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When the Bangles — the all-girl band that recorded “Manic Monday,” “Walk Like An Egyptian” and more big ’80s hits — play the House of Blues tonight, it’ll be a homecoming for Vicki Peterson. The singer-guitarist lived in New Orleans for nine years, performing through much of the ’90s with the local roots-pop collective, the Continental Drifters.
The Drifters have since gone on hiatus and Peterson returned to Southern California in 2002 after marrying John Cowsill, a member of the ’60s singing group, the Cowsills. But she still has deep connections to New Orleans, through her sister-in-law and musical collaborator, Susan Cowsill, and Cowsill’s daughter, who took refuge with her Aunt Vicki in California following Hurricane Katrina.
“She lived with me and went to school here in California,” Peterson said from her home near Los Angeles. “I think she had a really good experience. But I live in a canyon here and I felt bad when, within two weeks of her having to evacuate her home, she and I had to evacuate because a fire was coming through the canyon. Professional evacuees here.”
Peterson is thrilled about her latest visit to New Orleans, in part because the Bangles are making their House of Blues debut.
“It turned out that we had a show in the Memphis area and we were looking to grab some dates around that,” she said. “We’ve never played the House of Blues in New Orleans, which I find hard to believe. I had played it so many times with the Continental Drifters and the Psycho Sisters and various other configurations. So, luckily, we made that happen.”
Peterson misses New Orleans terribly, she said, even the humidity. Her trips to the city since Hurricane Katrina included a Mardi Gras show this year with Susan Cowsill.
“I have enormous respect for the people who chose to remain and rebuild,” Peterson said. “I also understand those who haven’t. I understand the emotional exhaustion that comes with living there every day. The community underwent such a trauma. There are very few examples of that in American history, where an entire population has a common experience of that depth.
“Everybody’s crazy there, but they’re slightly less crazy than they were last year. Which I guess could have been said about New Orleans 10 years ago, but this is a whole different level. It’s important that the rest of the country doesn’t forget that the city still needs help.”
About her time in New Orleans with the Continental Drifters, Peterson said, “it was the right thing at the right time for me. But we’re sort of cast to the four winds now. Not just by Katrina, by life. But I think there’s always gonna be a Continental Drifters. I see us on somebody’s front porch when we’re in our 80s, playing for ourselves, just like we started.”
The series of intensive conversations that led to the Bangles’ reunion began in 1998.
“I was in New Orleans, happily working with the Drifters,” Peterson recalled. “You can probably find quotes from me saying I would never be able to work with the Bangles again because I’d need serious psychotropic medication in order to do that. That’s exactly how I was feeling.”
Peterson also didn’t like the offers for nostalgia-package tours the Bangles got in the late ’90s.
“We have played double bills with other bands from the ’80s, but we’re not interested in doing that circuit,” she said. “Which is why we play places like the House of Blues, where patrons come and hear music and aren’t necessarily coming to relive their glory days of 1986.”
Peterson was determined that a reunited Bangles would make new music as well as play the expected hits.
“I told Susanna (Hoffs) on more than one occasion in 1998, ‘Look, if you and I and Debbi (Peterson) and Michael (Steele) start writing music that’s vital and relevant to us today, that could be interesting.’ Because I always thought the Bangles was a really good band. When we sing together, it’s a distinct sound. I love singing with these women, but I wasn’t interested in constantly rehashing the old stuff.
“We made good records (in the ’80s), but I always preferred the band live. We had a raw edge that we still haven’t lost. My tastes swing that way rather than to smoothed out ’80s production values. If you can dig underneath the productions’ snare sounds and hear the songs and vocal arrangements and find the guitars in the soup, that’s pretty much what we are today.”
The Bangles ironed out their differences by 1999. That same year the group joined other acts and producer George Martin at a Hollywood Bowl concert of Beatles music. The Bangles also cut a song for the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack, recorded a new album in 2003, Doll Revolution (which produced a pop hit in Germany) and, last year, released a holiday song via iTunes. More new recordings, including a children’s record and in-concert DVD, are in the works.
Bassist Michael Steele retired from the group in 2004, but the Hoffs and the Peterson sisters continue to carry the Bangles flame.
“It’s more functional and cohesive than it’s ever had been,” Peterson said. “It runs smoothly, just at a much slower pace, by our choice. We’re kind of making music when we want, which is great. We’re playing to keep ourselves interested and keep the music alive, to get out in front of audiences and make a lot of noise.”
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