Here's how I remember it:
Cyndi Lauper's debut (solo) album, She's So Unusual, was released on October 14, 1983. After hearing the single Girls Just Wanna Have Fun I became an instant fan and bought the album as soon as funds allowed. An(gie) Archy was also a big fan and we soon each added it to our growing collections. It was one of many New Wave albums we agreed were timeless.
An(gie) Archy and I "dated" briefly, and when we realized that wasn't working out we became best friends.
Around September of 1984 it was announced that The Fun Tour would be making a stop in Saint Paul the coming December, with some unknown band called The Bangles opening up. An(gie) and I grabbed tickets as soon as we could and wound up with fairly decent seats in the middle of the main floor. And then we waited in anticipation for the show.
In the ensuing weeks I had met Emma Rotgut and we started dating, but An(gie) and I were still best friends. (Emma, An(gie), and Tom Thefag would join The Ed Gein Fan Club, and in my youthful idiocy I didn't think anything of having an ex-girlfriend and current girlfriend in the same band)
It turned out Emma was also a big fan of Cyndi Lauper and had tickets for the show too, although nowhere near where An(gie) and I were sitting.
As is usual with me, and as all the faithful readers of these stories have been told endlessly , if a concert is particularly good I loose myself in the moment and really have no memory of details after the final curtain goes down. So I don't remember who I actually traveled to the concert with or even how I got there. I remember thinking The Bangles were on the upper side of being OK. This was before they blew up huge with Walk Like An Egyptian and to me seemed like a lower-tiered version of The Go-Go's. Nothing spectacular, but a band I told myself I'd look in the used bins for.
When Cyndi came on the first thing I noticed was how tight and well-rehearsed the band was. Having been playing together almost nightly for 13 months will hone any band to a fine edge. And then Cyndi announced that it was the final night of the entire tour. With that the band just cut loose and had a blast playing those songs for the last time. Half-way through the set Cyndi pulled a young fan up on stage. The fan was a Cyndi clone down to the checkerboard shaved into the side of her head. The crowd went wild for that and the band kicked in to the next song.
When Cyndi came on the first thing I noticed was how tight and well-rehearsed the band was. Having been playing together almost nightly for 13 months will hone any band to a fine edge. And then Cyndi announced that it was the final night of the entire tour. With that the band just cut loose and had a blast playing those songs for the last time. Half-way through the set Cyndi pulled a young fan up on stage. The fan was a Cyndi clone down to the checkerboard shaved into the side of her head. The crowd went wild for that and the band kicked in to the next song.
After the show An(gie) and a few of her friends and I went outside and circled around to the back of the auditorium by the loading doors in vain hopes of seeing and meeting Cyndi. There was a limo there, and one of An(gie)'s friends checked the door. It was unlocked but the limo was empty. We all took turns sitting in it for a few seconds each. When I hopped out after my turn I noticed a scrap of green paper near the loading door. I went over to look at it and was very fondly surprised to see that it was a backstage pass for the show! I picked it up and banged loudly on the door. Some greasy, gruff guy with a cigar opened it and grunted "Yeah, whatta ya want?!?" I showed him my pass and he smiled, said "nice try kid, some reporter just left and I saw him tear that off his jacket and throw it down." With that I gathered the girls together and we returned home, allegedly in the same manner that we had used to get there.
I really wish I didn't have this "blackout" condition at concerts as I want to remember all the fine details. But alas I now go into a show with the expectation that, if it's a great show, I will not be able to talk in any detail about it with anyone.
In the ensuing years I've tried to find a bootleg of that show, but Cyndi Lauper boots from that tour are fairly elusive. There was a radio broadcast in, I think, Texas and that's the only document I have found so far. The photos here are allegedly from the show I saw.
I may not be able to find any recording of Cyndi Lauper's set that night, but The Bangles set is posted on youtube which you can watch here.
- (Prince cover)
- (Jules Shear cover)
- (Helen Kane cover)
- (Blue Angel song)
- (Blue Angel song)
- (Frankie Laine cover)
- (The Brains cover)
