Just when you thought the 1980s had vanished, doomed to air countless times as cheap filler on a similarly doomed music TV station, it victoriously remerges with one of its most recognizable faces: Billy Idol. The fact that Billy Idol is still touring and doing shows almost 20 years after his fame peaked brings just one question to mind. What can one expect to find during a present-day Billy Idol concert? If last Friday's concert at the Fleet Boston Pavilion was any indication you can probably find hordes of people old enough to currently be in stage five of their mid-life crises dancing wildly, a charming snarl once capable of turning girls to unfunctioning gelatinous blobs, and a man pumping one fist in the air while pumping the other in a lewd manor.

When Billy Idol sauntered onto stage he looked surprisingly similar to his 80s image. Dressed in black leather, chains dangling from his waist, and with a black grommet around his wrist the only noticeable difference in his outward appearance were a few wrinkles on his forehead and a shorter and far less spiky haircut. Otherwise Idol looked his old self and was up to his old on-stage antics. On the very first song of his set it took Idol less then 30 seconds to begin making masturbatory gestures. The crowd did not seem nearly as excited by this as Idol probably thought they would be and as they probably once were.

Although the second song in his set was the once wildly popular single "Dancing with Myself," Idol seemed to have trouble generating much energy onstage. The audience was far from yawning but their lack of excitement was a telling sign that they expected more from the pop-music icon standing before them. It took Idol a while to get the crowd motivated but by the third song he had finally kicked into full gear and was delivering the excess demanded by a crowd who seemed hungry for the decadence of the 80s.

This was Billy Idol in best form. He strutted around the stage shaking his hips and pumping his fists into the air countless different ways. He did all this while glaring at the audience with his signature snarl and stopping every now and then to flirt with a girl in the front row. During the course of the concert Idol would make four costume changes, and at least two cunnilingus references. Most of the hipsters in the crowd (the under-30 contingency) seemed less than impressed with Idol's stage tricks, but then again nothing is more uncool to a hipster than showing visible happiness or excitement. All but the most diehard Billy Idol hipster fans in the crowd remained stiff and bored looking for the entirety of the concert. Meanwhile, the older adults in the crowd seemed thrilled with Idol's performance. With each progressive song the soccer moms and insurance salesmen dads danced a little harder and punched their clenched fists in the air with more intensity to mimic Idol.

About an hour into the concert Idol's energy seemed to plateau, possibly due to the largely unknown and slower-paced songs he began playing. These slower songs interested few, hipster or otherwise. At this point in his set the lead guitarist was getting more stage time than Idol. Idol would often disappear off-stage and leave the guitarist to do a solo. The guitarist was amazingly talented and he did an interesting Latin-like number that drew much applause from the crowd. Yet many in the crowd breathed an audible sigh of relief when Idol picked up the pace once more and launched into his hit "White Wedding."

He began the song softly and slowly until the first time he sang the lyrics "start again." These words were not actually sung but were screamed at full volume. If anyone at the Pavilion was uncertain that Idol could still hold a lengthy note his yell of "start agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!" surely silenced all doubt. From this point until the end of the concert Idol maintained a high-energy performance so that by the time he ended the concert with a fierce version of "Rebel Yell" nearly the entire crowd was on the feet screaming. The noise of applause was deafening and many people, hipsters included, could be seen covering their ears.

Overall Billy Idol gave a very entertaining, if somewhat unbalanced, show. There were many times where if you closed your eyes you could almost imagine it was still the 80s. For a somewhat forgotten icon of the 1980s it might not have been a "nice day to start again" but Idol certainly proved he still can rock.