Thanks to my sister’s eagle-eyed husband, I scored an inexpensive ticket to the local stop of the True Colors Tour, headlined by Miss True Colors herself, Cyndi Lauper. I’ve had my head buried underneath a few begonias, I’ll admit, because I didn’t know anything about the tour’s existence let alone that it was organized to support the Human Rights Campaign.
It was delightfully gay-lapalooza at the SDSU Open Air Theater, although only a little over half of the seats were filled. No matter. I missed the first band, The Cliks, but you could have knocked me over with a feather when the voice of none other than Margaret Cho reached my ears all the way back in the restroom. I was in one of those stalls where the door just won’t stay shut, so you’re forced to adjust your clothes and take care of your ladyparts one-handed, or if the stall isn’t too deep you can alternate between pressing your hand and your head against the door to keep it closed while you sit, stand, and then shimmy your jeans back up over your rear to get them zipped again — all the while hunched over and developing a headache. It’s awkwardness with either method, to be sure. So in the middle of all of this manuveuring I heard her: Cho was the emcee! She’s so beautifully vulgar, smart, funny, and real, and I was thrilled to finally hear (and then see, once I escaped the broken stall) her perform live for the first time.
Next up were the Dresden Dolls, whom I love, and they ended their set with a great cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs”. Debbie Harry followed and played mostly new material. She had some nicely catchy tunes, but a tiny little part of me was disappointed that she didn’t break out with “Heart of Glass” at some point. What’s a girl supposed to do?
…wait for Erasure, of course. Despite the addition of three backup singers that I’m not sure were really needed — Andy Bell can handle vocals on his own, really, and he sounded great — it was a long, fun set of one danceable song after another: older hits (”Chains of Love”, “Oh, L’Amour”, “Love to Hate You”, “Sometimes”, “A Little Respect”) and newer material (”Sunday Girl”, “I Could Fall in Love With You”).
Cho followed with a skit about a married couple in San Francisco rapping about their dispute with a neighbor that left everyone doubled-over before she introduced the night’s final performer. Lauper is high energy and has an amazing voice: twice she headed out into the audience — singing all the while — and her voice sounded perfect, plus she was dancing and running around the stage for most of her set and never sounded winded or flawed. I especially enjoyed her slower, laid-back version of “She Bop”. The show wrapped up when all the performers took the stage to sing ABBA’s “Take a Chance on Me” and to back up Lauper on “True Colors”.
Highlight of the evening: A guy tripped all over himself and spilled beer on my hair — it’s never looked so shiny or full, thanks.
Some places to visit:
Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
Matthew Shepard Foundation
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