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“We’re all holding up pretty good, huh?” asked Charlotte Caffey early into the Go-Go’s’ performance Wednesday night at the Roxy, where the full, founding fivesome was playing a public show together for the first time in more than seven years. It was unclear whether the guitarist/keyboardist was just referring to the band members, now mostly in their late 60s, or to the more collective us, which included a good amount of O.G. fans, on down to some Go-curious attendees four decades their junior. But the short answer either way was: Good God, yes! That certainly went for the band, sounding as good as they ever have, which is awfully good indeed, and went for the part of the audience that’s been along for the ride, too. To hear vintage girl-power anthems like “Skidmarks on My Heart” and “How Much More” performed that muscularly, was to feel… upheld. (And not just because the packed-beyond-capacity crowd didn’t allow an inch anywhere for slouching.)
The occasion was, as they noted, “wanting to practice our Coachella set,” in advance of the Go-Go’s first appearance ever at that festival Friday (and their second the following weekend). It was also the kickoff to a very short tour, presumably precipitated by the Coachella booking and lasting just long enough — five stops in all — to merit its own T-shirt. These are all bonus shows, apparently, since Belinda Carlisle was saying a couple of years ago that the group was done, having gone out on a high, in her mind, with a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. But fans certainly felt like there was unfinished business, since drummer Gina Schock wasn’t able to participate in their last reunion tour. This short run will be more of a proper finish, if it ends up being that. But let’s hope that there’s some reason after this for Carlisle and the others to still think of things as being unfinished: As the Roxy show made clear, there’s too much tread on those skidmarks to park this thing back in the garage.
Wednesday’s show was bound to have a high sentiment factor beyond celebrating all five Go-Go’s being back together to play publicly for the first time since the beginning of 2018. The asterisk in that is that the group did do a short tour in 2021-22 — but with the famous Blondie drummer Clem Burke sitting in for Schock, who had to sit out gigs due to thumb surgery. Burke died just three days prior to this Roxy gig, and he was tight enough with the Go-Go’s, beyond his quick tenure as an auxilary member, that there was no doubt he’d get some due on-stage. Earlier, bassist Kathy Valentine had written on her Instagram, heartbreakingly: “My best friend. Every variety of love that exists, we had for each other, from romantic to familial. My brother. My constant in all the variables of life… We have over 40 years of history, love, music, vacations, holidays, weddings, birthdays, bands — every facet of my life for decades included Clem.”
Valentine reappeared for the encores Wednesday in a T-shirt bearing Burke’s face, but the band got busy paying tribute before that in the main set. “I really missed Gina,” said Carlisle, but “I loved Clem. He was so much fun to sing to, I can’t tell you. I hope you’re listening, Clem. But I did miss Gina!” she once again adding, not wanting to cherish the dead over the living. Later, Valentine offered the shortest of tributes — presumably wanting to save anything emotional for the essay she’s promised to write — saying, “He was part of our Go-Go family, and we’re gonna miss him but his music will live on forever. Anyone that met Clem loved him — and Gina, I think as a drummer, you should say something.”
“I just want to say that Clem was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known — such a gentleman at all times,” Schock said, rising to stand behind her kit. “An amazing fucking drummer. What a style that guy had. There’s nobody that plays like Clem Burke, nobody. And I was so lucky when I had my thumb surgery that Clem sat in with the band for me. I mean, that’s the kind of guy he was. And I dedicate this whole thing tonight to Clem Burke and the memory of him. God bless you, Clem. You’re an angel, man.”
“Long live Clem Burke,” added Valentine, still holding back on an obvious flood of thoughts, if not tears, for now.
They didn’t have such laudatory words for everyone who came to mind topically this week. Valentine played in front of an amp with the emblem “FUK DJT” prominently displayed on it, and at the end of the show, at walk-off time, Wiedlin closed things out by declaring, “Fuck Trump!” Schock, last off the stage, retook the microphone to add: “Fuck him real hard.”
Maybe that sentiment counts as mainstream enough right now that it’s an overstatement to call it particularly punk-rock. (There were sure a lot of stockbrokers saying it this week.) But the Go-Go’s did seem out to live up to their Masque origins Wednesday, on top of more than competently delivering the well-rehearsed hits. The 13-song main set, which is apparently what they have planned for Coachella, had a couple of semi-obscure album tracks. But, getting to the encores, they were able to go even more far afield, like the 1979 composition “Fun With Ropes.” “This one didn’t make it on the first album,” said Carlisle, wondering aloud why — as if its punkier spirit and the fact that it is a (mild) S&M romp might not fully explain it. Eventually the band banter established that the song might’ve been deemed tricky due to having too many chords, which led to a recollection of Wiedlin having once put tape markers on her guitar as cheats. (“I think I should start putting tape on my guitar again ’cause I can’t remember shit,” she remarked.)
Though the setlist didn’t reveal any new Go-Go’s compositions (they didn’t revive “Club Zero,” the pretty good new song they wrote and performed for their 2020 Showtime documentary), there was one fresh interpolation. “We Got the Beat” turned, for half a minute or so, into Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go,” complete with Wiedlin encouraging the familiar Roan hand gestures on the right side of the stage, a perfectly fine substitute in this case for the pony or watusi.
The other update came with “The Whole World Lost Its Head,” which Carlisle said they had to rewrite every few years to keep it topical, now with refreshed lyrics about TikTok and Instagram. (The singer had a hard time recalling the new words and finally picked up a sheet of paper to read off it, saying, “I have no shame.”)
But for the most part, the Go-Go’s aren’t moving toward whatever 2025 may be about, they’re bringing 2025 to them. And the night after Wet Leg played a similar underplay for a few hundred people in L.A. with a set that revived an era when girls-with-guitars seemed poised to take over the world, the idea of a boyless but not joyless rock group felt as refreshing and mandatory (and, unfortunately, just about as novel) as it did in 1981. Who knows whether their Coachella sets will be attended by thousands of kids who are equally down with what the Go-Go’s can still ferociously deliver — and even be inspirational in that regard — or just deliver the pleasures of old home week for whatever older demos turn up. However buzzy those festival appearances do or don’t turn out to be, a Go-Go’s show this year is its own reward: It’s not just the beat that abides… they’ve still got it.
Go-Go’s setlist at the Roxy in West Hollywood, Calif., April 9, 2025:
VacationToniteSkidmarks on My HeartLust to LoveGet Up and GoAutomaticUnforgivenHead Over HeelsThis TownStuck in My CarThe Whole World Lost Its HeadOur Lips Are SealedWe Got the Beat (w/ Hot to Go)
(encore)Fading FastHow Much MoreFun With RopesCan’t Stop the World
