True Colors 2008

Katie and I, with Anna and Chris, attended opening night for the second True Colors Tour in Boston on Saturday. The lineup was:

Kat Deluna
The Clicks
Regina Spektor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rosie O'Donnell
The B-52s
Cyndi Lauper
Master of Ceremonies for the evening: Carson Kressley

OK - we FINALLY were able to see Regina Spektor live in concert. For those who don't know that story, read more in the postlude of the blog post here.

Regina was the highlight of the evening for us, though the festival atmosphere made her performance challenging. She was on early in the evening and there was a lot of milling around and talking by audience members who were obviously there for the later part of the show and weren't too hot on the three opening acts.

Not much to say about Kat Deluna - she has an OK voice, but I'm not into karioke hip-hop performances.

The Clicks were loud, and fun. Not terribly original.

Rosie O'Donnell was surprisingly good. I expected to be preached at about politics, but no, not a word on that front. It was a touching monologue about coming to terms with living longer than her mother, who died at 41 of cancer when she was only 11. And about seeing her kids grow older and being able to be there for them at times when her mother wasn't. A very soul-searching set.

The B-52s really are the world's greatest party band, and with them the party got started. Mostly new tunes of their latest album - Funplex - but they did perform classics "Roam", "Private Idaho", "Love Shack", and "Rock Lobster".

Cyndi Lauper was high maintenance on stage again this year. (Last year she complained - rightfully so - to the sound engineer the entire concert. This year's victim was the lighting guy. Last year she came off as a frustrated artist in a bad sound situation. This year it was more pain-in-the-rear-diva.) She has a remarkable number of hit tunes.

All in all a fun night, though it will take a great penultimate group to get us back next year. For the last two years we attended to see an opener - The Dresden Dolls last year and Regina Spektor this year. But we've learned that it is not the best opportunity to see these great young opening bands. They get little respect from the audience and their sets are cut way to short by the time constraints of the festival. It was great to hear the B-52s, so if the band in their slot is someone we want to see, we might go again. But 2 years in a row of Cyndi Lauper is plenty for a lifetime.

To read about last year's concert, go here.