How I Spent My Winter VACATION

I took my kid to The Fillmore in San Francisco to see The GoGo's!

Free Apples. A Fillmore Tradition.

Beauty and The Beat came out in 1981 when I was 11 years old. 

In 1978 they were just a bunch of girls that formed a band. But back then there weren't any all-female groups that wrote all their own songs and played all their own instruments that made it onto the Billboard 200 chart. There was no puppet master behind the stage pulling their strings, telling them how to look and what to sing. They were born of the LA punk scene. As their bio says, "How could anyone who loves real music not love The Go-Go’s? They melded the timeless songcraft of The Beatles, a defiant punk attitude, the blitzkrieg bombast of The Ramones, the deceptively dangerous allure of Blondie, the distinct personalities of The Monkees, 60s garage-band grit, good-girl wall-of-sound schmaltz, and a touch of 70s glam, all while creating a canon of work that deftly defined the spirited 80s sound. Even more astonishing is the fact that they merged all of those grand influences into streamlined MTV stardom — without sounding overtly dated. Quite a feat, but then The Go-Go’s are quite a band."

Three decades later The GoGo's still Got The Beat. 

Their sound hasn't changed a bit. They played one crowd pleaser after another.  Each member of the band addressed the audience. Gina Schock even came out from behind her drums to say hi! 

The song "Mad About You" was one of a few songs that were being considered to be on the fourth (unrecorded) Go-Go's album. When The Go-Go's split up, "Mad About You" wound up on Belinda Carlisle's debut solo album, Belinda instead. But...we got to hear them play it live.


 

In a review of Beauty and The Beat for the non-profit organization Common Sense Media Blair Jackson states:

"the Go-Go's' music has a light power-pop quality" 

and

"the content is downright innocent when compared to current pop music."

So, I felt pretty good exposing my 13 year old to the show. She's not exactly new to seeing live music. We've taken her to the The Bridge School Benefit Concert, The San Francisco Symphony, Yoshi's Jazz Club, and ton's of Broadway shows. If the venue is all ages she comes with us! 

And that's how I spent my winter VACATION...