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On July 20th, I drove to Charleston with my mom and Qiao to see the Culture Club concert there. I could have gotten tickets to the Charleston concert on Friday or to the Charlotte concert on Saturday. Almost exactly 20 years before (July 25, 1998), I had been to Charlotte for my first ever Culture Club concert. This was my 5th.
I chose Charleston this time so we could visit my sister and bro-in-law, and so they could come to the concert too; they have been living in North Charleston for the last few years. The Charleston venue, the Volvo Car Stadium, it turns out, is a tennis court that is re-purposed for concerts during the off-season. It is open to the elements, with no roof or awning over the seats. There was a strong chance of rain in the forecast. I worried that the concert would be cancelled due to rain.
It began raining on the drive down and became a downpour as we neared Charleston. But after checking into our hotel room, the rain lessened and stopped. We went to a nearby restaurant for a quick bite to eat, and then picked up my sister and her husband. Getting to the concert involved driving on an interstate over a big steep tall bridge, which was nerve-wracking for me. First I got on the wrong ramp, and drove in the wrong direction, so I had to take the next exit, turn around, and do it again! But I made it through ok.
I was mentally/emotionally exhausted from having bought the tickets and planned the trip only the weekend before. I'm always low on sleep to begin with, and then was even more so. So I think I didn't enjoy the concert as much as I could have. Although I'm largely convinced now that concerts really aren't my cup of tea.
The opening acts were Tom Bailey formerly of the Thompson Twins, and the B-52's. (Here's a recording from the Atlanta concert with long clips of all 3 bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrSFenAh03w )
I enjoyed watching them, but concert speakers are always so loud that the music quality sounds very bad to me. It is very noisy, cacophonous.
At concerts, when I sit in my seat rather than standing up and dancing, I feel bad for not displaying more enthusiasm for the performance. When I stand up and want to dance, I feel awkward. I don't really dance; I just sway back and forth repeatedly. Even if I'm really enjoying the music, that's all I can muster in public. So I feel awkward as an audience member, no matter if I sit or stand. The music quality really isn't so great, it's expensive, and it's a lot of extra effort to go out to a concert... listening to music in my living room is much more pleasant. But I guess one doesn't go to concerts to hear music. One goes to see the performance, to see the musicians. To see people. To feel the vibe of the crowd. To do something different. Right? So maybe this won't have been my last concert, who knows.
Culture Club's first song was not a Culture Club song. It was David Bowie's "Let's Dance", one of my favorite songs. Here is a good quality video of CC playing it at another concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPYaICA0oLk
And another:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n_HUwAj9ek
That got me out of my seat, and bouncing as much as I'll bounce around in public, I guess.
Later on they played "Addicted to Love", which I enjoyed a lot as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGWpQmC9UK4
Those songs excited me as I didn't expect them, and I'd never heard CC play them before. But the other songs played that night didn't do much for me. I've heard them too many times. Even the band's "new" songs didn't sound as great to me this time, as they did at the last CC concert I went to in 2015. They didn't play "I Don't Do Emotion Like I Used To" this time. Nor is it listed on the track listing of their upcoming Life album. So maybe that is part of it; maybe they dropped or changed or didn't play the new songs that I liked best.
It made me feel funny, like a bad fan, that the songs which CC played which I enjoyed the most, weren't even CC songs.
https://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/FeedbackFile/archives/2018/07/20/tonight-boy-georges-40-year-career-and-his-makeup-is-still-on-fleek
The Life Tour included/includes 62 concerts in the U.S. between June and October - it's still going on. Then they will play 21 more concerts in Europe thru December. It sounds grueling to me, but I hope the bands are enjoying it.
I chose Charleston this time so we could visit my sister and bro-in-law, and so they could come to the concert too; they have been living in North Charleston for the last few years. The Charleston venue, the Volvo Car Stadium, it turns out, is a tennis court that is re-purposed for concerts during the off-season. It is open to the elements, with no roof or awning over the seats. There was a strong chance of rain in the forecast. I worried that the concert would be cancelled due to rain.
It began raining on the drive down and became a downpour as we neared Charleston. But after checking into our hotel room, the rain lessened and stopped. We went to a nearby restaurant for a quick bite to eat, and then picked up my sister and her husband. Getting to the concert involved driving on an interstate over a big steep tall bridge, which was nerve-wracking for me. First I got on the wrong ramp, and drove in the wrong direction, so I had to take the next exit, turn around, and do it again! But I made it through ok.
I was mentally/emotionally exhausted from having bought the tickets and planned the trip only the weekend before. I'm always low on sleep to begin with, and then was even more so. So I think I didn't enjoy the concert as much as I could have. Although I'm largely convinced now that concerts really aren't my cup of tea.
The opening acts were Tom Bailey formerly of the Thompson Twins, and the B-52's. (Here's a recording from the Atlanta concert with long clips of all 3 bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrSFenAh03w )
I enjoyed watching them, but concert speakers are always so loud that the music quality sounds very bad to me. It is very noisy, cacophonous.
At concerts, when I sit in my seat rather than standing up and dancing, I feel bad for not displaying more enthusiasm for the performance. When I stand up and want to dance, I feel awkward. I don't really dance; I just sway back and forth repeatedly. Even if I'm really enjoying the music, that's all I can muster in public. So I feel awkward as an audience member, no matter if I sit or stand. The music quality really isn't so great, it's expensive, and it's a lot of extra effort to go out to a concert... listening to music in my living room is much more pleasant. But I guess one doesn't go to concerts to hear music. One goes to see the performance, to see the musicians. To see people. To feel the vibe of the crowd. To do something different. Right? So maybe this won't have been my last concert, who knows.
Culture Club's first song was not a Culture Club song. It was David Bowie's "Let's Dance", one of my favorite songs. Here is a good quality video of CC playing it at another concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPYaICA0oLk
And another:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n_HUwAj9ek
That got me out of my seat, and bouncing as much as I'll bounce around in public, I guess.
Later on they played "Addicted to Love", which I enjoyed a lot as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGWpQmC9UK4
Those songs excited me as I didn't expect them, and I'd never heard CC play them before. But the other songs played that night didn't do much for me. I've heard them too many times. Even the band's "new" songs didn't sound as great to me this time, as they did at the last CC concert I went to in 2015. They didn't play "I Don't Do Emotion Like I Used To" this time. Nor is it listed on the track listing of their upcoming Life album. So maybe that is part of it; maybe they dropped or changed or didn't play the new songs that I liked best.
It made me feel funny, like a bad fan, that the songs which CC played which I enjoyed the most, weren't even CC songs.
https://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/FeedbackFile/archives/2018/07/20/tonight-boy-georges-40-year-career-and-his-makeup-is-still-on-fleek
Rather than breaking up, Culture Club, George says, goes on "breaks" [...], which is why it's taken five years to release their latest record. George laughs before explaining, "We partly recorded it four years ago and then we had a break and then we started again about six months ago. We rerecorded everything, so basically went back to square one, took all the tracks we recorded before, and just rerecorded them because I really liked what the producers were doing."
The Life Tour included/includes 62 concerts in the U.S. between June and October - it's still going on. Then they will play 21 more concerts in Europe thru December. It sounds grueling to me, but I hope the bands are enjoying it.