feelingrandy

Cyndi Lauper’s True Color’s Tour is a very gay experience. “The tour is a nonstop, five-hour music party with a message,” Lauper says in a prepared statement. “So let’s celebrate and have fun this summer while we spread the word to get out the vote and all become a part of the changes in this country.” The tour features the B-52’s, comic Wanda Sykes, Andy Bell of Erasure, The Dresden Dolls, The Cliks and giggling host Carson Kressley. Missing in action was the female equivalent of a bear, Rosie O’Donnell and Britney Spears. This was five and a half hour concert held in the lush fire-hazardous Greek Theatre. An open-air theatre, the Greek is an intimate venue, and the setting was perfect for what was eventually to become a party.
The B-52s are America’s answer to Abba. This is rocking feel-good music that is hard to sit still to. After thirty years, the band has lost none of its gloss. The members, all now in their 50s and 60s are energetic and the music seems strangely current. They sailed through the hits, Rock Lobster, Love Shack and the delightful, Roam, as Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson sang complex harmonies only to be eased by Fred Schneider’s nasal sprechgesang (spoken-word) vocalese. Their music is ultimately West Coast borrowing images and sounds that reflect the bizarre mix of surf, modernism, retro and pop cultures.
In between “fashion expert” Carson Kressley hosted the show with some offbeat humor that often slipped into bad taste, though he managed to deliver a few very funny lines about giving a hand job with some expensive moisturizer.
The real star was Cyndi Lauper, who at age 54, was literally all over the place. The real secret of Cyndi Lauper is that she is a great singer; full of various styles and textures: she has musical range. Musical charisma and most of all, energy. Many, many years ago, I did a cover photo shoot with Ms. Lauper, ironically, of her as Lady Liberty (see photo) for an anniversary in New York City.  I was putting on a record (yes dears, a record, vinyl) of Gypsy, and out of the corner came this big voice, it was Cyndi singing. She sang the entire “Everything’s Comin’ Up Roses”.  This was not the voice of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”; this was Broadway, Ethel Merman, it filled and rocked the room. And that is what she did last night, she rocked the house, she wandered up the aisles, shook hands, blew kisses, strummed a dulcimer or autoharp, a guitar and kicked ass on many a reinterpretation of her older songs. Her version of  “Time After Time” performed on an autoharp (reminiscent of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You) seemed to consist of two chords and provided a lush foundation for her soaring vocals. This was a magical moment. She ended the show with the anthem “True Colors” as all the performers took to the stage and sang the song in unison as dozens of colorful balloons were released into the air.

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