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    MTV pioneer

    Voice power: Pat Benatar trumps both Cyndi Lauper & Madonna in singing talent

    Michael D. Clark
    Aug 13, 2010 | 7:48 am

    Even in her 1980s heyday Pat Benatar didn't have the most hits or the highest-charting singles. Her career under the hot lights of Top 40 radio was relatively short-lived compared to peers like Madonna and Cyndi Lauper.

    (Oh no! I am not revving the engine of yesterday's '80s pop queen debate back to life again today. You can't make me.).

    Hell, Benatar never even had a No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts (the closest she got was No. 5, twice, with 1983's "Love Is a Battlefield," and 1984's "We Belong").

    But there's something about that Dorothy Hamill-meets-Joan Jett hairdo, and sexy, oh girl underbite when growling early MTV hits like "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "Shadows of the Night," that makes the 1980s seem less of the big-shouldered, mullet-sportin' nightmare that it actually was.

    Take a listen to all '80s pop queens and it's not hard to surmise that, on voice talent alone, Benatar has them all beat. She grew up being vocally trained to sing theatrically and even had plans to attend Juilliard.

    Then the Rolling Stones worked their way through her radio speakers and right into her soul. The rest is rock 'n' roll history.

    Had Benatar not hit the peak of her fame at the dawn of MTV most of us may have never known who she was. Thankfully a savvy film director captured her songs and delivered them to the upstart music network that was in dire need of 24-hour content.

    (I wonder if that Benatar video producer feels akin to the inventor of the atom bomb as he watched MTV evolve from actually airing music videos to destroying the brand with shows like 16 and Pregnant and Jersey Shore?)

    So, as you enjoy Benatar's 30-plus year career retrospective at the House of Blues Friday night, remember that there is a reason that so many of her songs continue to haunt the FM radio station dial to this day.

    It's because her voice was great and the songs have stood the test of time.

    If Billboard had a Durability 100 Chart Benatar would have nabbed her elusive No. 1 single long ago.

    Pat Benatar, 8 p.m. Friday at House of Blues

    Tickets: $27.50-$55

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    Metallica concert review

    Heavy metal legends Metallica roll into Houston with thunderous riffs

    Craig Hlavaty
    Jun 15, 2025 | 12:59 am
    Metallica concert Houston NRG Stadium 2025
    Photo by Brittaney Penney
    Metallica played a career-spanning set on June 14, 2025.

    Heavy metal is a baton that has been passed on for generations now. Now, more than ever, metal has turned into family entertainment. On Saturday night at NRG Stadium, the Metallica family reunion left ears ringing and hearts full, with a few scorch marks from hellacious pyro.

    Metallica — 44 years into this — is a frenetic, multigenerational machine. Four gray hairs from San Francisco that can still pack out a football stadium. The current lineup of James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo is the longest-running one in the band’s history.

    Hetfield’s frenzied screech from 1981 is now a smoky, barrel-chested growl. Hammett’s metallic, exploratory guitar lines are a part of the metal vocabulary, and Trujillo — still the new guy — has been the sturdy thunder below it all. Urlich’s reliable drumming is its stadium-honed heart.

    Openers Suicidal Tendencies and Pantera provided direct support, with ST serving as a bracing thrash appetizer. Keeping it all in the family, Trujillo’s 21-year-old son Tye is now playing bass for ST, just as Robert did in the ‘90s. The band’s set whizzed by before most fans were able to enter the building, but those who arrived early witnessed a masterclass in ‘80s hardcore thrash.

    Texas sludge legends Pantera have been celebrating the lives of departed brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul since the group reformed in 2022. Collapsing in acrimony in 2001, the band and its fans never got a proper sendoff, and, with the violent shooting death of Dimebag and Paul’s death due to heart disease, the current lineup only features two original members in lead singer Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown. Guitar hero Zakk Wyle, stepping into Dimebag’s shoes, is a Hall Of Fame avatar for Dimebag, perhaps the only living human that could have delivered the appropriate riffs. Anthrax’s Charlie Benante now handles drumming duties.

    It’s 2025, and I’m watching a Pantera pit on the floor of NRG Stadium from a comfortable seat in the end zone. Anselmo, seemingly ageless, stalked Metallica’s sprawling, jaggedly circular stage barefoot and howling, splitting the difference between Henry Rollins and Rob Halford. Heathen anthems “Walk” and “Cowboys from Hell” still slice with precision, just as they sounded in the adjacent Astroarena in 1995.

    Before Metallica hit the stage around 9 pm, bored fans passed the time by doing the wave in NRG Stadium, but it only made a few laps before fizzling out.

    Kicking off with “Creeping Death” from 1984’s Ride The Lightning, Metallica reveled in rumbling NRG Stadium’s foundations.

    “For Whom The Bell Tolls” sounds as apocalyptic as ever, one of the early highlights of the night. The band has embraced it’s Load and Reload era recently, with the latter’s “The Memory Remains” and “Fuel” making setlist appearances. The crowd deftly filled in for the late Marianne Faithfull during the former. There’s still a lot of love for ‘90s eyeliner Metallica.

    Metallica’s 2023 album 72 Seasons saw the quartet reconvening for a loose and unrelenting collection of songs. “Lux Æterna” and “If Darkness Had a Son” have a slithery swing to them, borne from those famous Metallica jam sessions that sometimes appear on YouTube.

    1991’s “Nothing Else Matters” is still a romantic ballad for metalheads, a Gen X wedding staple.

    Few hard rock bands can still pack a football stadium in 2025, which makes Metallica among the last of a dying breed. All in their early ‘60s, they’re not unlike a performance hot rod team with 30 or so souped-up machines in the garage that only they know how to drive. They just have to take a few more breaks than they used to in between laps. Those four guys together still make magic via extremely loud noises.

    Closing out with “Master of Puppets and “Enter Sandman,” Metallica pushed Houstonians out into a humid Saturday night, covered in each other’s sweat, looking forward to the next Metallica family reunion.

    Setlist

    Creeping Death
    For Whom the Bell Tolls
    Ride the Lightning
    The Memory Remains
    Lux Æterna
    If Darkness Had a Son
    Kirk and Rob Doodle ("Hit the Lights" and ZZ Top's "La Grange")
    The Day That Never Comes
    Fuel
    Orion
    Nothing Else Matters
    Sad but True
    One
    Seek & Destroy
    Master of Puppets
    Enter Sandman

    Metallica concert Houston NRG Stadium 2025
      

    Photo by Brittaney Penney

    Metallica played a career-spanning set on June 14, 2025.

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