I got back to my hotel room last night around 11:15 and turned on the TV. For some strange reason, PBS-Orlando had a recent Cyndi Lauper concert on. Sitting there for 15 minutes, I realized I was glued to the TV. And I also found myself strangely attracted to her. To Cyndi Lauper. And I am not sure why. When she was popular in the 80s, I kind of liked her but was more into Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead and new age stuff like Depeche Mode and Erasure. She was more pop like Culture Club and the Thompson Twins (remember them? Hold Me Now, Doctor Doctor, Lay Your Hands On Me. Totally underrated and under appreciated. Good stuff). Good music but nothing I really got into much.
So there I was, watching her concert and totally fascinated. She was in the middle of some song that seemed like it was recent. I have no idea if she has a new album or not, but it was definitely not 80s stuff. Then she did Money Changes Everything, followed by Girls Just Want To Have Fun, a home run with the ladies in the crowd, and closed with Time After Time. The cool thing was she looked good in a kind of nice suit outfit and her hair was very modern and adult. She didn�t look like Debbie Harry in her comeback nonsense. She really looked good and put on a pretty cool stage show. She was jumping around and getting into things. She still sings most of her songs like she is shouting, but her voice sounded great. I guess I missed the other classics like She Bop and True Colors but actually stayed up to watch the ending even though I had to get up at 4:30 this morning. As I was watching the crowd and thinking to myself that they were a bunch of 30 and 40-something year old geeks awkwardly dancing and clapping hands, I realized they all looked like me, like my friends, like my neighbors and siblings. They were casually dressed with conservative hair cuts and looked like they all had small children at home being watched by relatives or nervous baby sitters from the neighborhood.
Anyway, it was a good time and she put on a good show. It wasn�t Ray Charles or anything, but worth watching.