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Concert review: Culture Club at the Pearl (August 21)

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Culture Club performs with its original line up at the Pearl Concert Theater at the Palms Casino, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016.
tom Donoghue / DonoghuePhotography.com

Three and a half stars

Culture Club at the Pearl, August 21

In my near 25 years of avid concertgoing, I’ve never seen Culture Club, which only might be remarkable in that the 1980s English pop quartet was one of my first favorite bands. Maybe it’s also worth noting that the act, fronted by Boy George, who famously dressed in androgynous and flamboyant outfits and was an LGBT groundbreaker, might mean something to me as a gay man. But when I was 7 and 8 years old, none of that registered—I merely enjoyed songs like “Karma Chameleon” and “Time (Clock of the Heart)”—or seemed to upset my conservative, anti-weirdo parents, who actually bought me Culture Club’s albums without so much a sniff or sneer. (Prince, however, was as forbidden as breaking curfew.) So, Sunday’s concert at the Pearl provided an opportunity to not only finally see the band, but see if the band’s music still carried any resonance with me.

Despite the solid performance Boy George and the 12 band members (including three backup singers and three horn players) put forth, I rarely felt anything resembling sentimentalism. There was one exception: Culture Club’s backdrop screening of what looked like grainy VHS copies of their old music videos while their respective songs were being performed. This included “Miss Me Blind,” and “Time,” both reminding me of growing up in Southern California and watching Sirius XM DJ Richard Blade’s Video One program on network TV every day after school, which helped introduce those songs to me.

On Sunday, the former song, a childhood air-guitar favorite of mine, demonstrated how poorly it has aged and that no amount of gusto from the band could save it. (The same went for “Move Away” and “The War Song.”) However, “Time” soared as an evocative midtempo ballad that felt both throwback and, er, timeless. It rightly earned a standing ovation, highlighting the flawlessly synced musicians and a magnetic frontman whose deepened voice now makes his pop ballads sound more substantial.

Culture Club at Pearl Concert Theater

Boy George could have merely baritone’d and vibrato’d his endearments and laments to the rafters for the entirety of the show and that would have sufficed. But he’s a showman, and his performance was rounded out by his first-rate banter. He always quick with a quip and a turn of phrase, and spoke to the crowd like a comedian working the room. He peppered his song introductions with revelations and nods to his heroes and peers, especially those of the MTV era which his band helped define. (He even threw out a random Leonard Cohen lyric.) Best of all, he displayed charm and maturity, even politely hushing a rude audience member with a subtle but hilarious “Wind it in, baby.” When he said he had the best job in the world, you knew he meant it—and that he doesn’t take it for granted.

George wasn’t the only one on stage who commanded the audience’s attention. Saxophonist James Gardiner-Bateman stood out from not just the horn section, but the rest of the band during his effortless solos, especially during “Time” and new track “Like I Used To”—the latter also showcasing a memorable, ’70s-police-drama bassline from Mikey Craig, who proved all night how essential his low-end tenderness and graceful funk is to the band’s material. His lurching bass guitar might as well have been dueting with George during a show-climaxing “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” And when George couldn’t hit the higher notes—like during “The Crying Game,” which he otherwise recalibrated with bluesy, torchy mastery—he could be forgiven, as he turned the reins over to powerhouse background vocalists Theresa Bailey, Traci Brown-Bailey and DeeDeeFoster. It was all a reminder that pop benefits from the full-band treatment, allowing dynamics nowadays buried by synthesized layers and digital compression to rise to the surface.

It was also refreshing to watch a reunion act go for the surprise factor. Culture Club would be remiss not to serve up every hit it had, but it hardly played it safe, sprinkling the setlist with a couple of new songs, including “Different Man,” an homage to Sly Stone that ably summoned his spirit and sound. Similarly, the Johnny Cash-inspired “The Truth is a Runaway Train” not only worked, the hearty hoedown properly set up the folksy, footloose boogie of “Karma Chameleon.” And just when you thought the band’s megahit would serve as the big send-off, they launched right into T Rex’s glam stomper, “Get It On,” which might’ve impressed Marc Bolan (and shamed fellow ’80s act Power Station). For those not paying attention to the tour setlists, it was totally unexpected, and the band sold it to the audience like it was their own.

“Vegas, you’ve seen a lot of bands, you’ve seen it all,” George said after reemerging for the encore. “But haven’t you had a good time?” The audience roared, having clearly been up for a good time all night, thanks to a band clearly able to give it.

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