Gnarls Barkley - 8/11 @ Variety Playhouse
I haven't forgotten about or given up the blog, just haven't been very inspired to write of late. And of course the longer I postpone things, the harder it is to get in the mood to actually put something down. But as I have some free time and a bit of a backlog, guess this is as good a time as any to try and catch up. Bear with me.
I've quite enjoyed both Gnarls Barkley albums, but this would be the first time I've had a chance to see them perform live. So I was excited by the prospect of going to the show. Rikki agreed to go with me (mostly to avoid being in a house with an a/c unit that needed to be repaired) and we made our way to the Variety. The show had sold out and was even more packed than a typical sell out show. The lobby was mobbed with folks, but this was probably due to the fact that Janelle Monae had just finished. I've never seen Janelle perform either, but I didn't care too much that I missed her set. I've heard a lot of good things about her, but her Nomi meets Grace Jones look makes me think that she's way too much style over substance. I could be wrong and I'm sure Jay and Sonya, whom I ran into in the lobby, would both disagree with me. And speaking of running into folks, I really only saw a few other people at the show, like Matt, Amber, Cliff, Kim, Shalewa and a special guest appearance by Li'l Fella. Kind of odd, considering how many people were there,
Tried to find a decent spot to actually see the band play, but it was so packed it wasn't easy. No matter where we stood there was a group of people blocking the view of the stage. Not that the band really had any interesting costumes for this show, although I guess you could say they had a slightly Wedding Singer look to them. But if you go to a concert, you do kind of want to see the band perform...kind of how it works. Performance-wise, I was pretty impressed. They had a great backing band behind them and put on a much better show than I had anticipated. After listening to their albums for quite some time, wasn't sure they'd be able to pull off that studio sound in a live setting. But they certainly did it well. Maybe because they were playing for their "hometown" crowd, but it seemed they were giving us their all. This was probably one of the better shows I've seen in quite some time. Kind of made me wish I saw them back when they played the Tabernacle.
Starting off a whole new paragraph here because I couldn't figure out how to fit this in the one prior. But as I was watching the band, the idea crossed my mind (no pun intended) that Cee-Lo would make the best drag queen ever. No disrespect to the guy, I'm just saying that I could totaly see him in a sparkly dress and a wig, belting out some Aretha Franklin. Just think about it for a minute, that's all I'm asking. But I digress...
Come to think about it, that's pretty much about it. The show was great and I had a good time. Saw some folks I haven't seen in awhile, which is always nice. All in all an enjoyable evening out and about. And certainly beats being stuck at home without a working air conditioner. Then again it doesn't take much.