Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, one of the most successful husband and wife teams in rock and roll, will give locals a taste of their electric on-stage dynamic when they perform at the Community Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2.
Fans will be treated to a mix of new and classic songs such as "Love is a Battlefield," "Fire and Ice" and "Heartbreaker," belted by power house soprano, Benatar. She'll be accompanied by Giraldo on guitar. The concert is sponsored by the Williamsport Sun-Gazette.
A veteran of the music industry, Giraldo said social media has had a massive impact on how he interacts with an audience. He maintains a personal Facebook page, which he updates regularly. He said the Internet has allowed him to connect with fans in a way that would have been impossible when he rose to fame in the early 1980s.
"I like to preview new stuff on the Internet and let fans get a sneak peek into our lives. I wish I had been able to do that 35 years ago," Giraldo said.
"I mostly documented my life on cassette. I have almost every minute of my life recorded because I write songs every day. But social media has allowed fans to get closer to us than ever before," he added.
Recently, Giraldo mentioned, via Facebook, that he was finishing up a new song, and hoped to have it ready by Halloween. The Sun-Gazette got him to reveal a little more.
"Well, I can tell you the title is 'Vampire Blues' and it's been in development for a while now. It's a simple little song, but I think people are going to like it," Giraldo said.
He added that the Williamsport performance will be one of the first times the song has been played before an audience.
"It's one of the surprises, one of those things that keeps our music vital," Giraldo said.
"I like to do things like take a song and insert a verse or a chorus from different songs, to change things up a bit. Every one of our performances is unique" he added.
The artists have made their careers and marriage work because of that same vital creative energy, Giraldo said.
"We inspire each other, and we have the ultimate respect for one another. We are each other's muse and the fans see that electric dynamic between us when we're on stage," Giraldo said.
"You come down and see us, you're going to be exhausted afterward. You're going to be dripping with sweat, worn out, but you're going to want more," he said.
Giraldo said mixing bits of the old with the new helps to keep performances fresh after more than three decades of playing for audiences across the world.
"We've got a nice cross-section for people. We do a lot of our hits, but there's new stuff that nobody is going to expect," Giraldo said.
"I like to look at people's faces when they hear something they can't place - they look dumbfounded. Then the song comes together, they get into the riffs, and people's heads start bobbing. It's fantastic," he added.
