A Concert Review on Missing Persons’ Dale Bozzio

Thirty years have gone by and their music still sounds beautiful. Dale Bozzio, front person of Missing Persons and the Lady Gaga of her generation, performed all the Missing Persons’ ’80s classic hits – “Words”, “Destination Unknown”, and “Walking in LA” last January 19 at The Coach House. The first song she performed was “Mental Hopscotch”. All through the night she still did her squeaking trademark and her voice still sounds fine and solid. At one point midway thru her concert, Bozzio performed  some tracks from her upcoming album and she had a cheat sheet reading the lyrics while performing. Apparently these songs are so new she has not memorized them yet. Bozzio brought energy to the house with a lot of clapping and dancing from the audience when she started to sing her classics hits. I was talking to one of the audience members and she told me, she started listening to Missing Persons when she was in 6th grade and I told her I was about 13 and here we are in our ’40s and watching her perform. That is one of the great things about watching the music you grew up with. It makes you reminisce about your wonder years and it’s a wonderful feeling.

During their heydays I vividly remember how Dale would revealingly dressed. She had a wild sense of style. Acrylic bras became her signature mark. But when I saw her at The Coach House this past weekend it was totally the opposite. She donned an oversized black blazer jacket over a maroon top and black pants which are totally a far cry from her ’80s style.

The concert was only an hour. I was disappointed when she didn’t sing “Give.” Within that hour, every time she got the chance, she always thanked her fans for supporting her all these years. After her final thank you and bow with the band, the audience thought she would come back for an encore but the room lit up. The concert was short but reliving my tween years and seeing Dale perform her New Wave hits was a lot of fun.