Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders Still Rock Harder Than You

Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders made their return to the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory onTuesday. It was their first time to play in DFW for seven years.

Hynde is famously from Ohio, but moved to London to work as a music journalist in 1973. She was jamming with early versions of the Sex Pistols and The Damned, and when she formed The Pretenders in 1978, Mick Jones and Sid Vicious were in the lineup. When those members were "borrowed" to form their respective legendary punk bands, Hynde pushed through, and the first Pretenders were born. In 1980, their self-titled album came out and was a critical and commercial success. Sadly, after the second album, original guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon died due to drug abuse.

The Pretenders were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. The band's continued success through the years has been, no question, solely because of the iconic Chrissie Hynde. She has formed the band so many times, you'd think it might start sounding a litle tired. That could not be further from the truth. Unlike some other classic bands with new members, Hynde has always been the heart and soul of The Pretenders, so it's no surprise that while she's the last original member, she's also the reason everyone came out on Tuesday night.

The current Pretenders lineup is very much the real deal, and kept up with Hynde's energy and star power. Hynde and the band hit the dimly lit stage, greeting a mostly filled venue, albeit with the lawn section closed. This tour has already featured 10 sold-out shows, so it might just be a Dallas thing.

Hynde addressed the mostly mature crowd, "I didn't think I'd see so many older folks. Actually, I did! We all just keep on keeping on."

The latest version of The Pretenders consists of James Walbourne on lead guitar, bassist Dave Page and drummer Kris Sonne. This band was simply fantastic, setting a dynamic bed for Hynde to lie atop, ranging from hard-rocking riffs to serene ballads (OK, they may have rocked the ballads, too), but it definitely worked.

After one of Walbourne's early electrifying solos, Hynde joked, "You didn't see that at the opening of the Olympics ceremony." This band did more than justice to these beloved songs.

The main attraction was Hynde, and she did not disappoint. Her trademark alto vibrato soared above the music all night. At 72, she rocked harder than a lot of young dudes, and she was frickin' cool.

The setlist was a walk down memory lane, mixing songs from most of The Pretenders' albums with a heavy focus on their 2023 release Relentless, and their highly successful Learning to Crawl. The first classic song of the night, which incidentally was the first single the band released in 1979, was "Kid," which Hynde dedicated to her late band members Honeyman-Scott and Farndon.

A stand-out song early in the set was the classic "Time The Avenger." The upbeat track was first played at The Bronco Bowl in 1983 and seemed to be the song that enabled that part of the audience still getting acclimated to become totally engaged with the show.

Another timeless classic in a night of scattered classics came next. "My City Was Gone" is a biographical song Hynde wrote when she returned home to find developments had taken over.

Hynde remarked, "It's about my hometown, Akron, but if you go across the country, it could be any city."

Another stand-out was a rockabilly version of "Thumbelina," also off Learning To Crawl.

Walbourne went into a galactic time warp and let it all go onstage, bringing everyone to their feet. Hynde kept up the hits off that album, asking a rhetorical question, "What do you want us to play? OK, thought so!" leading into one of the band's biggest hits, "Back on the Chain Gang."

Hynde and the band played almost two hours, deftly mixing in the old favorites with some newer, lesser-known songs. The band played two multi-song encores.

Hynde, the first true "rocker chick," has still got "it," and then some. She did not need to change the key of any songs to make the notes easier to reach, she just effortlessly sang like she always has, and it was gorgeous.

On Tuesday night at the Pavillion, Chrissie Hynde's singular and unique voice blended masterfully with hard-rocking guitar and a punk-rock flair, reminding us why we loved her and The Pretenders in the first place, and why we still do.