Bringing in the New Year with The Bangles

Last night, we welcomed in the New Year with the Bangles (and 3000+ others) at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki.

While the crowd warmed up slowly, the band didn't.
The girls opened with "Hazy Shade of Winter" - my personal favorite Bangles song - and "Manic Monday".

They then rocked through a tight 75 minute set full of hits.

After a pause for the New Year's countdown, we got to "Walk Like an Egyptian". A little light prodding from the audience then brought Susanna (pictured in this shot I took last night), Vickie, and Debbie back out for "Eternal Flame" to end the show.

The Bangles were, I have to say, excellent. They had a lot of energy. The rhythm was tight. And the harmonies were, well, Bangle-esque. I mean, you can only compare the Bangles harmonies to the Bangles... right?

When I was putting together a band a few years ago, I made of list of the 'perfect parts' - sort of a Frankenband if you will. Near the top of the list was 'Bangle-esque Harmonies'.

Back to last night, though: We received two free bottles of champagne - which was probably one too many - but we walked them off with a journey to Waikiki Denny's.

A tropical downpour opened up while we were eating, making the walk look like a bad decision. Fortunately, it stopped just as we stepped out of the restaurant (with Denny's, I use that term loosely - the less said about the bacon and sausage there, the better).

We then had a nice walk up the beach and were back to our room at 3am.

It was a great night and a memorable way to kick off the new year.

Hope you all had a great night!