Row F, Seats
37-39
I liked most
of Culture Club’s singles back in the 80s but was never a diehard fan, so I
didn’t know quite what to expect from their reunion tour. The show – almost two
full hours with no opening act or intermission – actually was very good, with
an extremely enthusiastic although not sold-out crowd. The number of performers
on stage rivaled the size of Lyle Lovett’s “Large Band”; I counted 3 backup
singers, a 3-person horn section, 2 extra percussionists, a keyboard player and
a guitar player in addition to the four core members of the band. They didn’t
pull any punches from the start, getting the crowd on their feet with three of
their biggest hits (“Church Of The Poison Mind”, “It’s A Miracle”, and “I’ll
Tumble 4 Ya”), and keeping us there for “Like I Used To” (a strong cut from
their upcoming Tribes album) and a
reggaefied cover of Bread’s “Everything I Own” (which I subsequently discovered
had been a #1 solo hit for Boy George in England). The rest of the show mixed
familiar and more obscure older material – they eventually got to all of the 8
singles that hit the top 15 stateside, plus Boy George’s title track from The Crying Game – with some additional
tracks from the new album. The other two best new tracks were the
Johnny-Cash-inspired “Runaway Train” (which was the next-to-last song before
the encores) and the first encore, “More Than Silence”. They closed the main
set with “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me” (a phrase that was also prominently
featured on one of the t-shirts available for sale), on which they paused for
maximum effect before kicking the song into gear. After everyone went off, Roy
Hay and bassist Mikey Craig came back and led the cheers to get Boy George and
the rest of the crew back on stage. After “More Than Silence” came the
inevitable “Karma Chameleon”, with the crowd singing along, and finally an
extended cover of T. Rex’s “Bang A Gong (Get It On)”, during which Boy George
introduced everyone on stage.
Yes, there
were Boy George costume changes; I won’t try to keep track of all of them, but
he started out in a patterned red, white, yellow and orange outfit with a black
jacket, wide black tie, and black fedora with a feather, and he was wearing all
black during “Runaway Train”. Fortunately the changes didn’t disrupt the show,
as he typically just made a quick trip offstage while someone did an
end-of-song solo. If you really want more details about the costumes, check out
this review of their earlier show in Bethlehem.
The traffic
map was encouraging enough around 5:00 that we took I-270 to the Beltway rather
than the usual Falls Road route, making it from Westat to the Pike 7 Plaza in a
quick 30 minutes – early enough that we decided to try the Thai restaurant
there (which was good) rather than checking in at Panera. I also got out of the
parking lot much more quickly than usual, getting back home around 10:45.
