And tonight’s entertainment is:

You know, at this rate, I’ll have managed to see all those ’80s bands I missed back in high school by the end of this decade…

If Rick Springfield isn’t your thing, perhaps you’d prefer some classical?

That new Journey CD I mentioned a couple days ago is a great summertime listen, but the album I’m really waiting for — man, that feels weird to even think, let alone admit, because this is the first time in a very long time that I’ve actually been anticipating a new music release — is Venus in Overdrive, the latest from my main man, Rick Springfield. It’s not hitting stores and online sellers until July 29, but the first single from it, “What’s Victoria’s Secret,” is already peeking out from behind the curtain: The Girlfriend heard a few seconds of it on the radio yesterday, and I’ve just found the video below. This may or may not be the “official” video — I’m not sure if this is just a performance on some TV show or if this is the actual promo clip made to go with the song — but give it a click anyhow and see what you think:

I like it — there’s a definite “Jessie’s Girl” vibe there, but that’s okay by me, and it suggests that maybe Rick is trying to get back onto the charts after a long time in the wilderness. The press release for Venus confirms that he’s going for a more light-hearted, radio-friendly sound than his recent efforts (shock/denial/anger/acceptance was a great album and a fine artistic achievement, but song titles like “Every Night I Wake Up Screaming,” “Your Psychopathic Mother,” and “Idontwantanythingfromyou” don’t exactly appeal to a mass audience, you know?), with Rick even going so far as to refer to the new album as “Son of Working Class Dog.” Hopefully that’s a good descriptor of what the fans are likely to be hearing shortly: some good-time pop-rock with strong hooks and maybe just a hint of grit around the edges. (Working Class Dog was, of course, Rick’s big breakthrough record, the one that spawned “Jessie’s Girl” and a couple of other singles; it was also the very first LP I ever owned, and lyrically a bit darker and more grown up than most people remember.)
In any event, it’s shaping up to be a great summer, musically speaking at least…

If you’ve been scratching your head all weekend, pondering the meaning of the previous entry, allow me to explain now: on Friday night, The Girlfriend and I went to something that seems to be turning into an annual event for us, a little thing we like to call “the Old Fart Triple-Threat Summer Nostalgia Party-time Concert™.” As you may recall, last year’s line-up consisted of The Stray Cats, The Pretenders, and ZZ Top. This year, it was Cheap Trick, Heart, and Journey. Yes, I’m well aware I have the musical tastes of a mullet-headed, Camaro-lovin’ fifteen-year-old from the year 1985. Did you have a point?

Anyhow, to be honest, we almost didn’t go to this one. We only bought our tickets a week beforehand, following about a month of conversations that were all variants on the theme of, “Do you want to go?” and “I dunno, do you want to go?” What finally clinched it for us was picking up Journey’s latest album, the aptly named Revalation. It’s their first release featuring their new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, and it is, in a word, incredible. Sonically, it could’ve been recorded at the band’s peak 25 years ago, and yet the songs are deeper than anything on Escape or Frontiers — it’s the same old sound, but now coming from a more mature place, and it’s immensely appealing if you like these older bands. I’ve had it on nearly constant rotation in my car the last couple of weeks. Even so, it was Anne — who I must remind everyone was always a New Wave girl back in the day, and is most definitely not an aging rocker like me — who finally said she really wanted to see Arnel live, based on the bonus DVD that comes with Revelation. We managed to find some reasonably decent seats, considering how late we finally made up our minds, and we were off…

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