Last night we got free tickets (THANKS, Robert!!!) for the “Solid Gold Disco Party” concert on Boston’s waterfront, headlined by the Village People, along with various 70s one-offs and minor icons Evelyn “Champagne” King, Maxine Nightingale, the Hues Corporation, Musique, and emceed by Jimmy JJ Walker.
Totally fun, and totally worth the cost of the free ticket! It was basically Karaoke night up there, with the performers doing their signature hit/hits along with a bunch of disco-era numbers. So we got to hear Maxine Nightingale do “Right Back Where We Started From” along with other period tracks, Hues Corporation’s “Rock the Boat” alongside their renditions of similar chart-toppers, etc… It was cool, in that I think everyone was happy to see that, say, Maxine was still getting work!
Best surprise of the night was how strong a performer King was—She sounds better than ever, and really involved the crowd, one of the strangest cross-sections of an audience I have yet to come by—the gay contingent was obviously represented, but there were tons of suburban couples, a much older contingent, and plenty of 20-somethings… Pretty much everyone was on their feet the whole time, and by the time the Village People came out the show had already been going nearly 3 hours..
Okay, the Village People. How crazy is it that these guys have become beloved American icons??? Initially, they were a bunch of guys who responded to an ad to “perform” as gay cultural archetypes that would be the basic concept for this 70s version of the Boy Band; the "visuals" to session musicians... It was an “in-joke” that most of America didn’t even get, and they were all over the airwaves (and TV) in the late-70s, performing songs with double-and-triple-entendres that would never fly on pop radio today. Now, after 30 years and a few personnel changes, they are still performing to packed houses. They have become the Disco Beach Boys. Im sure none of them ever bet what probably sounded like a gag in 1977 would take them through the next 30+ years, essentially performing the same 6 or 7 songs!! To their credit, they were self-depracating and very hammy, and for what seemed like the ultimate guilty pleasure, it was encouraging to know that everyone was in on the joke!
A really fun (and FREE!!) show that brought me back to my elementary school days. In two weeks we have the "Regeneration Tour", with a bunch of 80s acts that will take me back to the 10th grade...The cool thing is that I think these shows are as much fun for the audience as they are for the performers.
Totally fun, and totally worth the cost of the free ticket! It was basically Karaoke night up there, with the performers doing their signature hit/hits along with a bunch of disco-era numbers. So we got to hear Maxine Nightingale do “Right Back Where We Started From” along with other period tracks, Hues Corporation’s “Rock the Boat” alongside their renditions of similar chart-toppers, etc… It was cool, in that I think everyone was happy to see that, say, Maxine was still getting work!
Best surprise of the night was how strong a performer King was—She sounds better than ever, and really involved the crowd, one of the strangest cross-sections of an audience I have yet to come by—the gay contingent was obviously represented, but there were tons of suburban couples, a much older contingent, and plenty of 20-somethings… Pretty much everyone was on their feet the whole time, and by the time the Village People came out the show had already been going nearly 3 hours..
Okay, the Village People. How crazy is it that these guys have become beloved American icons??? Initially, they were a bunch of guys who responded to an ad to “perform” as gay cultural archetypes that would be the basic concept for this 70s version of the Boy Band; the "visuals" to session musicians... It was an “in-joke” that most of America didn’t even get, and they were all over the airwaves (and TV) in the late-70s, performing songs with double-and-triple-entendres that would never fly on pop radio today. Now, after 30 years and a few personnel changes, they are still performing to packed houses. They have become the Disco Beach Boys. Im sure none of them ever bet what probably sounded like a gag in 1977 would take them through the next 30+ years, essentially performing the same 6 or 7 songs!! To their credit, they were self-depracating and very hammy, and for what seemed like the ultimate guilty pleasure, it was encouraging to know that everyone was in on the joke!
A really fun (and FREE!!) show that brought me back to my elementary school days. In two weeks we have the "Regeneration Tour", with a bunch of 80s acts that will take me back to the 10th grade...The cool thing is that I think these shows are as much fun for the audience as they are for the performers.
No comments:
Post a Comment