George Michael @ Honda Center

Well it must be the '80s old home week (fortnight, month...) here on the blog, 'cause you're going to get my review of the George Michael concert I went to a little over a week ago right after a blog about Madonna. All we need now is for Michael Jackson to do something newsworthy and the hat trick will be complete.

I've gotten some complaints here on the blog that I never blog about the concerts I go to. I don't really know why that is. Maybe because in most of the cases I already know that my poor descriptive skills would never bring those experiences to life; you really just had to be there. In this particular case, I'll give it a whirl.

Like most everything I do nowadays, I went to this concert for the nostalgia, and to assuage a deep wound from childhood. I still remember where I was the first time I heard "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go": Ogden, UT, Summer 1984 (that electric year) at my aunt's condo. Outside, her neighbor was blaring it from the garage as he worked on his car. I wouldn't go so far as to say George Michael was this particular "school girl's pride and joy", but I knew I liked the song, although I wasn't too sure about the feathered hair, the butt shorts and the t-shirts with the big cuffed sleves that went along with it.

And of course, the shame I felt when I asked my dad to buy me the Faith CD at The Warehouse in 1987, he took one look at "I Want Your Sex" on the track listing on the back and said, "Your're dreamin'." So when a certain girl at school (7th grade) let it be known that she had an extra ticket to his concert that year, but that she would decide at the end of the week who would get to go with her, I didn't fall into that sycophantic frenzy. Not because I was preternaturally adult for such a young age, but because I knew there was no way my parents would ever let me go (some how I forgot that lesson in 9th grade when my friend invited me to go that cultural landmark that made underwear permanently outerwear, Madonna's Blonde Ambition Tour, but the results were as predictable as the setting of the sun in the west: DENIED!)

I am such a gasbag...I shouldn't have to EXPLAIN my rationale for going to this concert to you people. I went with my sister "Peep-Bo" and we had fantastic seats; if you imagine the arena as an ellipse, the stage was one foci and we were at the other. Usually one of the best parts of going to any concert is seeing the types of people the crowd attracts. The people watching was surprising in that the demographic skewed to mostly older heterosexual couples, which I never would have guessed. Very minimal representation by the gays, which almost disqualifies this concert from being a stop on the gay man's musical tour (previous stops have included Liza Minnelli, Celine Dion (I didn't go to that one, I refused and still do.) Diana Ross, and yes Madonna) that my sisters and I are participating in.

And then there was George. The show started 45 minutes late and he was oddly in sunglasses through the whole performance, but that same ego drove us to two encores (my first at a concert), so in the end I didn't care. The mixes of the songs were dancy and fun and he had a fabulous digital screen that draped over the stage like a backdrop from a photo shoot, so that it was both floor and wall. The graphics on it were gorgeously integrated with the songs. So for the surprisingly many songs of his he sang that I did not know (the newer stuff), the inanity of the lyrics ("Outside, outside, let's go outside...") were for the most part obscured by the visuals.

Dita von Teese was featured on the video wall in various crazy awesome burlesque costumes for the song "Feeling Good". I kind of didn't get it though, to be honest. I've never really believed that GM is bisexual as he has claimed (he also sang to visuals of the weddings of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly and some snippets of Elizabeth Taylor....uh, GAY!) I just can't figure it out. And Dad, he' didn't sing "I Want Your Sex".