There’s something in the way Belinda Carlisle moves that seems to distort time. As the final notes of Do You Feel Like I Feel? fade, she turns with a pirouette and a flick of her bare feet from beneath the spangliest of skirts. Suddenly, we’re no longer in South Wales while a rugby international day reaches its puke-and-chips phase, but in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, watching as the singer of the Go-Go’s brings puckish, punk spirit to glittering major-label pop.
This synapse-triggering muscle memory is key to Carlisle’s lean, focused set, which shines a light on solo work that has at times been enveloped by the shadow cast by her band, who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as recently as 2021. It’s an approach that’s welcomed with open arms. By the time the opening chord of (We Want) The Same Thing has been struck, the seated crowd is on its feet and, bar a few posterior-plantings during the night’s ballads, they stay there.
