Hello, Blog! Well, this is something I've wanted to do for a long time, so let's see how it goes!
I can't believe it's August already! Last month was too busy. The 2 trips to Michigan within 9 days really did me in.
I went home for the July 4 holiday and for a concert. I had wanted to see The English Beat since I was in high school, and so this was my big chance to see Dave Wakeling in-the-flesh! Royal Oak Music Theatre is only 25 minutes from my parent's house so I just drove straight to the theater from Columbus. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find the theater easily as I hadn't been there since seeing Adam Ant there in 1985. My worries were soon put to rest as I need only follow the trail of young people walking through town dressed as if they just popped out of a 1982 Madness video.
Imagine my shock to find that they would be OPENING for what only could be refered to as a novelty act, Reel Big Fish. Opening???!!! What the heck? Why is The King of Ska opening for ANYBODY? Anyhow, the show finally started and The English Beat were awesome! They didn't do any General Public stuff, but did their very awesome cover of Tears of a Clown along with hits Save It For Later and Tenderness, among others. The guy filling in for Ranking Roger was even good (RR has his own version of English Beat going in Europe) and Dave Wakeling looked and sounded exactly as he did 25 years ago. Unfortunately, the all-ages crowd were mostly there for Reel Big Fish, and weren't very enthusiastic. Though Dave had to laugh at one girl bouncing up and down in the front who was blowing bubblegum bubbles to the beat of the music.
The theater had taken out all the seats since I was there in '85, so it's 4 plateaus of standing with a bar instead of all-seated, but they had plenty of bar, handicapped, and step seating, so nobody really had to stand. But the smoke - UGH! I always forget that Michigan doesn't have the no-smoking laws that Ohio has and then I'm shocked when I suddenly can't breath in the public place.
There's a YouTube of Tenderness from the show, but it isn't very good so I'm not going to post it.
