The Go-Go’s at the Mayo in Morristown: They still got the beat

“Concert” probably isn’t the right word to describe the Go-Go’s June 1 show in Morristown.

From the first notes of Vacation, fans were on their feet, and if the Mayo Performing Arts Center had allowed drinks inside, the place would have felt like the Famished Frog on a Saturday night.

It certainly was as loud as the Frog.  We’re talking tarmac loud, singe-the-hair-off-your-eyebrows loud, loud enough to overpower over-the-counter earplugs.

Casual fans will remember the Go-Go’s signature hits as bubbly pop confections, set to MTV videos of California party girls cruising topless (automotively speaking) in search of adventure. But their roots were in the punk scene of the late 1970s, and they have the decibels to prove it on this aptly titled Ladies Gone Wild tour.

The tour celebrates the 30th anniversary of the band’s wildly successful debut album, Beauty and the Beat. Though they would never scale those heights again–the Go-Go’s released just three albums in the ’80s, and one studio album since–they did make the record books as the first all-female band to top the charts performing their own music.

They brought their “classic” lineup to the Mayo: Spunky rhythm guitarist Jane Wiedlin, still spinning like a top despite serious knee injuries from a hiking accident last year; Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboard, Kathy Valentine on bass, Gina Schock on drums and of course, lead vocalist Belinda Carlisle, fresh off a critically acclaimed memoir and a 2009 stint in Hairspray on the London stage.

It’s hard to say how Belinda sounded; she was somewhere in the din as the Go-Go’s roared through most of Beauty and the Beat.  The set list included Our Lips Are Sealed (still so infectious that the Centers for Disease Control should quarantine it), How Much More, Tonite, This Town, Automatic and We Got the Beat (leading the first of two short encore sets).

Clocking in at just under 90 minutes, with encores, the show also featured Belinda’s solo hit Mad About You and Jane’s Cool Places, written for Sparks in 1983.

The band’s other albums were represented by an encore rendition of Head over Heels from the 1984 Talk Show; The Whole World Lost its Head, recorded for the Return to the Valley of the Go-Go’s compilation in 1994, and Unforgiven, from the 2001 CD God Bless the Go-Go’s.

Fun With Ropes, the evening’s last song, got cut from Beauty and the Beat. Too racy for the record company, according to Belinda.

Another highlight was a 200 mph cover of Mother’s Little Helper. The Rolling Stones’ ode to self-medication could have come straight from the pages of Lips Unsealed, Belinda’s 2010 book chronicling her long struggles with cocaine, alcohol and eating disorders.

If one Go-Go stood out, it was Gina Schock, whose fearsome pounding on the skins drove the whole enterprise. You can debate the group’s legacy. But these ladies deserve credit for refusing to succumb to the drum machines that laid waste to the ’80s music scene like electronic locusts.

And the Go-Go’s should be applauded for having the courage to face the music as mature women, on what initially was envisioned as their “Farewell Tour.”

A parade of male nostalgia acts has shuffled through the Community Theatre, er, the MPAC, playing to forgiving boomers who don’t mind extra pounds and lower keys. Male performers are lucky that way. Actors and crooners grow more “distinguished” as they age; actresses and divas have to write books.

You don’t see many 50-something “girl bands.” Once again, the Go-Go’s are breaking new ground. They won’t go quietly into the night. Wednesday’s huge audience seemed grateful.

God bless the Go-Go’s.