True Colors in Columbus

The True Colors tour came through Columbus Thursday night and we went, making it our first concert event in ten years or so--the last one was Raffi or Manhattan Transfer. [My honey reminds me that it was actually The B-52's, which was only about 4 or 5 years ago] The point of the tour seemed to be twofold: 1) as a political action effort to support the Human Rights Campaign and the Matthew Shepherd Act, a hate crime bill currently under consideration in the Senate, and 2) as a way for some 80's acts with large gay followings to get some exposure. The turnout here, at the Schottenstein Center on the OSU campus, was small, with the arena half-empty; if they have arrived a week earlier while classes were still in session, I imagine they would have attracted a larger crowd.

We got there a bit late and missed most of a set by the punk-cabaret duo Dresden Dolls, though I liked what I heard (a song called "Coin-Operated Boy") and what I saw (the male member of the duo, Brian Viglione, shirtless and sweaty, pounding the shit out of his drums).


Debbie Harry, one of my 80's idols as lead singer of Blondie, was next, and though she sounded good, she disappointed the crowd by only doing solo material, mixing older stuff with songs from an upcoming album, Necessary Evil. Let's face it, she's never really taken off as a solo act, and I speak as one who does in fact own some of her solo work. She did "French Kissin' in the USA" and "Rush Rush," but I was sorry that she didn't do my own faves "In Love with Love" and "Brite Side." The new songs sounded good, but would it have killed her to close with "One Way or Another" or "Atomic"?

Though Cyndi Lauper was the headliner, and the person who put the tour together, the climax of the show for me was seeing Erasure, the synth-pop, dance-music duo who keep making music as though it were still 1988. Like Harry, they mixed new and old, and one new song, "I Could Fall in Love With You," sounded as good as anything they've done. However, their set was more heavily weighted with hits and fan favorites, and I was ecstatic when they did two of my favorite Erasure songs, "Blue Savannah" and "Drama!" even though they weren't big hits in the States. And when they closed with "Oh, L'Amour," I was in heaven.


Cyndi closed and she also still sounds great, though her sound mix was muddy and too loud--I didn't even recognize "Money Changes Everything" until the chorus. She did a slowed-down "She Bop" which wasn't as fun as the original, but she stuck to hits all the way, including "Time After Time," "Hole in My Heart," and of course, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." The last song was a cute version of Abba's "Take a Chance on Me" with Cyndi and Andy Bell of Erasure. Overall, it was a fun event, but I could have used another half-hour of Erasure.