WILMINGTON — Celebrating 43 years of making music together, 2022 Rock N Roll Hall of Fame inductees Pat Benatar and husband and collaborator Neil Giraldo amped up the Wilson Center last week. Fans danced and sang along for over two hours through 18 songs.
It was a set heavy on Benatar classics, “Hell is for Children” and “Love Is a Battlefield,” but also included numerous covers. Other ’80s hits, like John Mellencamp’s “I Need a Lover” and Rattling Sabres “All Fired Up,” were performed early in the set.
Benatar and Giraldo also took it back four decades to other rock and country hits, including the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” and Johnny and June Cash’s “Ring of Fire” — the latter backended by Benatar’s Hot 100 Billboard hit “Heartbreaker,” played as part of the couple’s encore.
A four-time Grammy winner, Benatar and Giraldo played effortlessly, a partnership that has matured without losing its edge. Benatar — referred to as “Patricia” by her husband — still delivers a pitch-perfect mezzo-soprano rasp that has aged well in 69 years, as Giraldo’s fingers run through guitar solos aplenty.
The duo packed the biggest punch with 1985’s “Invincible.” The song — thematic of the 1980’s film “The Legend of Billie Jean” — holds new meaning in an overturned Roe vs. Wade world.
“This is for my sisters in the audience,” Benatar said. “Bad shit always happens, but we manage to get out of it.”
Below is the setlist from the show with photos taken by Chad Keith.
Setlist
No You Don’t (The Sweet cover)
I Need a Lover (John Mellencamp cover)
All Fired Up (Rattling Sabres cover)
We Live for Love
Strawberry Wine
We Belong (Lowen & Navarro cover)
In the Heat of the Night (Smokie cover)
Promises in the Dark
River of Love
Purgatory
Invincible
Shadows of the Night (Helen Schneider cover)
Hell Is for Children
You Better Run (The Young Rascals cover)
Love Is a Battlefield
Encore:
Helter Skelter (The Beatles cover)
Everybody Lay Down
Heartbreaker / Ring of Fire / Heartbreaker
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