true colors concert

last weekend my pal te'o offered me up a ticket to the last leg of the true colors concert, an 80s gig that benefits the "erase hate" (read: gay rights) cause. the headliner and brains behind it all was cyndi lauper, now 54 and with something like 9 albums under her belt. there she is to the right, as rendered by the Q on the video screen at the greek theatre, which survived the recent fires without so much a scratch.

we showed up in time to catch debby harry's set (former blondie front woman), which was about 5 songs too long (probably 10 total). debby, you're in your 60s now sweetheart. your voice isn't bad, but pseudo punk just doesn't sound the same from a paunchy lady whose face is criss-crossed with more lines than an indiana jones travel map. "french kissin' in the usa" was the highlight, and she unfortunately steered clear of a bunch of blondie faves like "heart of glass".

cyndi may have scored the headline position since she had organized the tour but the legions of gay boys at the event were there to see one act: erasure. i remember buying their top hits album about 15 years ago and listening to it almost nonstop for a couple months. yes, it follows a steady formula but it's really well-done and andy bell still sounds great. the only time they missed during their 10 song set was with one of their new tracks which sounded a little bit like synthed-up polka. for the rest of the songs the entire crowd was on their feet singing: savannah song, sometimes, chains of love, oh l'amour, etc.

we had pretty low expectations for cyndi lauper but i'll have to admit she was nearly as good as erasure. she's got a great stage presence (very relaxed, fun) and her quirky voice is surprisingly strong. i don't know whether they blessed her with a little extra volume in her mic but cyndi belted out tracks like "i drove all night", "good enough", "she bop" and of course "girls just wanna have fun". in contrast to debby harry, she looks pretty damn good for her age too, in spite of her purple hair. they wrapped it all up with "true colors" and with everyone on the stage for "a little respect" and all the colored balls you see in the shot above being pumped out into the crowd.