary producer Butch Vig at the drums. Singer, Shirley Manson has not let time dampen her passion. Centre-stage, in a look that screamed punk-rock flamenco, Manson entranced with No Horses and Sex Is Not the Enemy. Before the latter, she dramatically stated, “Dear Mr. Trump, I’m writing to you…” With a chorus that preaches “revolution is the solution” there was no hiding her political stance. (Psssst… She is not a fan of the current U.S. President.) Tapping into the day’s news cycle, Manson prefaced Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go) with an observation regarding the just announced ban on transgender people in the military. “It’s madness… [that] people who are willing to put their lives on the line could be so disrespected” she cried, voice wavering with emotion. Warning: This dragoness spits fire! The cheers in the hall indicated that she was preaching to the converted.
Political commentary was front and centre, but ultimately the music was the star of the show. The band sounded tight and looked happy to still be doing what they love for an appreciative audience. Manson is a bad-ass singer whose vocals always carry weight. The set was packed with staples like #1 Crush, I think I’m Paranoid and Special, to name a few. The crowd was treated to a rarely performed song that was recorded in Toronto – the James Bond theme The World Is Not Enough. The back end of the set featured Stupid Girl, Only Happy When It Rains and Push It. As Garbage took their leave, the cheers were enthusiastic and loud. No doubt, Blondie must have heard the roar; the bar was set high.
The crowd was split between Blondie and Garbage fans with Blondie’s taking the lion’s share of the room. The iconic group is still making music and touring more than 40 years after releasing their first record. The band, including founding members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, were greeted with deafening cheers. The new album’s title, “Pollinator,” works both literally and figuratively; the band cross-pollinated with many talented songwriters and is donating part of the album proceeds to various charities devoted to saving the bees. Harry, 71, donned an outfit that embodied her queen bee persona. Her bee-like stripes, campy antennae and “STOP FUCKING THE PLANET” cape made a statement: Bees matter; the survival of the planet depends on them.
Blondie kicked off their show with One Way or Another and Hangin’ on the Telephone, before hitting the audience with newer material. Fun, the lead single from the new record, and My Monster followed. Remarkably, even up against a parade of Blondie classics, the new songs sounded fresh and full of energy. Harry can be forgiven for not hitting all the high notes and for talking/yelling some of the lines; Blondie’s music is as much about attitude as it is about the lyrics. Rapture provided one of the night’s highlights, along with a cover of Bob Dylan’s Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, which allowed an entire auditorium to yell “Everybody must get stoned” repeatedly.
Blondie showed a keen sense of humour and irony by starting their encore with a song made famous by a “very famous Canadian punk artist” – a sped up pop-punk version of Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On. By night’s end, the crowd got what they wanted and the band seemed pleased to deliver classics like Heart of Glass, Atomic, The Tide is High and Dreaming. In the end, the queen bee dominated the dragoness by a hair. Evidently, there is still an appetite for rage and rapture in our city.
