It may have been pure coincidence that temperatures dropped into the high 60s for the first time this season during the last concert of the Memphis Botanic Garden’s “Live at the Garden” summer series Friday night. But it felt intentional, like some higher power was signaling the end of summer during the local outdoor concert series that embodies the season like no other.
And how perfect that Blondie and Cheap Trick co-headlined that finale, and on the last stop of their tour no less. I’ve gone to several of this year’s “Live at the Garden” shows — always toting a large blanket, a few friends, cheap wine, and picnic spread that would make Martha Stewart proud (last night, that spread included homemade vegan sushi and uncheese fondue). But Blondie rules my world, so I knew this show would not disappoint.
It did get off to somewhat of a slow start for me as I’m not at all a fan of Cheap Trick, but I witnessed plenty of Cheap Trick diehards (mostly middle-aged women) sporting shirts bearing the band’s name. To be honest, when I arrived at the show I couldn’t even name one Cheap Trick song.
Once the band got about midway through their set, I recognized “I Want You To Want Me” and “Surrender.” While I enjoyed those hits, the rest of Cheap Trick’s set bored me to the point that I stopped paying attention to them in favor of Facebooking on my iPhone. When they butchered a Beatles song (and I can’t even remember which one as I’m not a Beatles fan either), I gave up on the band entirely.
