Patty Smyth and Scandal – The Rose, Pasadena, CA on 7/27/2018
Review and Pictures: Joe Schaeffer
Patty Smyth and her band Scandal were on hand at The Rose Theater in Pasadena for a night of rock and roll. Smyth and the band, which have not performed much in the past few years, are in the middle of a four show run in the Los Angeles area.
As we awaited for the show to begin, I was wondering if Patty still had that great voice that she had back in the 80’s. Well my doubts disappeared the moment she came out and started to sing. She sounds as good and possibly even better than she did back then. Her band Scandal, buoyed by long time guitarist Keith Mack bring it all together from start to finish. Guitarist Cliff Hillis, keyboardist John Deley along with the rhythm section of bassist Tom Welsch and drummer Eran Asias round out the group.
Scandal performed “Love’s Got a Line on You” early in the set and the chart hit “The Warrior” was played around its midpoint. A pair of songs that were played back to back were dedicated to her older sister. They included a newly penned song entitled “Drive” and “Out There” from her 1992 self titled, solo album.
A trio of cover songs, “Ode to Billy Joe” (Bobbie Gentry), “Downtown Train” (Tom Waits) and “River Deep, Mountain High” (Ike and Tina Turner) the latter two, which were performed as the encore, were also included in the bands nearly two hour set.
“Goodbye to You” which is undeniably their biggest hit concluded the main set. The crowd, which were seated much of the night rose up to sing and dance their way through the complete song.
Patty was very personable with the crowd and on one occasion came out into the audience to shake hands and meet the people who made up the nights audience. It was quite an evening, seeing Patty perform live is highly recommended for any fan of both her and Scandal.
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