Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 | 8:43 a.m.
Who: Pat Benatar
When: Friday
Where: Mandalay Bay Beach
Rating (out of 5 stars): 3 stars
With roughly 2 1/2 decades of touring behind her, Pat Benatar doesn't experience many concert firsts.
She ran across one Friday night at Mandalay Bay Beach, when she spied the crowd of 2,500, much of it waist-deep in the venue's wave pool.
"What is up with this water?" Benatar asked between songs early in the show. "I've been playing for 25 years, but I have never played to an audience in water before."
Benatar, one-time queen of 1980s radio rock, continued to marvel at the unusual scene at her feet throughout her 90-minute set, chatting with her fans.
"Are your feet getting all wrinkly and stuff?" she asked at one point, then later hammed it up with her husband, guitarist Neil Giraldo.
"Don't jump in," she cautioned Giraldo, to which he responded: "I'm not gonna jump in. I'm just wondering when they're gonna replace the water with beer."
The bulk of the near-capacity crowd reacted warmly to the duo's silly married-couple comedy routine, mainly because it was accompanied by an entertaining musical performance by Benatar and her four-piece band.
It made for a fun evening on the beach, not to mention a solid value by Las Vegas standards, modestly priced at less than $40.
The 50-year-old Benatar proved that she still has the powerful pipes that made her famous. Sporting sandy-blonde hair and dressed more demurely than in her headband-and-heavy-eye shadow early years, she performed most of her best-known songs, along with a sampling of more recent material.
Surprisingly, some of Benatar's biggest hits worked the least, in part because of some strange new arrangements of her oldest tunes.
She sang the a-capella intro to "Shadows of the Night" in a different key than on its familiar album version, while the chorus to "We Live for Love" never jumped up to its usual high octave.
Giraldo also made it tough on fans trying to dance and sing along with their favorite numbers, adding flashy metallic guitar leads to "Invincible" and "Hell Is for Children."
Benatar appeared quite satisfied with her husband's work, playing along on her own air guitar on several occasions. Many in the audience seemed less thrilled, however, including one man who noted loudly that Giraldo "soloed in every single song" on his way out.
Thankfully, the band cut the electricity for a sweet, acoustic rendition of "Love Is a Battlefield," the concert's indisputable highlight. Only Benatar and Giraldo remained onstage for the performance, after which the couple shared a quick peck on the lips.
Unexpectedly, Benatar and her band left their most lasting impression with songs most of the audience had never heard before, music from the vocalist's less successful 1990s albums and her most recent CD, "Go," which was released last week.
"Girl" and "Sorry" were two promising new rockers, each with a hint of angst. The bluesy "True Love" presented a more organic side of the ensemble while "River of Love" carried on the concert's aquatic theme.
The crowd also enjoyed a beefy four-song encore, capped by hits "Promises in the Dark," "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "All Fired Up." This time around, Benatar presented her singles the way her fans remembered them, sending the crowd home happy, sandy, and in many cases, a bit wet.
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