I never saw The Bangles live in person. Pity. They may be the singular greatest all-female rock band ever. The gals had good chops in both playing and singing. What, to me, puts them in rate air is they combined it with excellent song-craft, both in covers and originals.
I'm going to preface this with my experience over the past several days. I've been watching some 2024 Glastonbury concerts as presented by the BBC. Shania Twain was off and it didn't help that there was apparent miming to a backing track. Avril Lavigne brought it, but there's a kind of one-dimensional sameness that falls short of what is greatness to me. The Bangles are flat-out great. This concert is ample evidence. They're really singing and really playing, they harmonize amazingly and the instrumental part is spot-on tasty and rocking. I'm talking about this performance which was originally shown on MTV.
I do not believe the concert here was ever properly released commercially on DVD. That means today we must see it in a somewhat lesser quality form likely on YT. Nevertheless it is well worth seeking out (you can still find bootleg DVD-R copies around) because it a special moment captured. Still raw enough, but definitely at this stage quite polished they have it all and can perform it live.
These gals were so talented. They had immaculate senses of writing original and owning the covers they tackled. There's a bit of that both here making it rise up to quite an entertaining level. I have hopes someday a pristine version of this concert will somehow see the light of day. It is simply fantastic.
