Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
At least, after 15 years since last touring, Culture Club has done it right with a big band to expertly re-create their sumptuous ‘80s songs, a cascade of lights to highlight the stage and the undeniable centerpiece that is Boy George to take his rightful place in the spotlight.
On Wednesday at the Fox Theatre, the original quartet – guitarist/keyboardist Roy Hay, bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss and the Boy – loped through a nearly two-hour show that highlighted their numerous hits, but also teased their upcoming album, “Tribes,” with several new, solid songs.
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Culture Club and their pristine-sounding team (three horn players, three backup singers and four additional musicians) opened the show with the Motown-tinged “Church of the Poison Mind,” an immediate reminder of how seamlessly the band blended pop, soul and even reggae.
The visual infatuation that was attached to everything in the early days of MTV meant that many bands of the era never received their proper musical credit (see: Duran Duran, terrific funk-pop band).
Culture Club, with their flamboyant frontman, too often became more about Boy George’s braids and lipstick and the intra-band drama that colored the band’s later years than their deft song stylings.
This tour – which wraps after a handful of dates this weekend – has given the guys a chance to atone, and they proved that they’re still worth fans’ time (and money).
In his first of many hats (this one a feather-tipped fedora) and many outfits (the night started with a printed pajama-like getup), Boy George led the band through a giddy, soul-pop coaster ride during “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya” and wiggled his hips as Hay engaged in the delightful guitar-jangling that is the hallmark of “It’s a Miracle.”
“I’m looking for Ru Paul’s wig, but I can’t see it!” Boy George joked from the stage.
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Throughout the night, he was super-chatty. Sometimes his comments were instructive (“This idea that we’re going to perform and you watch is not going to work.”); other times amusing (“If I hadn’t seen Bowie when I was 11 years old, who knows what I’d be wearing right now. I might be head to toe in beige. Can you imagine?!”).
But he and the rest of the band always seemed genuinely engaged and appreciative, especially at the well-received reaction to the new “Like I Used To,” which slinked along with thick bass and spurts of brass, and the first single from “Tribes,” the hit-worthy pop-rocker “More Than Silence,” which earned its slot in the encore.
While Boy George noticeably sang in a lower key and there was a hint of rasp in what was, in his heyday, a honeyed voice with a glass-like veneer, his is still a distinctive instrument – and a striking one at that.
His timbre and vibrato echoed beautifully through the venue during the pensive “Victims” (accented by some lovely piano-keyboard work from birthday boy Hay) and “Time (Clock of the Heart)” simply glided on the combination of Boy George’s vocals, with every synth tap and sax note reproduced to perfection.
A few solo specialties snuck into the set list as well. Boy George’s reggae cover of Bread’s “Everything I Own,” a hit for him in the U.K. in 1987, remains an interesting concept with a middling result, but it was a treat to hear the murky guitar line of “The Crying Game,” Boy George’s recast of Dave Berry’s 1964 hit (both versions were used in the movie).
The crowd, which filled about 2/3
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
rds of the Fox, rarely sat during the show, and their enthusiasm only intensified as Culture Club broke into what Boy George called “the song that started the whole journey,” the silky “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”
An encore sing-along of “Karma Chameleon” – which Boy George began a capella – was a frisky romp filled with familiar guitar riffs, percussive pauses and a wailing harmonica – and while a rendition of T. Rex’s “Bang A Gong (Get it On)” might not have been as meaty as the Power Station version, it was nonetheless a worthwhile addition.
Culture Club is currently so taut, and their new songs so promising, that fans can hope that their next outing isn’t anything resembling 15 years away.
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