True Colors

Friday night Andrea and I went to the True Colors concert at the Greek in Berkeley. The tour takes its name from one of tour organizer Cyndi Lauper’s best-known songs. A portion of the proceeds from each ticket sold on this month-long tour, goes to benefit the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest organization working for GLBT equality. The tour also provided a forum for other equal rights organizations, including PFLAG and the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

San Francisco-born comic Margaret Cho served as the host of the event and provided some of its best moments with her between-sets comedy routines. Almost all of her bits and punch lines are rated NC-17 — especially the lyrics to her hilarious rap song Your Puss which she performed with fellow comic Diana Yanez.

The tour’s two opening acts the Cliks and the Dresden Dolls were both really solid. The Cliks is a Toronto-based female indie-rock quartet that (according to my pal music critic Jim Harrington) should appeal to fans of the Pretenders. The Dresden Dolls is an over-the-top glam-rock duo from Boston which describes its sound as Brechtian punk cabaret. Jim thinks they sound like a mashup of the White Stripes and Queen — and I have to agree. The highlight of the Doll's set was an amusing and flawless cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs.

Sadly, both openers overshadowed the next act: Deborah Harry. The New Wave icon, who turned 62 on Sunday (July 1), sounded okay, but her song selection was disappointing. Harry focused on her solo material, mostly including tracks from her new disc instead of her legendary work with Blondie. The best part of her set was the tune French Kissin’ in the USA, but there could have been many highlights with a fewBlondie tunes thrown in.

Rosie O’Donnell took the stage next and wowed the crowd with some stand-up material. Her humor centered around her sexuality, her weight, her time on “The View” and, of course, her battle with Donald Trump.

Andy Bell of Erasure

Following O’Donnell, Erasure entered the picture and a booming dance party started. Backed by three female singers, the duo of vocalist Andy Bell and keyboardist Vince Clarke gave the best set of the night. In fact, in my mind they just plain blew everyone else away. They sounded so good and there was so much electricity in the air during their set that I got chills. Seriously.

Erasure played several fan favorites like Blue Savannah, Love to Hate You, Chains of Love and Sometimes. Bell's voice sounded strong and clear and the classic Erasure tunes sounded better than ever. Even the new songs stacked up against the old ones. Proving that Erasure’s new disc Light at the End of the World is the band’s best release in years.

Lauper couldn’t match Erasure’s overall energy during her set, but she did contribute some good moments. For example, she delivered an energetic version of Money Changes Everything and a very funky rendition of She Bop. Lauper also brought O’Donnell back on-stage to add some solid percussion to Girls Just Want to Have Fun and then summoned the entire cast back for an uplifting show-closer on Abba’s Take a Chance on Me. All in all, True Colors was a truly fabulous concert!