`80s explosion for 2013 concert season

Maybe it's not quite an explosion, but the 2013 concert schedule is racking up names that made it big in the `80s faster than you can sing "Cuts Like a Knife." Neighborhood Theatre previously announced Christopher Cross ("Lau-ra," which my dad would sing every time Luke came on screen while I was watching "General Hospital" as a child) will play the NoDa venue January 20. Blumenthal Arts also previously announced the return of Bryan Adams' Bare Bones acoustic tour, this time at Knight Theater.

Yesterday Time Warner Cable Arena announced Bon Jovi will make its return March 5. Yes, Bon Jovi's popularity has never truly wavered over the decades, but it was the `80s that gave us "You Give Love...," "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Wanted Dead or Alive."

To top it off today I got word that one of my favorite `80s ladies, Pat Benatar with her husband Neil Giraldo, are scheduled to play the rather intimate McGlohon Theatre January 22 (if aspiring six-year-old performers/music nuts could have role models, she was it. The 1982 clip above was a favorite). Benatar's show is just two days after Cross, one after Adams, and two days before the `80s-heavy Yacht Rock Revue at Visulite, which covers everything from Cross to Hall & Oates to Boz Scaggs. Sounds like a week for a live-in babysitter (oh, Mo-om?).

Check out individual venues for ticket information and on sale dates. Tickets for most shows are already on sale. Benatar/Giraldo tickets go on sale to the public Saturday, November 24. A sale date for Bon Jovi seats has yet to be announced.